Accredited hostels
Prof Kioni says that the university accredits the hostels and gives a list of accredited hostels to the university students. He, however, acknowledges that some students choose to live in other premises that have not been accredited.
Every so often they review the hostels to make sure they are up to standards. He says that they want students to be as close as possible to the institution and have communities in the halls of residence where students can engage in activities that help them bond.
“This is a private public partnership between the university and investors,” adds Kioni.
He points out that accredited hostels have access to the university ambulance and it is easy to reach them. “These hostels have good roads leading there and have direct telephone line to the university” Prof Kioni adds.
As the number of institutions of higher learning continues to grow, students will have to grapple with the fact that accommodation is expensive and that institutions cannot accommodate all their students.
The area around the university is a din of construction as hostels come up. While, as many are beautiful apartments, tucked away are some that are anything but attractive even from the outside. In one street, an open sewer is exposed privy to what the students are exposed to.
Worlds apart
Others are living in iron sheet houses. These are hardly comfortable getting too hot when the weather is hot and too cold in cold weather.
Some of the students feel that they are being exploited by private investors but as it is, there is nowhere else to go.
Samuel Maina an architectural designer based in Nyeri says that in the drawing and design of hostels, they must ensure that the sewerage and other vital parts of the hostel are in place.
“First, we verify that the person has land in the said place before we design. In our drawings, we also consider the population of the people, which is determined by the size of the cubes,” says Maina.
