In the wake of the managerial mess at the University of Nairobi, Members of Parliament on Tuesday, December 3, initiated a probe into the administrative crisis facing the institution.
During a meeting between the UoN council and the National Assembly Education Committee, the institution’s council was accused of failing to deal with the illegal management structure.
The committee members also criticised the university council for failing to curb illegal activities including the illicit lease of university assets for long durations.
Led by its Chairperson Julius Melly, the Education Committee said it would soon begin investigating individual council members to establish the root cause of the crisis facing the country’s leading university.
However, other committee members blamed the Education Cabinet Secretary Julius Ogamba who they accused of failing to dismiss the rogue university officials on time.
While underscoring the need for a quick resolution, the committee granted the council a seven-day timeframe to address the internal wrangles that have since placed the institution’s management on the brink of collapse.
The committee further directed the council to submit documents that would aid in the investigations including all the human resource manuals used for management.
"We have given the university council until next Thursday to prepare adequately, the claim they did not have time to prepare. One major issue is the management structure which is a violation of the Universities Act," said Melly.
"The person in the name of a Chief Operations Officer (COO), I do not think he is here for the good of the university because since he came in, what we are seeing is that the university assets are being sold," noted another committee member.
The latest development in UoN came a week after Kenyatta University found itself on the spot following allegations of financial irregularities and unfair hiring within the institution.
Appearing before the National Assembly Punclic Investments Committee on Thursday, November 21, the university's Acting Vice Chancellor Waceke Wanjohi was also accused of attempting to hinder the Auditor General from probing the university's financial documents.
Wanjihi was out to task to answer queries on allegations of favouritism through unfair hiring within the institution. Waceke was further faulted for failing to establish a standardised curriculum for students.
