Commentaries

Why Kisii Town deserves a public University

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Published on Sunday, 26 April 2009 18:53

All major towns in kenya - except Kisii and Mombasa - have a university within or nearby.the role that these institutions play in almost all aspects of an urban centre's overall development cannot be overemphasized.besides boosting the development of a town's human resource capital,a university uplifts its economic,social and cultural profile significantly.however because of the immense resources required to set up these institutions,it is not possible to have them everywhere they are required.it therefore becomes necessary to build them only where they are most urgently required and,or where they'd be of the greatest benefit to the country.

Unfortunately, in Kenya the trend has been to dish out universities and university colleges on the basis of how politically expedient such dishing out would be to the president and the ruling party.just as has been with districts and divisions,no cost-benefit analysis is conducted to determine the highest priority location for these institutions.as a result,kisii town in which it'd have been most logical to build a university more than ten years ago,is still without one.the town has been overlooked while the government builds universities in "vote richer" towns.

For more than twenty years now,the abagusii community has had the largest population of kenyan students abroad.be it in the USA,India,Europe or more recently Uganda and Tanzania,the largest proportion of Kenyan students has tended to be that of the residents of the greater Kisii.because having a large number of Kenyans pursuing higher education abroad has a negative impact on our economy,only the barest minimum number of Kenyans should study abroad.this,the government has quite commendably been trying to achieve by granting charters to several public as well as private institutions to provide higher education locally.

However,the government gets it all wrong when it comes to the location of these institutions.it would make a lot of sense to build a university at the heart of the source of the largest number of kenyans studying abroad.in this era when financial viability is an important consideration when setting up a university,it would make even more sense to build it within a population that is financially capable and has a great appetite for self development.and,being one of the fastest growing towns in kenya,kisii town has been the ideal location for Kenya's next public university for quite some time now.

The reason provided to explain why the Kisii university college has not been upgraded to a full fledged university has been lack of sufficient land.such argument whether true or false,on its own is not enough to justify this delay.the land on which Kisii University College currently stands together with the idle coffee research land adjacent thereto in addition to Gusii institute of technology,Kereri girls and Kisii high schools make up a mass of land much larger than a university would require.the entire land mass on which Masinde Muliro University of Kakamega stands is smaller than this.there have been arguments that the institute and the two schools must not be swallowed by the university.important as these institutions may be,we'd be getting our priorities wrong if having them would deny us a university.moreover all the courses offered at Gusii institute can be offered at the university and because the two schools require a smaller parcel of land,they can be relocated elsewhere.

To get round the land problem though,plans are reportedly underway to build the university at simbauti farm.each of the ten gusii members of parliament have agreed to commit funds from their CDF kitties towards this noble cause.information on the extent of the government's involvement, as well as other details about the project remain scanty and so no one should be counting their chickens yet.Kisii town,and not Simbauti farm would be the ideal location,yet few would doubt that something is better than nothing.