Days after reporting back to the institution following an earlier similar strike, Masinde Muliro University students have once again gone on a rampage.
According to reports, the students engaged police in running battles for the better part of Monday morning while protesting a delay in appointing a Vice-Chancellor to the university.
In June 2019, education Cabinet Secretary George Magoha appointed Prof Asenath Sigot to head Masinde Muliro University of Science and Technology as acting vice-chancellor.
The CS had appointed Sigot to head the institution for three months (ending September) after the university remained without a substantive VC for over seven months.
Sigot was appointed after Prof Fred Otieno’s five-year term at the institution expired on November 30, 2018. Leaders from the region have been calling on Magoha to appoint a new VC to the institution after Sigot’s term came to an end in September.
The strike comes barely some days after the university was closed indefinitely in September following students unrest.
This was after students demonstrated against the administration for allegedly forcing students to pay Sh10,000 for setting and marking papers after a lecturer passed on without submitting the marks.
The students were also against the deadline issued by the school’s finance department requiring students to clear school fees before the semester ends.
They had also demonstrated internet breakdown that they claimed had led to delay in uploading their marks.
The recent continuous unrest by university students in the country has gotten the attention of the public with many questioning the Ministry of Education over its delay in addressing such cases.
In the last one month, Kenyatta University in Nairobi and Moi University in Eldoret have both been closed down after students went on a rampage.
Pwani university became the latest university to join the trend after students also went on a rampage on Monday morning.
Alafu watu, what's happening in Kenyan universities? Here is the current situation at Pwani University. Ni kubaya… pic.twitter.com/vGNXmfjc14
— Nahashon Kimemia (@nahashon87) October 14, 2019