Confusion as Ruto wants TUK to go back to its polytechnic goals

The Technical University of Kenya will be re-chartered to meet its core mandate of being a polytechnic university, President William Ruto has announced.

The Head of State said the charter that the institution holds at the moment does not help it to meet the main role it should be playing.

"After consultations with the Council Chairman and the Vice-Chancellor, we will re-work and re-charter this University so that we can establish it as a special technical university," President Ruto said.

"TU-K should not just be technical in its name, it should be a technical university by charter," he added.

This came after the institution raised concerns with the Ministry of Education around the proper interpretation of the charter so that it could match the capacitation that was channeled to them.

The lack of clarity had led to less capitation from the Exchequer that treats TU-K as any other traditional university yet it continues to admit and train diploma students placed by KUCCPS to pursue various technical disciplines.

Ruto directed Education Cabinet Secretary Ezekiel Machogu to work towards the re-chartering of the Nairobi-based institution.

"It's important that the institution maintains its core identity as a polytechnic university. This means that its mandate to train at the diploma level must be sustained.

"I'm aware that funding for this component has not been up to the appropriate levels," he said.

He added: "I have asked the CS for Education to make appropriate arrangements to ensure this University lives up to its founding mandate by providing funding to it to continue offering diploma programmes."