Governance and political expert Professor Fred Ogola on Thursday, March 11, revealed intrigues behind the termination of his contract as a Senior lecturer at a local University noting that it was unexpected and unfair.
The professor stated that he received his termination letter on April 6, 2023, as he prepared for his lectures for the day.
According to him, the institution did not issue substantial reasons for firing him as they stated that he had already secured another appointment at a different university in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The termination letter noted that Ogola had refuted that he had secured the position, information that they stated had been published by different outlets.
However, the professor stated that his LinkedIn account had been hacked and he had not received any such appointment.
“I woke up one day and noticed that people were sending me congratulatory messages but I did not know why they were sending them.
“I then realised that someone had hacked my account and shared that I was starting a position as Dean of a university in DRC. I had to go back and delete that message because it was false,” Ogola stated.
At the same time, the University that was said to have appointed Ogola for the position wrote to the Kenyan university to inform them that they had begun discussions on how to engage the professor but had not yet made any official appointments.
The university also terminated Ogola’s contract for inviting the media to a school event without the authority of the management.
Ogola noted that the institution claimed that as a result of the media coverage, a misleading press release was published without internal review.
“There is no way I would have shared the content they wanted because that is against media ethics. I cannot share the content of a media house that they have not yet published. That media house even wrote to them to tell them that things don’t work like that,” he stated.
The professor had since appealed the termination of his contract holding that there were other external forces and reasons and was awaiting a response from the institution.
He also believes that the institution did not have enough evidence against him as they had earlier issued him with 6 warning letters with reasons that were not clear to him or accurate.
“There are rumours going around that there is more to the story. The university had earlier sent me warning letters just to find a reason to fire me. That was a very unholy action from the university to fire me on a Holy Thursday,” he added.
The professor had earlier revealed that the institution was paying him Ksh100,000 for his roles.
Ogola is the Chief Executive Officer of the African Health and Economic Institute and Director of the Institute of Strategy and Competitiveness among his part-time jobs as a lecturer t different institutions.
He holds a PhD in Management Science and Innovation with a focus on Strategy and Execution from ESADE Business School in Barcelona, Spain.
He also holds a Master’s in Management Science and Innovation from the same university and another Master’s in Strategic Management from the Catholic University of Eastern Africa.
