Public universities will no longer be allowed to establish campuses outside Kenya without the approval of the Education ministry and the National Treasury, following changes made to the Universities (Amendment) Bill.
Members of the National Assembly have reformed the Universities Act with MPs arguing that public universities were using funds to invest in foreign countries without the consent of the ministry.
“The move will help avoid the cases where universities funded by the taxpayer end up making bad investments by setting up campuses abroad,” said Kikuyu MP Kimani Ichung’wa.
In the amendment to the Universities (Amendment) Bill, the lawmakers proposed that public universities be barred from establishing a bases in a foreign country without the approval of the Cabinet Secretary (for Education) in consultation with the Cabinet Secretary for the time being responsible for matters relating to finance.
Ichung’wa said two public universities which had opened campuses in Rwanda and Tanzania were already encountering problems after the authorities in the two countries refused to accredit them despite investing hundreds of millions in the projects. Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT) and Kenyatta University have invested Sh450 million to set up the campuses in Rwanda and Tanzania.
The matter which is currently before the Public Investment Committee (PIC). “The committee has handled these issues and have asked whether it is the ministry or the universities’ senates that approve these decisions to set up campuses in other countries,” Ichung’wa said.
But in defence, the two universities insists that the government was represented in the respective boards one from the Treasury and another from the Education ministry who approved the projects.
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