A few days after resuming his position as Vice-Chancellor of Kenyatta University, Prof Paul Wainaina has vowed to regain control of Kenyatta University Teaching, Referral and Research Hospital (KUTRRH) for the benefit of students pursuing medical and science courses at the institution.

Wainaina stated that KU students are training in deplorable facilities in Kiambu and Thika towns despite having a state-of-the-art facility on their campus.

‘Substandard facilities’

“All our students in health programmes such as medicine, pharmacy, nursing, public health, medical labs, and many others have been struggling with substandard facilities in Kiambu and Thika,” Wainaina said.

“This affects the quality of education we offer, yet we have a facility that is equipped to train our students. That’s why it’s very important for the university to regain control of KUTRRH.”

He added that he would feel satisfied and accomplished if, by the time he retires, the hospital returns to KU. His term is expected to end in the next year.

Wainaina pointed out that while students from other universities are learning and being trained at level-six hospitals, KU students face the opposite situation, though training was the original purpose for establishing the hospital.

Recommendation ‘ignored’

His sentiments were echoed by Vincent Ochieng, the representative of KU’s Congress for Health and Science, who said they have not had access to the facility since it became operational.

“Other students are training in level-six hospitals; we are the only ones training in level-five facilities, most of which are ill-equipped,” Ochieng noted.

He added that despite the Senate committee recommending that KU’s medical and health students get immediate access to the facility, nothing has happened so far. “We submitted a petition which the Senate ruled should grant us access to the facility,” he said.

“It’s unfortunate that one year down the line, we still can’t access our hospital. We hope the VC will be able to regain control of the facility so that we, the students, can benefit.”

In June 2024, a Senate committee led by Uasin Gishu Senator Jackson Mandago recommended that the university rejoin the management of KUTRRH.

The university had lost control when Legal Notice No. 39 of 2021 transformed the hospital into a parastatal, removing the VC and one university council representative from the hospital board, thereby stripping the university of any decision-making powers.

Research facility

However, the Senate committee proposed the revocation of the legal notice, which would allow the hospital to return to its initial purpose.

“The committee recommends that the initial concept of KUTRRH as an education and research facility of KU be safeguarded through the revocation of Legal Notice No. 39 of 2021,” stated the committee’s report.

The committee also directed KUTRRH to fully transfer the academic/training block to the KU School of Health Sciences within three months.

The hospital was to maintain a mortuary in this block but was also supposed to allow KU students to establish an anatomy laboratory.

The committee, formed in 2022, was tasked with addressing a petition by Jafar Kasay and others concerning the management and utilisation of the hospital by KU medical students.

The petitioners requested full access to KUTRRH for KU medical students and demanded that the hospital be returned to a university facility solely for the use of College of Health and Sciences students.