Business Daily
Date: 16.02.2017
Page 7
Article size: 125 cm2
ColumnCM: 27.77
AVE: 52777.77
Professionals win first round in legal row over course licensing
moved to court include the Medical Practi­
BY DAVID HERBLING
Health sector professional bodies have won
the first round in their battle with the Com­
mission for University Education for licensing
of programmes after the High Court issued
orders barring the higher education regulator
from exclusively accrediting courses.
Judge John Mativo yesterday suspended
amendments to the Universities Act which
locked out all professional regulatory bodies
from accrediting courses and solely bestowed
the powers to sanction degree courses upon
CUE, pending resolution of the dispute.
The six health sector agencies which
tioners and Dentists Board, Kenya Medical
Laboratoiy Technicians and Technologists
Board, Pharmacy and Poisons Board, Nurs­
ing Council of Kenya, Kenya Nutrition and
Dietetics Institute, and Public Health Officers
and Technicians Council.
President Uhuru Kenyatta assented to the
amendments on December 23,2016.
"A person who, without the authority of
the commission under this Act, purports to
license, accredit, recognise, audit, inspect, in­
dex students or collect a fee or a charge from
a university or a student commits an offence
and shall be liable on conviction to a fine not
Hybrid system
"Pending the hearing and or final determi­
nation of this application or until further or
other orders of this court, the implementation
of section 5 of the Universities (Amendment)
Act 2016 be and is hereby stayed," ordered Mr
Justice Mativo.
exceeding Sh2 million or imprisonment for
term not exceeding two years or both," reads
the section that has now been suspended.
This effectively ended Kenya's hybrid ac­
creditation system where both CUE and pro­
fessional bodies had powers to regulate the
teaching of programmes at tertiary level.
Ipsos Kenya ­ Acorn House,97 James Gichuru Road ­ Lavington ­ Nairobi ­ Kenya