Fake Kenyan teachers rushing for plum university jobs in Tanzania

Yona F. Maro

R I P
Nov 2, 2006
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It is emerging that suspiciously large numbers of Kenyans with faked degrees have been applying for university jobs in Tanzania.

Intelligence officials in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam have started investigations into what they suspect is an organised regional racket targeting Tanzanian universities to take advantage of the shortage of lecturers at the country’s institutions of higher learning.

The tip-off came when the prestigious University of Dodoma discovered that no less than 200 Kenyans who had applied for jobs as lecturers and professors had faked degrees; upon being confronted at interviews conducted in Nairobi, they admitted to fabricating the certificates.

Unable to take any direct action in a foreign country, the university had a quiet word with Tanzanian authorities, leading to the launch of an investigation by security organs from the two countries involving police, intelligence officials and eminent academics — whom the Tanzania government declined to name — who will co-operate to trace the 200, who have since disappeared into thin air.

A senior intelligence official told The EastAfrican last week that the investigation is a confidential process designed to fully gather all the facts related to the case.

“It will be done very carefully and very thoroughly between the two countries and it will take a bit of time,” said the official, adding that the faked certificates would be made available to Kenyan authorities to enable them to track down the fraudulent applicants as well as the suppliers of the false qualifications.

The saga started late last year when the University of Dodoma— the largest in the country, with more than 5,000 students — advertised vacancies for teaching staff and invited both local and foreign candidates to apply.

The university has been on a drive to employ more staff to meet the demand arising from its plan to enrol more than 40,000 students once its expansion programme is completed in the near future.

Prof Idriss Kikula, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Dodoma, told The EastAfrican that the university invited both locals and foreigners to apply for different positions at the university and received a lot of applications from neighbouring Kenya.

Prof Kikula said that when university officials travelled to conduct interviews in Kenya, it was discovered that more than 200 people who had applied for positions that required them to have a professorship with a record of academic publications, presented fake certificates.

According to Prof Kikula, some of the candidates had credentials from Ireland when they had never been to that country, while others had professorships obtained in as short a period as six months.

“Most of the 200 failed to meet even the minimum publications needed for them to teach at the University,” he said, adding that they had banked on the notion that the university would accept them without undertaking a thorough verification exercise, since most schools, colleges and other institutes of higher learning in Tanzania are clamouring for personnel from Kenya.

“As you will recall, for 10 years, the Tanzania government froze employment of lecturers, compounding the problem,” said Prof Kikula.

Our sources said the bogus degree problem at Dodoma is likely to be widespread, mainly because the government has no uniform procedures to check whether employees’ alma maters are “diploma mills” that require little, if any, academic work.

The Deputy Vice Chancellor (Academics), Prof Makenya Maboko said there were more staff at the university discovered to have gained entry unlawfully by using forged documents.

The discovery comes some two months after the University of Dar es Salaam withdrew a degree it had conferred 20 years ago on one of its own staff after discovering that he had forged the certificates that got him into the university in the first place.

The University is now undertaking a verification exercise on documents tendered by newly recruited general staff, including drivers, some of whom are suspected to have forged credentials to work at Dodoma.

The proliferation of institutions with questionable reputation offering higher education is contributing to the problems facing genuine universities and other institutions of learning, he said.

Most Tanzania universities are running short of teaching staff, as there is no succession process to replace ageing lecturers, prompting many former academics who had gone on to become politicians and Members of Parliament to make a U-turn and return to academia.

One of the most prominent of these is the former Zanzibar chief minister, Dr Ghalib Bilal, a nuclear physicist. Another politician who has returned to teaching is former deputy finance minister Dr Festus Limbu, an economist.

The university is also in the process of creating a programme for short courses in conjunction with UNDP and the Tanzania Public Service Commission.

The University of Dodoma is now scouting for lecturers and other senior staff from Cuba, Russia and India as a short-term measure.

Dr Clinton Galabawa from the University of Dar es Salaam told The East African there was a system failure somewhere that needed to be addressed. Dr Galabawa said that tougher measures need to be taken immediately such things happen “or people will start thinking that if so-and-so did it and got away with it, then I can also do it.”

The University of Dodoma is designed to train and produce human capital in the major professions for economic development.

Its strengths will be mainly in information and communication technology and science-based programmes funded by the Bill Gate Foundation that will offer training in specialised areas such as molecular biology, genomics, nuclear sciences, medicine and engineering.

The Chancellor of the University is the former president of Tanzania, Benjamin Mkapa



http://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/news...z/-/index.html
 
Haya mbona ya kawaida! ukiitisha udahili wa marubani watakuja hata waendesha bajaj watakwambia wanaweza kurusha hata airbus 380! nijuu yako kuchambua pumba na mchele! kama anaendahili nae kihiyo hapo ndo matatizo yanapoanza.

Serikali inangangamala kulipa ada ya festi digirii sasa hao maprofesa watatoka wapi? watanzania wangapi wanaoweza kuwalipia watoto wao PHD! mwishowe nikwenda kukopa watoto wa wenzenu kenya waje wahangaike na machangu wenu!
 
