Your MP Most Likely has a Business Degree
It is highly probable that your Member of Parliament holds a business-related degree, as this type of degree can be completed relatively quickly and therefore may be seen as a convenient way to meet the IEBC’s degree requirement. However, MPs who are older in age often come from backgrounds in Law or Education.
According to the Election Act number 24 of 2011, an individual can be nominated as a candidate for Member of Parliament if they possess a degree from a university that is recognized within Kenya. The law would come into effect in the 2022 general election, and according to kivumbi.co.ke, 40 MPs in the 12th parliament risked losing their seats after the Independent Election and Boundary Commission (IEBC) announced it will not clear any person for any elective post without a university degree.
The law might have prompted aspiring and sitting Members of Parliament to undertake the quickest and easiest degree, business-related studies. For example, Member of Parliament for Embakasi Central Benjamin Gathiru undertook a 2 year Bachelor of Business Management (HR Option) from Mount Kenya University from 2014 to 2016. Similarly, Makadara Member of Parliament George Aladwa undertook a Business Administration course at Jaramogi Oginga Odinga University of Science and Technology in 2020, to be completed just in time for the 2022 general election.
According to Bankelele, a well-established blogger who focuses on banking, finance, and investment, pursuing a business degree may be a squandered opportunity and could potentially undermine the value of this field of study. Nonetheless, it remains true that business-related degrees are still highly sought after by Members of Parliament in Kenya. Lawmakers in both the United Kingdom and the United States tend to favour Political Science, History, and Economics as the most desirable fields of study.
Is there a correlation between one’s field of study and their performance in parliament? Determining a causal relationship between education choices and parliamentary performance is challenging due to external factors that can impact both variables. Despite the aforementioned challenges, a group of ten petitioners, via Constitutional Petition 28 of 2021, successfully convinced the Supreme Court of Kenya to overturn the mandate that Members of Parliament must hold a university degree.
