Bad News To University Students, Thousands Of Workers To Lose Jobs, As Universities Face Closure.
University students have a reason to get worried after the instructions risk closure in a world loan deal.
Thousands of workers are likely to lose jobs under the plan to close the financially struggling parastatal.
All public universities in Kenya have come under financial strain in recent years due to a rapid expansion to accommodate a rise in student enrolment.
The number of public universities and campuses today have been rising steadily since 2010.
The world bank has inserted a lot of pressure on the Republic of Kenya to close and merge the cash-strapped public universities and loss-making parastatals. If this decision is agreed upon, then thousands of public servants are going to lose their jobs.
In the last three years, the State-owned firms that the world bank wants closed have been making losses.
The current 102 public universities and campuses posted a deficit of Sh 6.2 billion in the year to June from Sh 70 billion they received from the Treasury to run their operations.
The proposal to merge universities and campuses and review academic courses is geared towards cutting off some extra expenses so that the institutions can work within the available amount of money.
The universities are expected to undergo the proposed reforms to cut their costs to realise financial viability.
The universities were hit hard by the drop in the number of Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education exam candidates scoring the C+ and above grade required for university entry. The absence of the parallel program further worsened their cash flow.
Students enrolling for the parallel degree programme courses had over the years generated billions of shillings for the institutions to learn under stable groups financially.
Kisii University, Laikipia University, Moi University and Kenyatta university of agriculture and technology have shut down some of their campuses across the country due to financial strain.
The world bank is calling upon the country to accelerate the process of closing some of the public institutions in the wake of losses reflected in the performance of the top public universities.
