Coast  Leaders Oppose Privatization Of Public Universities

A section of leaders from Kilifi County have rejected the planned privatization of public universities by the Kenya Kwanza administration saying it will affect higher education learning in the Coastal region.

They said once universities are privatized, those that would be affected are those from the Coast and it will be a big blow to the region.
Privatisation is believed to be a scheme to bail institutions out of the current financial crisis.

Fikirini Jacobs ,University union student leader  said the government should ensure there is equal allocation of funds to all the universities so as to attract more students.

Speaking in Malindi during a prize giving ceremony for teachers and schools organized by the area MP Amina Mnyazi ,Fikirini claims that the privatisation of the universities is a scheme by some Kenya Kwanza politicians to amass wealth because they will emerge as the highest bidders.

“Our public universities sit on massive resources, particularly land and infrastructure. Someone may be eyeing these resources under the guise of fixing the financial problems facing the institutions. Our public universities could soon be on sale to the highest bidder. When that happens, it is logical to expect that the Kenya Kwanza politicians who are making the demand for privatization will themselves be bidding for the precious real estate assets our universities have,” said Fikirini. Adding that previous placement of Taita Taveta University for example previously got only 300 slots of students which is too low and made them to get low funding from the government.

Surprisingly, Jacobs said some of the private universities outside the Coast region got over 5000 students which means such institutions get more funding from the government than those with few students.

Normally he said when the number of students is low it means funding will be low and there will be low development in such universities.
“We fear that when the axe of privatization hits will affect the universities which got low placement from the government,” he said.

Jacobs urged the government to ensure the Coastal universities remain intact and get more students to reach the level of Kenyatta University, Moi University and Nairobi university.

Once that is done, he said more students will come down the Coast for studies and the development of the universities will be possible.
Malindi MP Amina Mnyazi said as leaders they were committed to cooperate with teachers and parents so as to get good results.

“I would like to tell teachers this, I know there are many challenges in terms of teachers, leaders, infrastructure, laws and everywhere but now you have the good will of leaders who are ready to cooperate with you because we value education,” he said.

Matuga MP Kassim Tandaza said so far, the agenda of education was key because no parent has anything important to give to his child other than education and thanked the MP for taking the education matters seriously.

Kilifi Woman Rep Getrude Mbeyu said there is need for students to perform well from C+ and above so as to be able to go to universities.
“We are lucky as Kilifians because we have our own university here, Pwani University but if I were to ask how many of our own children have joined the university it is too low,” she said.

Malindi town Ward MCA Rashid Odhiambo said it’s the responsibility of parents; leaders and teachers to ensure education standards improve.

He challenged teachers to ensure that they produce As in Malindi constituency as that is the only way to ensure the standards of education improve.