The High Court has declined to stop a graduation ceremony at United States International University-Africa (USIU-Africa) after Deputy Inspector-General of Police Gilbert Masengeli sought orders either halting the event entirely or compelling the university to include him among this year’s graduands.
Justice Patricia Mande dismissed Masengeli’s application on Wednesday, September 16, ruling that stopping the ceremony, scheduled for September 26, 2026, would unfairly affect other students who were not party to the case.
“Being that the first relief sought adversely affects other students not party to the suit, the prayer for conservatory orders stopping the graduation scheduled for the 26th of September 2026 is hereby declined,” the judge ruled.
She also rejected Masengeli’s alternative request to have the university directed to include his name in the graduation list at this stage, finding no clear promise had been made to him that he would graduate with the September cohort. Reviewing email correspondence submitted as evidence, the judge said the communication fell short of establishing a binding institutional commitment.
“I am not persuaded that there was a promise by the supervisor or by the university that the applicant would be part of the graduation of 26th September 2026,” she found, adding that a legitimate expectation must rest on a clear promise or an established institutional practice, neither of which the emails demonstrated. The application was consequently dismissed, with costs to abide by the outcome of the main petition.
Masengeli, who enrolled in USIU-Africa’s PhD programme in International Relations in September 2021, argues he has fulfilled the requirements communicated to him but was left off the graduation list without satisfactory explanation.
Through his lawyers, Cecil Miller and Danstan Omari, he told the court he had completed his coursework and examinations, defended his research proposal in December 2025, obtained the necessary approvals, and submitted his dissertation for examination before discovering that his name was missing from the graduation list and subsequently issuing a formal demand to the university after receiving no adequate response.
His lawyers framed the dispute as a matter of the university’s administrative process rather than a challenge to the academic merit of his dissertation.
USIU-Africa opposed the application, telling the court that Masengeli has not met the academic requirements for the award of a PhD and cannot be included in the September 26 graduation list on that basis.
The university said he has yet to defend his dissertation before a panel of internal and external examiners, a mandatory step before any doctoral degree can be conferred, and said that the earliest available date for that defence is October 6, 2026, meaning that even a successful defence at that stage would still leave other graduation requirements outstanding.
Representing the university, lawyer Chege Njoroge argued that the academic procedures set out under USIU-Africa’s charter and the Commission for University Education’s regulations could not be waived for any individual student, telling the court, “What Masengeli is inviting the court to do is disregard the procedures of running the programmes.”
The university separately rejected claims that it had unreasonably delayed processing his academic work, noting that Masengeli himself had submitted his research proposal 16 months after enrolling, with the proposal only approved for defence in December 2025.
USIU-Africa maintained it remained willing to support him in completing the graduation process once any outstanding requirements were met, but said he could not be included in the current cohort without satisfying the programme’s conditions in full.
Wednesday’s ruling addressed only Masengeli’s interim application; his main constitutional petition challenging the university’s handling of his PhD studies remains pending.
The court has set out a timeline to fast-track that hearing, granting USIU-Africa seven days to file a supplementary replying affidavit, Masengeli five days thereafter to file a further affidavit and written submissions, and the university a further seven days to file its own written submissions, with Masengeli given leave to file supplementary submissions within three days of being served.
Speaking after the ruling, Omari said the case raised broader questions about accountability in how universities manage students’ academic processes and said Masengeli had brought the dispute into the public domain to highlight those concerns.
Email your news TIPS to Editor@nairobilawmonthly.com, and to advertise with us, call +254715061658 anytime of the day
