University communities have been challenged to focus on research that impact on current government policies.
The communities have a key role in shaping current and future government policies, Kenya Mentorship Programme for Universities (KMPUs) executive director Rose Ngugi said at Garissa University yesterday.
KMPUs is one of KIPPRA’s capacity building flagship programmes targeting university students (undergraduate and postgraduate) and lecturers.
The event is themed “Public Policy Process and the Big Four Agenda”
Ngugi told the one-day function that universities are key stakeholders in shaping government policy making. “This is part of the intellectual exchange programme between KIPPRA and KMPU. We are trying to revive this programme as part of the wider public participation,” she said.
The objective of the programme is to promote intellectual exchange in understanding government development policy.
“Students have fresh minds, noble ideas that they might have the opportunity to share with policy makers. We are therefore giving them this platform to air their views,” she said.
The chair of KIPPRA board, Linda Musumbua, urged the youths to play their part in shaping policy by assisting their vice-cancellors and management.
“If you get your policy wrong then you get a lot of things wrong from that point. We hope students can learn how policy is made so they can play a part in policy making,” she said.