Rift Valley; Kenya: Leaders from the county have voiced strong opposition to a proposal to convert Tambach Teachers Training College (TTC) into a university.

Led by Marakwet East MP David Kangogo and ward reps Benson Kiptire (Kapyego ward) and Christopher Chemosong (Arror), the leaders said the move would be an insult to the Marakwet community, which has donated 2,000 acres in Tot to the county to build a university.

"Residents from Marakwet East feel neglected and marginalised because they donated land in the hope it would help open up the region and enhance peaceful co-existence and development in the Kerio Valley region," said the MP.

Reacting to reports that Tambach residents had presented a memorandum to the local county government to elevate the only teachers' training facility into a university, Mr Kangogo said the move would amount to an insult.

"My appeal to the county government is to set up a new university and not convert an existing institution because there is plenty of land for that," said the MP.

Speaking to The Standard yesterday, Kangogo said they had presented a memorandum from the community to the local county government to enable them set up a university but the process has been hijacked.

"The governor had called on residents to donate land for a new university, which the residents of Tot obliged to but we feel cheated," said the MP.

ALTERNATIVE SITE

Mr Kiptire said upgrading the TTC would deny many students wishing to join it a chance.

"We are concerned about the thousands of students who do not meet the requirements for admission to the university and whose option would be to join a TTC.

"Their prospects for an education would be dashed because parallel degree programmes are too expensive for many," said Kiptire.

An earlier move to convert the teachers' college into a university was met with resistance from a number of leaders in the county, among them its board chairman and former Cabinet minister Nicholas Biwott, who said an alternative site should be sought.

"We should build new education facilities for higher learning and desist from the habit of upgrading existing ones when a need arises because we would be backtracking and making education expensive," Mr Biwott maintained.

NO ROLE

But Education and Technical Training Executive Morris Rotich said upgrading the TTC was the prerogative of the national government and the county played no role beyond sanctioning what the local residents decided.

"As a county government, we are encouraging each of our four sub-counties to put in place campuses from different universities to enable residents enjoy a wide variety of courses at their doorsteps," said Mr Rotich.

He said upgrading Tambach TTC would not deny the growth of other universities across the county.