Why 8 city campuses are facing closure

Eight campuses set for closure in Nairobi will be re-opened when they meet all the required standards, the Commission for University Education (CUE) has assured.

This will be a reprieve to thousands of students who are studying in the campuses, who would have had to move to the main campuses. Most of them studying part time.

CUE Secretary David Some in a telephone interview with The Standard, said the concerned universities had been told about the areas that needed to be addressed to qualify for accreditation. He said among the issues raised by the team touched on security and sanitation.

The commission is working on intensifying security in all universities following the April terror attack in Garissa University that led to the killing of more than 148 people, the majority of them students.

The campuses facing closure belong to Egerton University, St Paul's, Africa Nazarene, South Eastern, Dedan Kimathi and Multi-Media University. Others are Masinde Muliro and Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT).

There are a total 24 satellite campuses in Nairobi, with 12 fully accredited while three have been granted provisional accreditation. These include Kisii, JKUAT-Karen campus and KCA University.

Most universities have opened campuses in the central business district to attract more students. According to Prof Some, some of the campuses were operating in what he termed as generally unsafe buildings. "An audit carried out by our team established that some of the campuses are operating in dingy places, while others even lack toilets," said Some.

Some said that some of the affected universities had tiny rooms for classes while in others, lecturers shared tables with students. "In some of the affected universities, you cannot distinguish between hawkers and students, while others have leaking toilets. Some even lack emergency exits but we have given each university a raft of recommendations and once this is achieved, they will be reopened upon investigation," he said.

He said the team will be visiting universities in Rift Valley, western Kenya and central in the coming weeks.

Sunday, St Paul's University moved to assure it's students that they would meet the recommendations set by CUE. The university took to its Twitter account @SPUKenya to assure students all was well.