Saving Moi University: Institution had so much promise, what happened?
University Academic Staff Union from Moi University Chapter in Kesses, Uasin Gishu County demonstrate demanding pay increment, remittances of deductions from their salaries, among other grievances on September 06, 2021.
What you need to know:
- The institution was established in 1984 as the second public university in Kenya.
- Moi University has accrued debts to the tune of Sh4.5 billion.
When Moi University was established in 1984 as the second public university in Kenya, it was primed to be the model university outside the city. The establishment followed a recommendation by the Presidential Working Party on the Establishment of a Second University, commonly known as Mackay Report.
Close to 40 years since its inception, the institution of higher learning is weighed down by financial woes. According to data from the Ministry of Education, Moi University has accrued debts to the tune of Sh4.5 billion. This ballooning debt has been attributed to the establishment of constituent colleges, unchecked expansion of its satellite campuses and alleged mismanagement over the years.
Some of its former constituent colleges have since been elevated to fully-fledged universities. These are Masinde Muliro University of Science and Technology, University of Eldoret, Karatina University, Rongo University and Maasai Mara University.
“Moi University borrowed loans from the Exchequer to establish these institutions, but if you check the books at the university, instead of these institutions inheriting the debt when they became fully fledged, the debt was left to Moi University to continue shouldering. I think this should be re-negotiated,” said Busolo Wegesa, the secretary general of the Moi University chapter of the University Academic Staff Union (Uasu).
For more than five years, the university has been scaling or shutting down some its satellite campuses in an effort to remain financially sustainable. Some of the campuses closed include Kitale, Nakuru and Kericho as well as some of its campuses in Eldoret town such as Kiptagich and West Campus. Some like Odera Okango campus were handed over to Maseno University.
“We must admit that some mistakes were made in the past, we detoured from our original vision. Instead of consolidating our resources, we nurtured various universities across the country... but as the current council, we want to revert back to the original vision as envisioned by its founders,” said Dr Humphrey Njuguna, who chairs the University Council that was appointed last October.
IMF sanctioned structural reforms
Moi, the University of Nairobi (UoN) and Kenyatta University are among select State-owned agencies lined up for structural reforms sanctioned by the International Monetary Fund that are likely to cost thousands of jobs and overhaul management of the public institutions.
In the midst of the dire financial situation, the university academic staff complained of failure by their employer to remit statutory and loan deductions, leading to most of them being blacklisted by financial institutions - Uasu officials claimed that there has been non-remittance to various welfares in the last 36 months and 16 months to local banks.
“We are also concerned that 95 percent of those in management are holding acting positions, including one of the deputy vice chancellors who has been acting for the last seven years. It is against the labour laws for one to act in any position for more than six months,” stated Mr Wegesa.
On September 7 2021, the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission said it had launched investigations into allegations of presence of ‘ghost’ workers and a bloated workforce at the university. The institution attributed overstaffing to the depressed student population as fewer students enrol for the parallel programme. This has reduced the student population from 45,000 to 30,000.
“We have been accused of having ghost workers, but that is not true, we don’t have ghost workers. We might have a bloated workforce and we are addressing that with cross-cutting measures to bring down the wage bill,” said Dr Njuguna.
The university has come up with several strategies to turn-around the situation. In June, it began a 100-acre apple farm and targets to expand to 1,000 acres in an effort to shore up their earnings within the next four years. It projects to generate at least Sh40 billion from the project.
“We want, in the next four years, to ensure that this university gets back on its feet. We want to cut overreliance on the Exchequer to run our operations,” Dr Njuguna explained.
