KCA University Vice Chancellor Prof Noah Midamba will meet local leaders before a decision to close the institution’s Amagoro campus is reached.
University’council member Prof Olubayi Olubayi told the Star on Sunday that Prof Midamba will engage local politicians at a meeting and seek their support in ensuring the sustainability of the struggling Amagoro campus.
The campus has been grappling with low student enrollment.
“The Vice Chancellor is coming to Amagoro next week to meet with local politicians before a decision to close can be made,” Prof Olubayi said in a text message to the Star.
His response followed claims that the campus had been shut because of low student numbers.
They also said students who will not be able to join other branches will study online until the completion of their studies.
A student who preferred to remain anonymous said, “They told us to join Kisumu campus, main campus or any other branch.”
“I will join Kisumu campus because that is the nearest. I have to go in advance to look for accommodation.”
Another student said he had bought books to enable the completion of his Accounting studies since he will be learning online.
In December last year when the Star broke the institution’s impending closure, Prof Olubayi said the there were no plans to shut the campus.
“Next month (January) we will have students admitted,” he said.
“But if the community will not support the university by sending students, the management may consider closing it.”
Among the leaders Midamba is expected to engage in Amagoro include Busia Governor Sospeter Ojaamong, Teso North MP Oku Kaunya and his Teso South counterpart Geoffrey Omuse.
The leadership of Teso played a key role in ensuring high student enrollment at KCA Amagoro when the branch was opened.
The county government and offices of Teso North and South MPs then aided hundreds of students who enrolled at the institution through the National Government Constituency Development Fund bursary and the county bursary allocations.
KCA Amagoro has been recording a drastic drop in the number of students. Sources at the university attribute the development to bad politics involving some local leaders and managers.
But despite insistence from Prof Olubayi that there are no plans to close the college, a highly placed source at the university told the Star, “That institution has been closed. The people you see there are waiting to be re-deployed to complete their contracts. But the rest of the people were dismissed,” he said.
The same source had told the Star in December last year that the university board had confirmed in its meeting that business has not been usual for close to one year at the campus in which a loss of Sh19 million had been borne.
He said Busia leaders were protesting the closure of the institution. He claimed the campus will only be open in January for students undertaking computer-related courses to complete.
Prof Olubayi had earlier said the only problem with the campus was the low student enrollment "but overall, the institution was doing well".
KCA University was founded in 1989.
It started as the Kenya College of Accountancy run by the Institute of Certified Public Accountants of Kenya to improve the quality of accountancy and financial management training in the country.
Edited by R.Wamochie
