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Educationists in Nairobi believe many would-be graduates are seeking essay and thesis writing services, undermining quality in higher education institutions. Such fraudulent academic businesses are said to be mushrooming around universities. While they are not a new phenomenon, they are growing along with the number of students in universities.

A scholar has challenged institutions of higher learning to be on the frontline in the fight against graft by revoking certificates of their alumni implicated in corruption. He said most people implicated in graft are well learned people and have been through universities. He said if this measure is implemented it will aid in the fight against corruption because people will fear losing their certificates as it would render them jobless.

When a third-year bachelor of arts student at the University of Nairobi, was unable to write her final examination due to illness, her lecturer agreed to let her retake the exam and told her to meet him in his office in the evening to discuss the details. Instead of receiving the information she needed, he informed her that there was no need for her to take the examination and forced her to have sex with him. A 2016 study on sexual harassment among university students at Kenya’s University of Eldoret found that more than 50% of students had encountered sexual harassment and there were no policies to address the issue.

Kenya’s Commission for University Education has issued stringent new guidelines for the appointment and promotion of academic staff in a system that gives heavy emphasis to publication in reputable, peer-reviewed journals and discourages publication in so-called predatory journals. While the move is intended to raise academic standards, it has also raised concerns about the hurdles to publication facing many Kenyan academics.

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.

The Kenya Universities Staff Union (KUSU) protested the dismissal of Maasai Mara University chief finance officer, who was among the staff who blew the whistle on the misappropriation of KES190 million (US$1.8 million). KUSU also called for the dissolution of the entire Maasai Mara University Council by the Ministry of Education and the removal of the acting vice-chancellor for covering up the case.

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.