Students win landmark court case against Technical University of Mombasa

MOMBASA, Kenya – In a landmark ruling on March 23, 2026, the Mombasa High Court ruled in favour of Diploma in Supply Chain Management students, condemning the Technical University of Mombasa (TUM) for unconstitutional actions and directing the university to promptly award each student Sh200,000 in general damages in addition to their original diplomas.

Lead Counsel Wafula William and Wakili Tom Rasto of WWC Advocates, Mombasa, successfully argued the case and won it pro bono.

TUM students were over the moon after the landmark court ruling. Photo: TUM. Source: X.

When no one else would, they took the initiative, filed the Constitutional Petition (PET/E68/24) at the Mombasa High Court, and relentlessly defended the rights of the learners.

With a clear promise of a two-year graduation, the students (led by Joel Collins Aluku and eleven others) were admitted in August 2020.

Four years later, despite the fact that their admission documents made no mention of KNEC, they had passed all internal tests, obtained provisional transcripts, and finished their industrial attachment; TUM abruptly halted their graduation, alleging they had failed KNEC exams.

Advocate William Wafula (r) and Wakili Tom Rasto were together on record for TUM students. Photo: Wakili Tom Rasto. Source: Original.

TUM on the receiving end from the courts

Justice G. Mutai did not hold back. According to his ruling, TUM violated the students’ rights to fair administrative action (Article 47) by using “haphazard communication” and failing to provide written explanations; violated their rights to education (Article 43) and dignity (Article 28); and destroyed their reasonable expectation of graduating from the course.

The judge ruled that TUM’s actions showed “little regard for the welfare of the students” and mandated that the university immediately award certificates and compensate each student.

“The petitioners were inexplicably excluded from the graduation list,” the excellent judge said in a forceful statement. Their worries were dismissed in a casual, matter-of-fact manner, which says a lot about the respondent.

“For every student who has ever been irritated by ambiguous university policy and administrative incompetence, this is a huge victory,” Wakili Rasto said following the ruling.