Majority of Nakuru Members of County Assembly have enrolled in local universities an attempt seen as a measure to beat the proposed Elections (Amendment) bill by Ainabkoi MP Samuel Chepkonga.
The Memorandum of Objects and Reasons Bill proposes that, "A person seeking nomination for an election should possess, as minimum qualifications, a degree in the case of Parliamentary elections and a Diploma in the case of county assemblies election.”
A huge number of the current MCA’s in the Nakuru County Assembly do not meet the required academic qualifications. Thus the mad rush back to classes, through a spot check, most of them have enrolled for Diploma courses ranging from Business Management, Leadership, Communication & community development.
According to Mary Nyambura, the assistant registrar at St Paul’s University-Nakuru Campus, the minimum requirement to enrol for a Diploma is KCSE mean grade of C- (minus). Most of the Diploma programmes take one year to complete.
"If you enroll this January for a Diploma programme, by December you will have completed all the course work, because a year has three semesters,’’ explained Mary.
One of the Nakuru MCA who has gone back to school and declined to reveal his identity agreed that the proposed amendments has forced him to enroll for a diploma but was also quick to add that he still needed the knowledge after all.