Sabotage, procurement wars link in Maseno University transcripts crisis – Weekly Citizen

Panic has gripped Maseno University office of deputy vice chancellor Academic and Students Affairs where Mary Kipsat is in charge. According to insiders, the Luo community mandarins are behind the current graduates transcripts crisis to hound her out of office.
The transcript crisis is linked to sabotage by powerful forces surrounding vice-chancellor Julius Nyabundi fighting Kipsat. They want one of their own in charge to mint millions of shillings in transcript sales as it has been a norm. It is said that Kipsat has been out to streamline and fight the cartel hence her current tribulations.

Mary Kipsat

The university is investigating errors in graduates’ transcripts involving December 2019 graduation list.
Nyabundi recently held crisis talks with heads of departments and exam coordinators. They had been summoned via a text SMS that read, “Following adverse media reports today (Saturday) that there are issues with the transcripts in the 2019 class, you are hereby invited to appear in person in the VC’s boardroom tomorrow, March 22 2020 at 11 am with your examination coordinator without fail”. Directors of campuses and deans of schools attended the crisis meeting.
Those affected by anomalies were graduates School of Education who are up and down from one office to the other seeking signatures, corrections and rubber-stamping.
During the crisis meeting, it was discovered the issue to be addressed included; missing transcripts, stray units, missing units, wrong grades (including Es), missing marks among names misspellings, raising questions how graduates had grades in courses they never studied.
Sources say, lecturers, IT system administrators were never comfortable after the institution acquired a new exam management system last year.
The system was to curb grade fraud by a cartel of clerks in deans’ offices led by one male and a female.
Graduates were paying between Sh10,000 to Sh20, 000 to have grades changed to As. The cartels are against tamper proof management information system as it denies them free money.
Thousands were used to train the handlers to improve on integrity of exams and how it failed has left tongues wagging.
Millions were used to procure MIS and claims it is faulty does not add up. A number of insiders messed the system to resort back to previous system to mint money, according to Weekly Citizen investigations.
An IT specialist we talked to dismissed as far-fetched argument that the system did not capture records and marks for students studying at Maseno’s city campus in Kisumu CBD saying serious probe need to be instituted that even involves Directorate of Criminal Investigations.

Prof Julius Omondi Nyabundi

Word has it that a section in procurement were bitter of not being involved in the tendering of the new system that saw VC Nyabundi allies front for a firm that over quoted by millions they received on behalf of the VC.
The university did away with another IT system procured in 2019 that consumed millions of shillings. A section in the procurement were against the new system and joined the cartel in sabotaging operations at the hour of need.
Apart from Kipsat, other DVCs are Catherine Akinyi Muhoma (Finance and Administration) and Prof Joseph Sirima Chacha (Partnership and Research).
Sabotage, procurement wars link in Maseno University transcripts crisis