Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT) students on Wednesday, September 30, staged protests over the relocation of the Kakamega campus to Kitale.
The town campus was scheduled to be relocated to Kitale, Trans Nzoia County but the county government had allocated land in Rosterman area near Kakamega Town in a bid to stop the transfer.
Student Leader, Bravin Lavatsa, protested the imminent relocation of the campus arguing that most students already had families and businesses in the town that would be greatly disrupted if there were to be transferred to another county.
He also gave a brief history of the facility that was allocated to JKUAT by the county government, adding that everything was in place to start operations.
"This was an Asian school but was vacated over corruption scandals. It was later turned into a secondary school but it later collapsed.
"The school was idle for over 14 years and the county government handed it over to JKUAT, who tidied the compound," he explained.
According to an inspection report, the campus was over-relying on part-time academic staff, leading to unfavourable full time to part-time staff ratio.
Other challenges that faced the Kakamega campus included lack of key facilities such as a health unit, academic staff offices, student centre, and departmental areas among others.
The students called upon the government to intervene in the matter and fund the renovations in the facility as they claim the university has suffered financially.
"We are ready to learn in these structures as we continue with the renovations. We urge the university to follow suit following the commitment shown by the county government.
"We also urge the university to commit themselves to this course. We ask the Education CS and the President to heed our cry and support the school," said one of the students.
Back in August, Lurambi MP Bishop Titus Khamala threatened to go to court to block the closure of the Kakamega campus.
This comes after a crackdown back in May 2019 to reform university education by the Ministry of Education and Commission of University Education (CUE) led to the closure of 57 satellite universities.
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