High Court has dismissed a petition that sought to disqualify Nairobi Senator, Johnson Sakaja from the gubernatorial race over his academic qualifications.

Justice Antony Mrima on Tuesday, July 12, 2022, threw out a petition filed by Dennis Gakuu that challenged the validity of Sakaja’s degree.

“The court finds IEBC did not err in clearing Sakaja to vie for the Nairobi gubernatorial seat. The upshot, therefore, is that the petition is unsuccessful and is hereby dismissed with cost,” the judge ruled.

Last week, Justice Mrima allowed the IEBC to continue with the printing of the ballot papers as the case proceeded.

Sakaja had sought High Court orders to stop the IEBC from omitting his name from the list of candidates owing to the controversy surrounding his degree certificate.

The judge affirmed the IEBC Dispute Resolution Committee’s verdict that Dennis Wahome had not made a case to warrant the senator from being locked out of the Nairobi governorship contest.

Sakaja who on Monday appeared at the inaugural Nairobi gubernatorial debate, maintained that he was qualified to run for governor, stating that he was ready to make available his degree from Team University to the public for scrutiny.

“I have a degree and in fact, I would want to display it today for all of you to see it. I don’t know how you will be able to verify it but the competent authorities institutions that have to verify it have actually said that it is correct,” he stated during the heated session of the debate.

His opponent Polycarp Igathe accused him of presenting wrong documents and asked Kenyans to compare the academic credentials he presented in 2017.

“Go to the website of IEBC and check the degree that Senator Sakaja cited as his degree in 2017 and look at the one he is saying it is today. We do not even know who he is. Is your name really Sakaja?” Igathe posed.