Solve financial crisis at State universities
Egerton University on Christmas eve announced it would not pay its staff full salaries from December last year, laying bare the financial crisis facing public institutions of higher learning.
A financial audit of the institution had revealed that the university was broke. The situation is attributable to the cutting of funds by the National Treasury and massive debts. The university’s financial statements last year reflected a balance of Sh3.4 billion as pending under staff costs. That includes Sh150.5 million gratuities.
Student debts amounted to Sh869.9 million, an increase of Sh47.8 million from Sh822.2 million reported the previous year.
The Egerton crisis is also blamed on falling student numbers and mismanagement. Because of this, learning has been disrupted with students having to extend their stay at the institution, their dreams deferred. Indeed, for nearly two years now, there has not been proper continuous learning at a university as significant as Egerton due to the financial mess it finds itself in.
The situation is no better at the Moi University’s School of Medicine in Eldoret, where lecturers have been on strike for more than a month. The tutors accuse the institution’s leadership of failing to address their grievances, among them failing to pay enhanced clinical allowances amounting to more than Sh50 million.
The lecturers, who are also doctors at the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital, are also complaining of lack of promotions, understaffing and non-remittance of statutory and third party deductions.
The role of universities in training, research and transforming societies cannot be gainsaid. They are expected to be citadels where knowledge is developed and imparted on generations of young people as part of an awareness and empowerment project aimed to make learners productive members of their societies.
The knowledge developed in institutions of higher learning is valuable as it’s applied to solve some of the biggest challenges facing communities and inform critical national conversations. That is why the situations obtaining at Moi and Egerton universities should prick the conscience of concerned Kenyans, not just those affected.
There has been debate on State financing of universities amidst dwindling national resources. Universities have been advised to come up with innovative ways to generate their own revenue from research and teaching, and even viable commercial enterprises. The University of Nairobi Enterprises and Services Ltd is a good example.
We ask the people concerned to urgently find ways to solve the crises at Moi and Egerton universities to enable the institutions to execute their core mandate.
