Overhaul the hiring of VCs to reform public universities

Members of staff of Moi University’s main campus protested appointment of Prof Laban Ayiro as acting vice chancellor following the exit of Prof Richard Mibeyin September, [Photo: File, Standard)

The process of appointing vice chancellors and their deputies in Kenya is awfully dysfunctional. Often, considerations for the job are a mix of merit, political connections and blatant tribal calculus. As such, the period preceding the appointment of a new Vice Chancellor turns the university into a space of fierce power struggles.

For long, tribal logic has defined who becomes VC or deputy VC in any university campus. At a time when the State is paying lip service to integration and inclusiveness, we still regard it as a norm for a Luo to head a university in Nyanza, a Luhya in Western, a Kalenjin in Rift Valley and a Kikuyu in Central and so on.