By Portus Chege
Kenya’s once-promising third university, which was headed to become a premier pinnacle of academic excellence and intellectual pursuit in East Africa, is tottering on the brink of collapse and certain death.
Moi University, named after Kenya’s second President, the autocratic Daniel Arap Moi, who misruled East Africa’s largest economy for a quarter century, precisely 24 years, is heaving under the throws of mismanagement, bad governance, lack of vision and foresight, negative and parochial ethnicity, nepotism, political interference, outright theft and looting, infrastructural decay and poor non-visionary leadership.
These evils threaten the very existence of Moi University, which was established in the 1980s by Moi ostensibly in his quest to benefit only his community, the Kalenjin- to the total exclusion of the rest of Kenya.
Moi’s rule was characterized by high-level corruption, disregard for the rule of law, skewed allocation of resources, mediocrity and utter disregard for meritocracy, political assassinations, land-grabbing, election theft, and abuse of human rights on a gargantuan scale, among others.
It seems that Moi University has entered the dark path of its founder, former President Moi.
Located on a 3,000-acre expanse, Moi University has become, in the words of one Kenyan legislator, “a public health crime scene,” what with a dilapidated infrastructure, poor sanitation, and utter neglect.
It is public knowledge in Kenya’s body politic that parochial ethnic considerations hold sway in the choice of the academic and administrative managers of the university.
The local community (the Kalenjin) is virulent in its demand that one of its own always be in the saddle. For instance, former Vice Chancellor Prof Laban Ayiro, who hails from the populous neighboring community, the Luhya, was forced out—actually ejected—a few years back in acrimonious circumstances by the locals who were baying for his blood and demanding that one of its own take charge.
Actually, the incumbent Vice-Chancellor Prof Isaac Kosgey is a Kalenjin and is the one who is currently presiding over the rot at the institution. This lends credence to the maxim that the people deserve the leaders that they choose or desire.
No less a figure than Kenya’s Cabinet Secretary for Education a docket that superintends over even tertiary education, appalled at the crisis that is Moi University today, demanded a forensic audit of the rot at the university.
But the recently-appointed Julius Migosi’s words were met with stiff criticism with education experts pointing out that the Cabinet Secretary, beyond mere words, ought to employ his prerogative and take administrative action, disband the university council, the body that runs the university, and the entire university management and appoint a new team to take charge.
“Without far-reaching structural and governance changes, financial bailouts and even the forensic audits proposed by Parliament will not cure Moi University’s illnesses,” David Aduda, a veteran former Education editor and specialist with Kenya’s leading daily, The Daily Nation, and now Consulting Editor, wrote recently.
It is instructive that a visit by the Kenya Parliament’s Education Committee to check on the situation and establish the status of things at the institution came out with a damning report on the rot at the University.
The Committee declared that the problem with Moi University was bad governance. The committee revealed that the university facilities had collapsed, and lecture theatres, hostels, and dining halls were in terrible condition. Worse, the sewerage system was in an appalling condition, what with toilets stinking to the high heavens.
For good measure, and tragically, academic and non-academic staff have not been paid for months while statutory deductions, including medical insurance and pension, as well as Sacco and bank loans, have not been remitted to the respective agencies and lenders for years – a clear case of criminal collusion and theft!
Conspiracy of silence to kill Moi University
The local chapter Secretary of the University Academic Staff Union (UASU) describes the university as an institution under receivership.
“Our greatest concern is that nobody in government wants to resolve the Moi University crisis,” Dr. Busolo Wegesa lamented. “It is as if there is a conspiracy of silence to kill the university.”
It is a sad indictment of Kenya’s corrupt and nepotic leadership, which is presiding over the country’s chaotic education system that it reluctantly, even half-heartedly embraced from the outgoing regime but which it is now busy implementing.
The crisis at Moi University is also a carbon copy of the ostentatious and conspicuous lifestyles of some of Kenya’s political elite.
His prosecution was suspended – not halted – after successful arguments by his lawyers and alleged tampering with evidence on the part of the government of the day led by his erstwhile bosom buddy – now turned bitter foe – former President Kenyatta.
Recently, two of President Ruto’s ardent loyalists, Kipchumba Murkomen and Nandi Senator Samson Cherargei, were banned from stepping on United States soil by the new US Administration for their nefarious activities ostensibly under the nod of President Ruto.
The US government and other international donors have recently come out forcefully to condemn and demand action on official corruption – the bane of Kenya’s economy – and extra-judicial killings and abductions as well as subsequent killings of innocent youths who were protesting punitive tax measures and escalating high cost of living.
Instructively, in 2020, the Council for Legal Education, the body that regulates the provision of legal education in Kenya shut down the Moi University School of Law, citing a lack of resources and staffing at the institution. The University did not have a suitable Moot Court and library as well as inadequate staff and facilities for the program.
In the meantime, the university has leased some of its expansive lands to wheeler dealers while spending millions on an acquisition of assets that generate no revenue at the expense of institutional infrastructural development.
Ridiculously, the university management put up a gate of Ksh30 million soon after demolishing one that had just been constructed.
It is through that gate that you get a glimpse of the rot at the institution!
Meanwhile, the government sits on its hands and speaks with both sides of the mouth.
