A change of guard, albeit in acting capacity at Egerton University is expected to turn around the dwindling fortunes of the institution.
Started off as a premier agriculture training institution, the university has been in focus due to allegations of misuse of funds and mismanagement under the troubled leadership of immediate former Vice-Chancellor (VC) Prof Rose Mwonya.
Prof Mwonya who was appointed as the VC in the year 2016, handed over the mantle of leadership to Prof Isaac Kibwage who took charge in acting capacity as the process of recruiting a new Vice-Chancellor begins.
Challenging reign
Dons, non-teaching staff and students alike, are optimistic that Prof Kibwage will help turn things around and return the once cordial relationship between the management and the university workers and students alike.
The Cabinet Secretary, Ministry of Education, Science and Technology has the powers of appointing a new Vice –Chancellor after consultation with the University’s Council.
Prof Mwonya’s term as Vice-Chancellor of the university expired on 12th January, 2021
Speaking when she handed over to Prof Kibwage, Prof Mwonya acknowledged that her reign as the Chief Executive Officer of the Nakuru based higher learning institution was a challenging yet ‘satisfying one’.
In a personal assessment of her own performance, Prof Mwonya prides herself in what she termed as ‘raising the standards’ of the university to make it one among top universities in continental rankings.
In the 2021 webometrics ranking, based on service and education impact, Egerton was ranked as the best university in Kenya and 5th in Africa.
The Impact Rank that measures academic web presence, open access initiatives, and the transfer of scientific and cultural knowledge generated by the universities to the whole society, shows Egerton University’s ability to harness its digital devices thereby seamlessly propagating quality education to the masses.
This comes at a time when the world of academia is working to adapt to the inevitable incorporation of technology in the delivery of education.
When all other indicators (i.e. Openness and Excellence) are agglomerated, the Egerton University website comes in at a close second in Kenya.
Unending graft
For the five years she was at the helm, Prof Mwonya’s tenure was rocked with controversies ranging from corruption, mismanagement and fraud.
Under her leadership, she had frosty relationships with worker unions at the university, something which led to a couple of strikes and misunderstandings between the management and workers.
In an audit report for the year 2020, the public auditor raised an alarm on the financial standing of the institution which was said to be in the red.
In her report for the year 2020, the Auditor Inspector-General in charge of state Corporations, Ms Theodora Gichana, revealed how Egerton University was losing millions of shillings through what she termed as incompetence and fraud.
The fraud was blamed on blatant flouting of financial and procurement regulations.
Dipping revenues
For some years now, the University has been unable to fully meet its financial obligations, something which led to bitter fallout between the various staff unions at the institution and Prof Mwonya.
At one time, Prof Mwonya accused the Egerton branch of the University Academic Staff Union (UASU) of being behind evil schemes to get her out of the institution’s leadership by tarnishing her name.
The 2020 audit report had recommended that Education Cabinet Secretary Prof Magoha takes action against the former VC for irregularly renewing the contract of a company that was awarded tender to provide cleaning services at the university without following the laid down procedures that would have allowed competitive bidding.
The new multimillion state of the art gate at the university’s main entrance was also another scandal that threatened Prof Mwonya’s reign after she was accused of awarding the contract to a company which had submitted a forged performance bond during the bidding process.
But Prof Mwonya defended her actions saying that all the tendering processes were above board.
The workers unions had also accused Prof Mwonya of failing to ensure that all statutory deductions from workers’ salaries were submitted to relevant bodies.
By June of 2019, the university had accumulated a total of Ksh 1.6 billion outstanding statutory deductions.
In September 2019, the Director of Criminal Investigations (DCI)George Kinoti started an investigation into the corruption claims at the university when he demanded documents from the VC’s office to aid him in his investigations.
Staff cuts
In late 2020, taking advantage of the covid-19 pandemic, Egerton announced that it was sending home at least 400 workers due to financial constraints.
The workers unions including the University Academic Staff Union (UASU), the Kenya Universities Staff Union (KUSU) and Kenya Union of Domestic, Hotels, Educational Institutions, Hospitals and Allied workers (KUDHEIHA) were up in arms against the decision to retrench workers accusing the university management of using the retrenchment excuse to cover up the many scandals that had rocked the institution.
The unions claimed that under Prof Mwonya’s leadership, Egerton University had lost close to Ksh 2 billion in scandals.
UASU Egerton Chapter chairperson Fredrick Mwangangi said it was wrong for the University’s management to just wake up one day and decide to use workers as sacrificial lambs to cover up for sins committed by the management.
In November 2020, workers at the university protested a move by the management to slash their salaries by 40% without consulting them.
Dwindling financial flows and the COVID-19 pandemic were given as reasons for the pay cut.
Fight back
With pressure from workers unions at the university, the council, in September 2020, gave in to and suspended Prof Mwonya to pave way for investigations into claims of mismanagement and corruption but the Prof who was feared due to her alleged ‘political connections’ moved to court to stop what she termed as pure witch-hunt.
In November 2020, the Employment and labour relations court reinstated Prof Mwonya after she sought to quash a decision to suspend her by the university’s council. She was back in office to serve the remainder of her term until she attained the mandatory retirement age of 70 years.
At the time the striking lecturers at the university vowed to bar the VC from accessing her office. They were by then pushing for Prof Kibwage to take over the mantle of leadership.
Egerton UASU chapter Vice-chairperson Grace Kibue had said that they would not accept any impostor to enter the VC’s office.
KUSU Organizing Secretary Wayaya Ernest had said the decision by the council to appoint Prof Kibwage on acting capacity was to be respected.
Wayaya had noted that Prof kibwage was the right person to reclaim the lost glory of the university.
Late 2020, when lecturers went on strike at the University, it was Prof Kibwage who brokered a deal that saw the signing of a return to work agreement between the tutors and the management.
Until his appointment as acting VC, Prof Isaac Kibwage was serving as the Deputy Vice-chancellor in charge of Administration, Planning and Development at the university
With goodwill and support from lectures and other staff at the university, Pro Kibwage who holds a PhD in Pharmaceutical Chemistry is expected to steer the Egerton ship back on the right track.
Before joining Egerton, Prof Kibwage served in different capacities at the University of Nairobi and also served as the chairman of the pharmaceutical society of Kenya for a period of six years.
Majority of lecturers’ as well as non-teaching staff seem to be in support of Prof Kibwage who boasts of over 30 years of experience in university teaching and administration environment.
A section of lecturer’s we spoke to and who sought anonymity said it will only be prudent for the Cabinet Secretary of Education to confirm Prof Kibwage as the substantive Vice Chancellor to enhance a smooth continuity of operations at the University.