Bahati mbaya kwa muda mrefu uliopita vyuo vyetu havikuwa na serious succession plan. Maprofessor wengi waliona deal kuwahangaisha watu waonekane ni failures na kujichukulia utukufu kama ni watu wenye akili saana. Wanavyoozeeka na vyuo vingine vingi kuingia tumejikuta tuko kwenye shida kubwa ya walimu wa vyuo. Nakumbuka Prof mmoja aliwahi kutuambia Darasani nikiwa UD haiwezekani mkafaulu hivi watu wataniona sijui kufundisha.
Leo hii, wale watoto wanaolilia kusomeshwa tunaona kama tunawapa msaada wasiostahili...lazima walimu wenye vyeti feki watajaa TZ..na hii ni mwanzo tu.Tukikosa madaktari, ma engineer etc, ndo tutagundua makosa tunayotaka kufanya maana tutakesha tunalia na sub standard services
 
Very useful information but let us think from the other hand of our side
I dont think if a real Lecturel can make some fail for no reason
what about that Kasystem of teaching university students on how to write an official letter testing them while you never show them that you v been using that technique and succeeded on that.
Fakes allways discovered by Fakes
Let them Cheat like what you are cheating
 
Mimi sioni haja ya kuwa na wasiwsi.

Kama waalimu hao ni feki, nani atawaajiri bila interview?Kama waalimu wa Tanzania ni bora zaidi, basi watashinda interview.
 
PIUS RUGONZIBWA, 12th February 2009 @ 11:19

Thursday Feb 12, 2009

Kenyan academic under probe​

A Kenyan national (name withheld) serving as senior lecturer at St John’s University in Dodoma Region is under investigation for allegedly using fake academic credentials, the 'Daily News' has established.

The credentials include forged secondary school certificates, university degrees at Bachelors, Masters and PhD levels. The scandal comes amid reports confirmed by this newspaper that 10 Kenyans out of 12 shortlisted by the University of Dodoma (UDOM) for the posts of senior lecturers are allegedly holding fake degrees.

Sources confirmed that the 12 Kenyans were among about 200 Kenyan academicians who applied for the post of senior lecturers, from whom twelve applicants were shortlisted, but ten of them were found to be holding fake PhDs – and so only two were picked for the post.

On the new scandal at St John’s University, the Executive Secretary of the Tanzania Commission of Universities (TCU), Prof. Mayunga Nkunya, told the 'Daily News' today that his Commission had since handed over the matter to the Police for investigations. “This case looks so unique … unlike others that we have been handling.

We have decided to report it to the security organs for further action,” Prof. Nkunya said. The Director of Criminal Investigations (DCI), Robert Manumba, said that he was not aware of the matter and requested for more time to gather some important information on the matter. “Please give me time to work on this … I will let you know of the findings,” the DCI said.

The lecturer was previously reported to have been teaching at the Mwenge University College of Education (MUCE) in Kilimanjaro Region before venturing at St John’s University last year. Earlier, Prof. Nkunya said TCU received a tip-off from one ‘patriotic’ citizen who happened to have known the Kenyan lecturer since he was teaching at MUCE where he was discovered to have no doctorate degree.

“TCU immediately decided to verify his credentials and we were shocked to discover that the (so-called) senior lecturer had obtained forged certificates from the level of secondary education to PhD. “I have asked St John’s University to tells us how they recruited him ... and they said they just didn’t immediately doubt his academic background,” Prof. Nkunya said.

Contacted for clarification over the phone today, St John’s University Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic Affairs) Prof. Daimon Mwaga confirmed the report. He said the university hired the ‘doctor’ following his unique curriculum vitae, heavyweight qualifications plus reports that he was lecturing at a credible university in the country. UDOM Vice-Chancellor Prof.

Idriss Kikula confirmed this on Wednesday, disclosing further that the University came across the facts about the applicants following thorough interviews that took place in Kenya. “That drew our attention on the problem … now we have decided to be extra careful with the authenticity of applicants’ credentials … especially those from outside the country,” he added.

Citing 200 Kenyan applicants, he said apart from the fake PhD problem, most of the applicants who sought to fill posts of Assistant Lecturers could just as well be filled by academicians from Tanzania. “We are only looking for senior lecturers who we cannot easily find in the country … we are giving preference to Tanzanians to fill the vacant posts of assistant lecturers,” Prof. Kikula added.

Following the experience of Kenyan applicants, the VC said the university had since recruited some five senior lecturers from India under strict scrutiny. Prof. Kikula said a special team had to travel all the way to Hyderabad, India, to conduct interviews and to verify the Institutions for which they once worked. He said all five shortlisted applicants passed interviews and would soon officially join UDOM.
 
Hao wanaosimamia udahili kama sio feki wangeweza kabisa kutambua feki. Sasa interview zinafanyika za nini, kama feki kapita ina maana anafaa la sivyo mfukuze kazi mara moja atapogundulika kwa njia hizo za kihasarahasara.
TZ tunavyopenda mteremko na kutupia lawama kwa wengine, tayari wameshaomba msaada toka Kenya. Kama hawawezi kazi ya kutambua feki, na basi waombe recruiting agents toka hukko Kenya.
 
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