University of Nairobi Vice Chancellor, Stephen Kiama, is staring at a possible jail time after he was found guilty of contempt of court for ignoring orders.
The court will be sentencing Kiama or handing him a fine on January 27, 2022, for failing to stop the restructuring process of the senior management at UoN.
Kiama will present himself before the Employment and Labour Relations Court Judge, Maureen Onyango, where he will be given a six-month jail term or a fine.
This comes after VC Kiama ignored suggestions by Education Ministry Cabinet Secretary, George Magoha, who demanded the revocation of the radical governance reforms at UoN.
Universities Academic Staff Union (Uasu) moved to court which ruled in its favour on the matter.
The union's lawyer, Titus Koceyo, stated that those appointed to head the new UoN’s management structure were already running those offices despite the court suspending implementation of the changes.
“Already, the illegally and unlawfully appointed staff in non-existent positions have begun issuing directives, memos and performing their roles, yet their occupation of the said positions have been stayed by the court,” Koceyo told the court.
Kiama scrapped UoN’s old structure, citing high expenditure and inefficiency as reasons why the institution has opted to make changes.
UoN Council abolished five offices of deputy vice-chancellors, replacing them with two associate vice-chancellors.
VC Kiama and other leaders at the university were accused of disregarding court orders that stopped the institution from implementing changes that led to the restructuring of the university.
"That the above be punished for contempt of court by committal to civil jail for a period of not more than six months or as directed by the court or fined Ksh500,000 each in accordance with the law," read part of the application.
In the proposed changes, the university would double the fees for postgraduate courses and parallel degrees, replace five offices of Deputy Vice-Chancellors with two positions of Associate Vice-Chancellors. Additionally, colleges were to be abolished and the 35 faculties were to be refined to a maximum of 11.
