Leave public universities out of privatisation plan

The main entrance to the University of Nairobi. [File, Standard]

Trade and Investment Cabinet Secretary Moses Kuria announced recently that the government is planning to privatise some government entities, including public universities. Mr Kuria said investors from Indonesia and the US willing to make multi-million shilling investments in our public universities have been identified.

At face value, and given that Kenya's public universities are wallowing in debt and mismanagement, the proposal appears to make sense. Reduced government funding of public universities gave rise to Module II (parallel degree courses) in universities that somehow managed to bridge the funding gap. Money raised from Module II breathed life into universities but somewhere along the line, things went wrong.