The Consumer Federation of Kenya (COFEK) has called on the Ministry of Education to conduct a comprehensive audit of all university health sciences programmes that have not been accredited under existing laws.

In a statement issued by Secretary General Stephen Mutoro, COFEK said the process should involve all relevant stakeholders, including professional bodies, students, regulators, and public health experts.

The federation’s position follows a recent statement by the Kenya Dental Association (KDA), which called for an audit and greater regulatory clarity on university health programmes, including the Bachelor of Science in Oral Health offered by Mount Kenya University (MKU).

While supporting the proposal for an audit, COFEK insists that any review should be applied uniformly across all affected programmes.

“While COFEK agrees in principle with the KDA leadership on the need for an audit and regulatory clarity, our considered and firm position is that any contemplated audit and stakeholder input must apply across the board — to all such university programmes, including the Bachelor of Dental Surgery (BDS),” the statement said.

According to COFEK, a selective audit would be inconsistent with Section 2(b), read together with Section 31, of the Universities (Amendment) Act, 2016.

The federation further questioned the KDA’s decision to include MKU’s Bachelor of Science in Oral Health among the programmes it believes should be scrutinized, arguing that it was unclear whether the association’s position was based on a comparative assessment of similar programmes.

“It also begs the question whether KDA undertook any comparative analysis or study to inform its impugned position. The absence of this has created more questions than answers,” COFEK stated.

COFEK also cited a recent High Court case involving the Oral Health Association and the Ministry of Health, in which Justice Musyoka affirmed that the Commission for University Education (CUE) has the exclusive statutory mandate under Section 5A(2) of the Universities Act, 2012, to recognise, license, approve and accredit academic programmes offered by universities in Kenya.

During the proceedings, CUE confirmed that MKU’s Bachelor of Science in Oral Health programme is accredited and recognized under the Universities Act. The commission also stated that programmes approved by university senates between December 8, 2014, and January 13, 2017, are deemed accredited under the law and that it continues to work with institutions through internal quality assurance mechanisms to ensure compliance.

However, COFEK argued that there is no publicly available evidence showing that the Bachelor of Dental Surgery programmes at the University of Nairobi and Moi University have undergone formal CUE programme accreditation under the current legal framework introduced by the Universities (Amendment) Act, 2016.

The federation said it has written to CUE seeking documentary evidence to clarify the accreditation status of the two programmes.

COFEK wants to know whether the programmes were formally approved by university senates after the institutions received their charters in 2013 and whether they were accredited by CUE between 2013 and January 13, 2017.

It also seeks clarification on whether the programmes are currently operating without valid accreditation under the amended law, a situation it says could expose students to regulatory uncertainty.

COFEK criticised the KDA’s stance, arguing that concerns surrounding the Bachelor of Science in Oral Health programme fall within the mandate of the Kenya Medical Practitioners and Dentists Council (KMPDC) and Parliament, and do not constitute sufficient grounds for suspending a programme that has been accredited by CUE.

The federation further noted that students enrolled in programmes lacking valid accreditation are consumers whose rights are protected under the Consumer Protection Act, giving COFEK standing to demand accountability and regulatory oversight.

“The KDA’s position is therefore legally inverted: it defends the programmes most exposed to accreditation scrutiny (the BDS at UoN and Moi) while attacking the one most clearly protected (the MKU BSc in Oral Health). The programme the KDA seeks to protect may be the one most legally exposed, while the one it seeks to impugn is the one most clearly protected by law,” COFEK stated.