First-year university students protest rent hikes

Tharaka University students protest soaring hostel rents as landlords agree to review rates within 14 days. [Phares Mutembei, Standard]

First-year students at Tharaka University in Tharaka Nithi were shocked when they found out the amount of rent they were going to pay in private hostels.

Hostel owners around the university, keen to cash in on the big number of students streaming in from across the country, quickly hiked the rent, leaving the vulnerable students stranded.

Single rooms cost up to Sh5,000 and bedsitters at Sh8,000, way beyond what the students were able to pay.

After the students arrived, and with over 8,000 new students expected at the institution, landlords were salivating, ready to make a financial kill.

Some hostels were being booked even before roofing, and business around the varsity, including eateries, reported huge sales.

But what made the new students and others angry was the steep hike in rent, forcing them to protest.

The students quickly organised a protest and demanded a meeting with the landlords as the issue threatened to disrupt the peaceful coexistence of the education stakeholders in the area, which has experienced fast growth due to the relatively new institution.

At the end of a hurriedly convened meeting between the student leaders, national government administrators, landlords and other stakeholders, it was resolved that the rent should be reduced within the next 14 days.

Diana Chemitei, the Vice Chairperson of Tharaka University Students Association, said what they wanted was for rents to remain at reasonable rates, and for landlords to consider the fact that many students come from humble backgrounds.

"I want to urge all our landlords to adhere to everything that we have agreed here today. Let them handle students like their children," Ms Chemitei said, at the end of the consultative meeting.

Dennis Kiprotich, the students' welfare director, welcomed the engagement, and expressed hope the agreement to bring the rent down would be effected within two weeks.

Tharaka South Deputy County Commissioner Stephen Mavina said: "We are requesting the landlords who might have mishandled the students, in terms of finances, to try to rectify that mistake within 14 days."

James Kariuki, a student at Meru University of Science and Technology (MUST), said: "Actually, the rent hiked from last year. Bedsitters initially cost Sh3,000 and bedsitters now cost up to Sh6,000."

Meanwhile, locals want roads and other amenities around the university to be improved to ensure the students have the perfect environment to thrive in their academic pursuits.

"The government should speed up the construction of the almost 16 km road from Mukothima to improve the face of this fast- growing university," said Derrick Kirema, a local.

A former constituent college of Chuka University before it was awarded a charter by former President Uhuru Kenyatta, Tharaka University has grown fast in the last few years, and commercial activities around it have brought new Investment opportunities.