Pwani University College gets varsity status

By Ngumbao Kithi And Joseph Masha

Mombasa County

President Kibaki has awarded a charter to the Pwani University College in Kilifi County making it a fully-fledged university,This comes a day after conferring a similar status to the Mombasa Polytechnic in Mombasa County.

Until yesterday Pwani University was an affiliate of Kenyatta University in Nairobi while the new Technical University of Mombasa, formally Mombasa Polytechnic, was part of Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology.

This has become Kenya’s 13th public university.While awarding the charter to Pwani University College Kibaki ordered for a quick solution to the issue of the ownership of parts of the new university’s land so that it can start operations.

High standards

“I have today awarded a charter to the Pwani University College which started 25 years ago as the Kilifi Institute of Agriculture and which in 2007, I upgraded to be a constituent university college under Kenyatta University,”  said Kibaki.

The President also said the university should be allowed full access to the ocean to sustain its marine sciences programmes and research.

“Pwani University has to have access to the ocean waters to do its research program on marine life without a problem,” said the President who added that the Government will elevate 15 more colleges.

On Wednesday, Kibaki also appointed Prof Douglas Odhiambo and Prof Josphat Mwatela the Chancellor and Vice-Chancellor of the Technical University of Mombasa.

Announcing the elevation, the President said he was pleased with the standards of training at the new university.“It has since distinguished itself as a centre of excellence for training in technical fields of study such as engineering, applied sciences as well as computing,” he said.