Onslaught on Kisii University VC by Kaimenyi uncalled for

By Isaac Orina

An article in The Standard on March 28 titled “Kaimenyi, VC clash over varsity strike”, indicated that Education Cabinet Secretary Jacob Kaimenyi clashed with Kisii University Vice Chancellor John Akama over the institution’s closure. My take on this war of words is slightly different. First, I first commend the Cabinet Secretary for his efforts to arbitrate over the recent stalemate between the university and the striking student leaders. However, with due respect, I think Prof Kaimenyi’s approach was wrong.

With all due respect to our political leaders, I feel that the strike by Kisii University students has been blown out of proportion. If my memory serves me right, never in the history of Kenya has a vice chancellor been summoned before a parliamentary select committee on education before a university has exhausted all channels to resolve the problem. Why only Kisii University?

A level playing field for all universities would appeal more in the eyes of stakeholders than this open bias and selective application of the law. Gagging the VCs will only reduce them to robots who succumb easily to baseless student whims! Is this what we Kenyans want? What message are we sending to the potential employers of our graduates?

It is indeed odd to summon a VC and the striking university student leaders to appear before the parliamentary select committee together. I dread the bitter exchange of words that would ensue between students and their administrator. It is only fair to deal with each party separately and make an independent ruling based on their testimonies. The VC is like a father to those students and means no harm and so was his intention of giving them a short break to put the house in order.

Having destroyed property, including their halls of residence, the university needed some time to put things in place before recalling the students. I am only calling for sobriety in this matter for all of us who are parents and leaders. Burying the hatchet will help us pull together and steer this nation in the right direction, if the millennium goals are to be achieved.

The act of calling a long-serving administrator and scholar a liar on account that he did not appear with the student leaders before the parliamentary committee, was not only humiliating but also a slap in the face for all scholars, Kaimenyi included.

If the VC reported that he did not receive the said letter, I believe the respectable Cabinet Secretary should have used the mechanisms at his disposal to find out the truth. We all have to mind our language since it is the primary tool for arbitration and negotiation.

The two distinguished professors may have differed in opinion but this does not warrant the harsh words used against the VC by the Cabinet Secretary. Being a public figure, it is only fair to treat the VC with the dignity and decorum he so much deserves, the regrettable students’ strike notwithstanding.

I strongly believe that being a professor and the first VC of a nascent university like Kisii is no mean achievement and this is well known to Kaimenyi who was once a deputy VC. What all VCs and especially those of young universities urgently need from all of us is support not condemnation.

Let it also go into the annals of history that under the able stewardship of Prof Akama, Kisii University has never experienced a students’ strike since its inception as a university college of Egerton University in 2007 to date. I also wish to remind fellow Kenyans that Kisii University is hardly two years old since its charter award last year. This is enough reason for all of us to support the current leadership so that it can implement the university policies.

No man is an angel but positive criticism and patience would do no harm to the institution. Let us all remember that the children we pamper today are the children who will tamper with us tomorrow. What these young universities are experiencing are teething problems typical of any institution that is trying to establish itself.