A bid by 15 Egerton University students to stop this Friday’s graduation ceremony hit a deadlock after after the high court granted the university more time to respond to the application.
Justice Anyara Emukule, sitting in Nakuru, yesterday directed the university to present detailed records of the students’ performance to aid in determination of the matter.
“Though the court recognises the importance of the students graduating, I hereby grant more time to the respondent to file more documents in the case,” said Justice Emukule during the ruling.
The master’s and degree students, mainly from the faculty of arts and social sciences, filed an urgent application in court after their names were excluded from the 31st graduation list of the university on claims that they failed in some units.
Through their lawyer Lawrence Karanja, they claimed that they had met the university’s requirements to be awarded Bachelor of Arts degrees and master’s degrees and that they have since been deprived of their rights.
They further pleaded with the court to speed up the matter, saying that the issue was urgent given that the graduation is to take place on December 5.
However, the university, through lawyer Kisila Gor, told the court that the institution was under obligation to be transparent in terms of the requirements for a student to graduate and urged the court to grant him more time to file documents to be relied in the case.
Gor further argued that the students had more than a month to verify their details, including names and whether they had met the requirements to appear on the graduation list.
“All of us would have wished to see the students graduate, but the university ought to follow guidelines as per the University Act and has good reasons why it excluded the names,” Gor said.
The case will be heard on January 20, 2015.