Search Page

Egerton University Vice-Chancellor and eight University Council members have received a 30-day jail term following their failure to implement a court order directing them to pay the lecturers 100% of their salaries. Egerton University Academic Staff Union (UASU) Chapter had filed for contempt after the university imposed a 40% pay cut in 2020 allegedly as a stop-gap measure at the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic, however, the Council failed to produce evidence of the necessity of this measure.

Three graduates from Kenya’s Egerton University cannot offer their services professionally as their Bachelor of Science degree hasn’t been accredited since their graduation in 2019. They are demanding KES2.2 million (US$19,000) and presented their case to the National Assembly's Education Committee, demanding that the university would offer them eight remedial courses to enable them to upgrade their degree.

To avoid leakage of funds, the University of Nairobi has introduced a comprehensive lecturers’ management system that will ensure that only active students will sit for examinations and have their marks recorded. More than 30,000 inactive students who had overstayed the period required to complete a programme degree have been deregistered.

The former chairperson of the University Academic Staff Union (UASU) said that the government seems reluctant to fight corruption in public universities in Kenya which suffer different forms of corruption. For a long time, the Government did not take a keen interest in auditing universities until recently and most universities did not keep proper records of their revenues and expenditure. He added that the lack of accountability among vice-chancellors provided an environment for corruption to take root.

Kenya’s Universities Academic Staff Union (UASU) has threatened to go to court if the ministry of education does not take immediate action against the higher learning institutions in the country that are reported to be deducting from their employees’ salaries illegally without remitting deductions to the relevant institutions. Last month the ministry of education released an audit report showing that some public universities in the country were deducting billions of shillings from their employees' salaries and not regularly remitting the money to relevant agencies. The amount the institutions have been deducting illegally from the employees’ salaries is alleged to total approximately US$100 million.

Last month a student at Mount Kenya University, lost a case in the High Court in which she was challenging her suspension from the university over exam cheating. The judge dismissed the suit after he found that the disciplinary process the university followed was a fair administrative action. The student had gone to court to seek redress, arguing that the yardstick used by the university’s disciplinary committee to arrive at its verdict was unfair, excessive and in violation of the Constitution and her right to a fair hearing. So far, cheating in examinations in universities is widespread not just in Kenya but in most parts of the world.

Kenya’s universities have been ordered to publish regular financial performance reports as part of sweeping regulations which take effect this year, aimed at lifting the veil of secrecy that has shrouded institutions’ financial status and effectively put millions of dollars at risk. Currently, the publication of financial performance for public universities takes as many as four years, a situation that has seen most institutions drift into financial problems. In addition, none of the private universities in the country has ever made public their financials despite their handling millions of dollars in student funds annually.

According to a confidential report, Kenya’s universities are facing serious management challenges resulting in admission flaws, inadequate staffing, and low standards of examination administration, supervision and research. The report also shows that some institutions cut corners to increase admissions in order to seal budgetary gaps, allow students to graduate within months, or admit students to unaccredited programmes from which they are then allowed to graduate. After returning their reports with factual corrections done, the institutions in question will have 30 days to issue corrective roadmap.

Universities involved in corruption will be stripped of their charters, the Education Cabinet Secretary has said. The minister warned that universities that admit and allow unqualified students to graduate will also lose their charters. He also said universities that grant politicians certificates that they are not qualified for ahead of next year’s elections will be not be spared. He spoke during the first graduation of the Cooperative University of Kenya on Friday.

Kenya has published new rules and put more than 200 institutions on notice in a crackdown that will see 21 managers facing criminal charges for operating illegal colleges, with 63 having been closed over the past year. The action comes in the wake of government plans to bankroll institutions in this key education sector, to help them cope with the rising demand for skills.