President William Ruto’s senior advisor on Constitutional
affairs, Makau Mutua, is now calling on the Ministry of Education to bar
honorary degree holders from using the title ‘Dr’.
In a statement on Wednesday, Mutua insisted that this will
protect and help distinguish between those attained through academic excellence
and the ceremonial ones.
He noted that Ethiopia recently effected the ban and went a
step further to restrict who can be conferred with an honorary degree.
Mutua reiterated that Kenya must follow the same direction.
“In July 2025, Ethiopia banned those with honorary doctorates from using the title 'Dr'.
"It restricted how universities can confer honorary
degrees. This protects academic integrity
and distinguishes between earned and ceremonial titles. Kenya must follow suit, @HonJuliusMigos,” he
said on X.
An honorary degree is a doctorate, awarded to individuals
who have no prior connection with the institution in question.
The conferring of an honorary degree is the greatest honor
that any University can bestow on a person, according to the University of
Nairobi.
The degree is usually conferred as a way of honoring a distinguished
person’s contributions to a specific field or to society in general.
Honorary degrees are usually awarded at regular graduation
ceremonies, at which the recipients are invited to make an acceptance speech
before the assembled faculty and graduates – an event which forms the highlight
of the graduation ceremony.
In July, the Ethiopian Minister of Education Berhanu Nega
issued new directives guiding the issuance of honorary degrees.
They include honourary doctorate holders in Ethiopia will no
longer be permitted to use the title “Doctor” outside the awarding institution.
The new directives also bar serving government officials and
political candidates from being nominated for honorary doctorates.
It further restricts recently established universities from
conferring the distinction.
The minister said an institution must have graduated at
least eight cohorts of students and offer third degrees, such as PhDs, before
awarding honorary doctorates, and must also comply with both national and
international standards before doing so.
Universities, which do not meet these criteria, are
prohibited from granting the title.
The new order also prohibits nominations for full-time
employees, Senate members, or administrative staff of higher education
institutions, unless their direct relationship with the institution has ended.
Minister Nega emphasised that these measures are intended to
preserve the prestige and credibility of academic titles, ensuring that
honorary awards remain a recognition of genuine achievement rather than
political influence or institutional favouritism.
Ghana's Tertiary Education Commission (GTEC) in September
also banned the public usage of honorary doctorates and professorial titles.
In a statement, the Acting Deputy Director-General,
Professor Augustine Ocloo, the commission expressed concern that the misuse of
honorary titles—particularly by politicians, religious leaders and business
figures—undermines the integrity of Ghana’s academic system.
The GTEC’s statement described the increasing public use of
honorary titles as deceitful and unethical, warning that the trend erodes
the value of genuine academic achievement.
