All indicators are that Kenya’s premier university, the University of Nairobi (UoN), is careening to the cliff edge and will plunge into the abyss.

The crisis at the institution is so pervasive that only an urgent, all encompassing, government-backed rescue effort can stem the tide. The problems have been festering for years, with all concerned parties only obsessed with turf wars and supremacy battles. The problems are diverse – financial, governance, personality clashes, Executive interference, poor leadership, name it.

Pending bills have hit Sh12 billion, a whopping Sh7.8 billion of this owed to pensioners. Staff who have given their all to UoN are now retiring to penury. A terrible shame. UoN is crying that its monthly obligations are Sh800 million, but receives only Sh100 million from the government. It’s a shame an established institution like UoN is still begging at the Treasury.

UoN’s chancellor, Prof Patrick Verkooijen, stated that the debt had doubled to Sh20 billion in two years. This is a vehicle that is out of control.

The raging war of professors is quite the spectacle, even as it has destroyed UoN. The last six months have seen the university council, under Prof Amukowa Anangwe, finally winning its war of attrition with the vice chancellor (VC), Prof Stephen Kiama, and sending him packing. Barely had the ink dried on his signature on Kiama’s sacking letter than Anangwe was himself unceremoniously bundled out.

In 2020, the council, under Prof Julia Ojiambo, independently recruited Kiama. The then Minister for Education, Prof George Magoha, was very unhappy the council ignored his choice. In a fit of anger, he dissolved the council and revoked Kiama’s appointment.

Kiama went to court, which upheld his appointment. From the moment he sat on that seat, it was battle royale. Successive councils had gone full throttle unsuccessfully trying to unseat him, until Anangwe managed to do so in November 2024.

The council’s interference has been so nefarious that a frustrated acting VC, Prof Margaret Hutchison, is asking the Supreme Court to mediate the dispute. Shocked MPs could not believe how the council had sidelined the VC and taken over running UoN.

There are 16 court cases as a consequence. The council created 14 new irregular positions, and filled them, including recruiting a chief operating officer, Brian Ouma, whose academic credentials UoN could not provide to MPs. This, in an institution run by professors! Is there hope for the rest of the country?

The Executive uses the council to impose its agenda, and flips its members at will to suit its schemes. That is why there have been five council chairpersons in the past five years alone. Total anarchy!

And now the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission is probing how UoN’s properties were leased out.

There is no doubt – UoN is going down. There seems nobody with any idea how to stop this headlong plunge, and rebuild the institution back to its glory days, when its graduates were the gold standard in this entire region. Today, its erstwhile babies, many of whom it birthed, are challenging its dominance in many academic spheres.

Tragically, the UoN Alumni Association has maintained a deafening silence. Their stance seems to be see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil, even as their institution is being deconstructed!

The only way to rescue UoN is for the Executive to urgently form a committee that will bring together all stakeholders to work out and implement a rescue plan. It should be chaired by an independent party.

The Executive must stop interfering in UoN operations. All irregular positions should be immediately scrapped. Bring in a fresh team at the council representing various interests, especially professional bodies.

The institution urgently needs money, which the government does not have. UoN can recapitalise using its idle assets, especially those in prime areas of Nairobi worth tens of billions of shillings. Dispose of some, and enter into joint ventures with private developers to start generating a stream of income.

— gathukara@gmail.com