No end in sight to Egerton University crisis

As Egerton university First Year students prepare to resume learning on Monday January 4, they will be welcomed to an institution embroiled in intense leadership wrangles.

The term of office of embattled Vice-Chancellor Rose Awour Mwonya is officially coming to an end on January12 after attaining the mandatory retirement age of 70.

However, she has moved to court to fight the decision to have her retire, saying she is entitled to serve until she is 74.

She says she is not ready to quit as the university council has no powers to appoint a VC, arguing those powers are vested on the Education Cabinet Secretary.

Never has the country’s premier agricultural university been rocked by financial and leadership wrangles since its inception some 81 years ago as it has this year.

The Njoro-based university’s financial woes and power struggles have reduced it into an arena for power supremacy even as its core mandate of empowering students with knowledge took a big hit.
For the first time in many years, the graduation, which was supposed to be held in December, was suspended after more than 500 academic staff downed their tools. This was after their salaries were slashed by 40 per cent due to a financial crunch at the institution.

Prof Mwonya has been at the centre of controversy, with the Universities Academic Staff Union (Uasu) accusing her of failing to steer the management unit, leaving the university reeling under a massive Sh3.3 billion debt.

“The financial crisis at Egerton University is not unique as it has been brought about by the government’s decision to reduce capitation by about 26 per cent,” said Prof Mwonya in a past interview.

Exams suspended

Angry Uasu members staged a protest and demanded the removal of Prof Mwonya and paralysed the university academic calendar, forcing the end year exams to be suspended.

As the crisis deepened, the university council suspended Prof Mwonya on November 20 and appointed Prof Isaac Ongubo Kibwage as the acting VC.

This move was greatly applauded by hundreds of workers who are members of Uasu, the Kenya Universities Staff Union and the Kenya Union of Domestic, Hotels, Educational Institutions, Hospitals and Allied workers , who joined Uasu members to demand the removal of Prof Mwonya.

But Prof Mwonya, who was appointed on January 13, 2016, would not go down without putting a fight. She moved to the Employment and Labour Relations Court and obtained a stay injunction barring the university council from replacing her.

Prof Kibwage moved with speed to address the crisis at the university and days after occupying the hot seat, he convened a crisis meeting with Uasu officials. They signed a return-to-work formula, which saw the students write their pending end of the year exams.

Prof Kibwage also assured the striking lecturers that they would start receiving their full salaries with effect from November and 50 per cent of the arrears of the slashed salaries which took effect in April.

"We recognise Prof Kibwage — he is approachable and has shown he is interested in resolving the impasse. We wonder where he got the money to pay as the arrears yet the management led by Prof Mwonya had said it was not possible to pay us our full salaries and arrears," said a lecturer.

The union officials said the university was on its knees due to fraud, mismanagement and over-employment of non-teaching staff that has seen its bloated wage bill hit Sh2 billion annually.

To tame the runaway wage bill, the university council has approved a Sh600 million retrenchment programme of 400 staff .

Corruption radar

The Njoro Campus has failed to utilise its resources and the goodwill it enjoys from local farmers and international donors to end the embarrassing financial mess that has seen it remain in the red for the last four years.

A recent report by the Inspector-General of Corporations, Ms Theodora Kerubo Gichana, painted a grim picture of a chaotic institution that loses millions of shillings yearly to either fraud or incompetence.

It is so bad the Directorate of Criminal Investigations also has the university on its corruption radar.

The staff pension fund is owed Sh1 billion as well as staff gratuities of Sh114.4 million.

Some of the academic staff proceeding for retirement at the end of this year are worried that they will not receive their pension savings. 

Unremitted dues to Saccos stand at Sh250.7 million while other unremitted payroll deductions amount to Sh61.7million.

Part-time lecturers are also demanding accrued unpaid salaries amounting to Sh930 million, while the Kenya Revenue Authority has slapped the university with a Sh692.2 million tax bill. There are also unspecified claims amounting to Sh131 million.