MPs slash budgets of six public Kenyan universities

A National Assembly committee has slashed Sh260 million from the budgets of six public universities.

The Education Committee allocated the money to Masinde Muliro University of Science and Technology to set up a campus in Turkana County.

The money was deducted from the budgets of Egerton University (Sh50 million), Moi University (Sh50 million), Maseno University (Sh50 million) and Kisii University (Sh50 million). Others whose budgets were cut were Technical University of Mombasa (Sh30 million) and Technical University of Kenya (Sh30 million). 

"The establishment of the first public university in this region will go a long way in improving the education standards in this region," read a report the committee submitted to the Budget and Appropriations Committee.

Committee on Education Vice Chairman Julius Melly (Tinderet), said the Turkana campus was a priority because the county and the whole of northern Kenya had been marginalised since independence.

forgotten regions

"Certain regions have been forgotten. We decided to pick the money from the other universities because they are big. They are collecting a lot of money in fees, as appropriation in aid, and they can still survive. We said let us give the money to Masinde Muliro so that they set up a campus in Turkana," said Mr Melly.

At the meeting in Nairobi's County Hall, Melly told the MPs that the whole of northern Kenya had only one university college – the Garissa University College under Moi University, in Garissa County.

"It is important that communities that had been left out since independence are included in education programmes. That injustice should be corrected by this," said Kamukunji MP Yusuf Hassan. The Budget committee will have the final say.