Beef up security in universities and colleges

Letting criminals to ride roughshod over these young men and women is a dereliction of duty on the part of universities and the government.

The burning of University of Nairobi (UoN) hotels by students protesting the bludgeoning to death of their colleague, allegedly by the institution’s guards, once again raises questions about the security of students in our institutions of higher learning.

In the recent past, many cases of students being assaulted in the precincts of these institutions have been reported.

Only last month, a female student was raped by three men as she walked to UoN.

Last Monday, Meru National Polytechnic was closed indefinitely after students rioted following the killing of one of them in the town. In November last year, a Kibabii University student was gang-raped and her hand chopped off by unknown assailants.

Last year, Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology students were up in arms following recurrent attacks on students in the institution and its neighbourhood.

We could go on and on. The attacks highlight the need to address the apparent lapse in security in many universities and colleges.

First, universities and the institutions affiliated to them must heighten scrutiny, particularly at entry points, to avoid cases of criminals sneaking into the facilities even with weapons, as the suspect in the killing of Moi University student Ivy Wangui is said to have done.

But even after beefing up security within their campuses, universities should, in conjunction with the police, find ways of securing their neighbourhoods. This is because most students rent houses outside the universities due to lack of hostels in the institutions.

Letting criminals to ride roughshod over these young men and women is a dereliction of duty on the part of universities and the government.