University students want ‘manipulative’ Act scrapped

A section of university students now want the University (Amendment) Act, 2015 scrapped saying it denies them good representative leadership.

While he was still the National Assembly Majority Leader, Garissa Township MP Aden Duale introduced amendments to the Universities Act in 2015 that reduced student organization to four and also introduced electoral colleges.

Ajenda Kenya executive director Otieno Obiero said this change led to the systematic death of the vibrancy of the student leadership in the country and the subsequent ‘oppression’ of students.

Obiero said the Act killed the spirit of comradeship.

He said recently, the student union leadership have not been able to champion social justice like in the past.

“Nowadays, the student union cannot do that simply because they are puppets of their learning institutions,” said Obiero.

He spoke on Monday during a meeting with student leaders from different tertiary institutions from the Coast under the ambit of the Coast Students Space.

Muslims for Human Rights and Siasa Place, who partnered with Ajenda Kenya, took the students through their individual and collective rights in a bid to empower them.

Obiero and Ajenda Kenya communication and IT expert Derrick Ouko said today, any student who dares to stand against any injustice is subjected to intimidatory tactics like suspension, arrest and even marks reduction.

“These things are happening because the unions have been weakened by the Duale Bill and the administrations take advantage of this and push their preferred candidates,” Obiero said.

Before the amendments, university students voted for their preferred candidates through a popular initiative where leaders were directly elected by individual students.

The introduction of the electoral college system however saw students first vote for delegates representing the different schools, faculties or departments, who then vote for the student leadership in elections.

Obiero said in the electoral college system, a fewer number of people, usually less than 30, elect the student leadership in an institution that may have as many as 10,000 students.

“When, say, 16 people are chosen to elect the leaders of an entire university, it is easier to manipulate the 16 than when the entire university student population elect their preferred candidates,” said Obiero.

Ouko said the Duale Bill exposed student leadership to manipulation by the university administrations.

He said the Universities (Amendment) Act, 2015 has sabotaged student democracy.

“It has driven the student activism to the death bed,” said Ouko.

As a result, he noted, there has been a rise in suspensions and expulsions in institutions because of under-representations.

Various administrations manipulate the elections so as to get their preferred leaders at the helm of student leadership in the tertiary institutions, he noted.

“As Johnson Sakaja once said in Parliament, a country that is fighting its youth is a country that is at the brink of collapse. It is a country that is cannibalising itself,” said Ouko.

“We stand strong and want the bill scrapped off,” said Ouko.

The bill came in 2015 while Embakasi East MP Babu Owino was still a University of Nairobi student seeking the leadership of the student union against Mike Jacobs.

“This is not the right way to elect leaders. At the university level, people are mature enough to make their own independent choices,” said Ouko.

Ajenda Kenya feels the Act was meant to curtail the transition to national politics by vibrant university student leaders.

Several politicians, both current and former, owe their seats to their activism while they were still student leaders at the university.

These include Owino, Siaya Senator James Orengo, Elgeyo Marakwet Senator Kipchumba Murkomen, Nairobi Senator Johnson Sakaja, Kisumu Governor Anyang’ Nyong’o, former Mombasa Senator Hassan Omar, former MP Kabando wa Kabando, outspoken lawyer Miguna Miguna, former Bomet Governor Isaac Ruto, among others.

“I think this Act was to kill that,” said Ouko.