Condemn lawless students but tackle the issues they raise

This week has seen a large number of institutions of higher learning shut due to student unrest. It is like there is a new season requiring violent confrontation between students and authorities.

The Technical University of Mombasa was on Tuesday shut down indefinitely following unrest caused by engineering students. The institution has reportedly not been accredited by the Engineering Registration Board despite obtaining a charter for a fully-fledged university in 2011.

For several weeks, students have expressed their grievances over the accreditation issue fearing they might not secure employment after graduating. The series of unrest began early 2014 after JKUAT sought to lock out some of the engineering students from the June 27 graduation.

At Machakos University College, students were arrested during a protest over absentee lecturers after they blocked the Machakos-Wote road and stoned vehicles. The student leaders said they were protesting because their lecturers had not been teaching since the university opened this semester.

Traffic along the Eldoret-Nakuru highway was paralysed after Moi University law students went on the rampage in protest against the indefinite closure of the university’s law department.

Live bullets were fired in the air and tear gas canisters hurled at students who responded by stoning police officers. In the process student reps were arrested while those who had taken refuge in hostels were forced out and arrested. Yesterday, it was the turn of Dedan kimathi University of Technology in Nyeri students to register a protestation, leading to its closure!

Meanwhile, eleven University of Nairobi students are facing court action after they terrorised motorists, shop owners and pedestrians in running battles with anti-riot police at Lower Kabete Campus in April.

And just last month, Nairobi residents were inconvenienced by rioting UoN students who blocked roads around the main campus.

The common denominator in all these ranges from delayed disbursement of the Higher Education Loans Board, lack of teaching staff, learning material, alleged high-handedness from varsity administrators or cases of discipline gone awry.

Much as some or even all of these are legitimate concerns, it behooves us to demand why students often raise the hammer to deal with what are decidedly mosquito issues. It is necessary to re-define the rules of engagement and ask why our supposed seedbeds of intellectualism are becoming hotbeds of discontent.

Are there ringleaders inciting students into abandoning their core activity of learning to becoming champions of intolerance? Are there permanent troublemakers who incite fellow students to riot rather than dialogue? Despite the phenomenal growth of institutions of higher learning in all counties, do we risk raising academic dwarfs? Why is this generation opting to become muckrakers rather than budding diplomats, lawyers and teachers, parents, politicians and scientists?

 

We need to tackle this question urgently so that we do not lose an entire generation. Students must realise that they remain the biggest losers when they destroy and loot university property and infrastructure. They also lose public trust when they stone onlookers during rioting. Students must remember that these people whose cars they destroy or those they hurt are potential employers.

When the institutions are shut, students lose study time. When faced with challenges, it is important that students seek dialogue.

But while we condemn the students, there is need for the concerned authorities and social scientists to interrogate the source of disconnect between varsity administrators, faculty, the education ministry. We must realise that students want these institutions to tackle the issues they raise to secure their future.

We must ask why students fail to engage administrators with reason? We need to interrogate the quality of managers in our learning institutions. We must step back and look at the genesis of these episodes of unrest.