By Mike Owuor

Complaints about institutions of higher learning turning into tribal enclaves have always been restricted to the administration. But, says Njenga Muchoki in Maseno, the role of students is usually overlooked. And there is no worse example of the "ethnic mentality" than district-based student associations.

"While some lobby for Constituency Development Fund bursaries, many have a tribal agenda," he says.

It is depressing, notes Muchoki, that the proceedings of some meetings are in the mother tongue of the tribe perceived to be dominant in a district. They assume there are no Luos in Nyeri District, for example, or Kikuyus in Migori District.

"The associations are used by some as a stepping stone to student union leadership, relying on the tribal vote. This has turned universities into laboratories of ethnicity," he says, adding that the results could be explosive.

His suggestion is that such associations should be abolished. This, he says, will be a major step towards national healing and reconciliation. If it means the intervention of Higher Education Minister Sally Kosgei to ban the associations, so be it.