- Non-teaching staff play a central role in shaping service delivery and the overall student experience.
- Prof. John Okumu’s engagement offers an opportunity to strengthen accountability, professionalism and institutional efficiency.
- KU’s transformation will depend on aligning its people, systems and leadership around measurable service standards.
Kenyatta University cannot transform itself through professors and lecturers alone. Behind every lecture, examination, laboratory, library, student portal, financial transaction, maintenance operation and administrative decision is a workforce whose performance can either strengthen or frustrate the university’s mission.
That is why Vice-Chancellor Prof. John Okumu’s address to non-teaching staff at the Kenyatta University Amphitheatre deserves to be viewed as more than a routine engagement with employees.
It presents an opportunity to redefine what service means at one of Kenya’s most important universities.
The latest Commission for University Education data puts Kenyatta University’s non-teaching workforce at about 1,188 staff.
That number should not, by itself, trigger an argument about whether the university has too many or too few employees.
The more important question is much harder:
What value does every member of that workforce add to Kenyatta University?
That is the leadership question Prof. Okumu’s engagement should help answer.
A modern university is no longer judged solely by the academic credentials of its professors. Students experience an institution through the totality of its systems and people.
They notice how quickly a transcript is processed, how efficiently fees are reconciled, how easily they can access library services, how long a complaint takes to resolve, how professionally an administrator responds, how safely facilities are maintained and how they are treated when they walk into an office seeking help.
In other words, the university’s reputation is built not only in lecture theatres but also in offices, laboratories, corridors, gates and service points.
The non-teaching staff are therefore not peripheral to the academic mission. They are part of it.
Every employee shapes the institution
Prof. Okumu assumes leadership of KU at an important moment. The university identifies him as its Vice-Chancellor and principal academic and administrative officer.
His extensive experience in higher education, including his previous service as Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic), gives him an understanding of academic planning, quality assurance, research, innovation and institutional transformation.
But universities do not become efficient simply because they appoint experienced leaders or acquire sophisticated technology.
Transformation occurs when systems, leadership and people begin working in the same direction.
That is where the role of non-teaching staff becomes critical.
The old mentality that a problem belongs to “another department” cannot build a modern university.
A student who encounters unnecessary bureaucracy rarely cares which office caused the problem. The student sees Kenyatta University.
If an admission process stalls, KU is blamed.
If a financial transaction is delayed, KU is blamed.
If a document remains unattended for weeks, KU is blamed.
If a complaint is ignored, KU is blamed.
The institution therefore needs a culture in which employees understand that their individual conduct contributes directly to the university’s public image.
The receptionist, security officer, cleaner, technician, finance officer, administrator, librarian, human-resource officer and senior manager may perform different functions, but they are connected by one institutional purpose: making the university work.
This is why integrity, accountability, innovation and evidence-based decision-making must move beyond leadership speeches and become everyday administrative practice.
The university needs a service culture in which performance can actually be measured.
How long should it take to resolve a student complaint?
How long should a routine document take to process?
How many requests remain unattended?
How much duplication exists between departments?
How much institutional money is lost through inefficient processes?
Which services can be digitised?
Which forms and approvals can be eliminated?
Which offices are carrying excessive workloads while others have capacity that is not being fully utilised?
These are not merely management questions.
They are questions about the quality and competitiveness of the university.
Accountability must work both ways
Kenyatta University is operating in an increasingly competitive higher-education environment. Students and parents expect speed, transparency, professionalism and value for money. Technology has also changed expectations. A process that once took several days may now be expected to take minutes.
The university therefore cannot digitise old bureaucracy and call it transformation.
It must redesign the bureaucracy itself.
That requires courageous leadership and employees willing to embrace change.
But accountability must work both ways.
It would be unfair to demand greater productivity from employees while ignoring poor working conditions, obsolete systems, inadequate tools, unclear responsibilities or unnecessarily complicated procedures.
A productive workforce requires effective leadership.
Management must therefore create the environment in which employees can perform, while employees must accept responsibility for delivering the services expected of them.
Performance without support becomes exploitation. Support without accountability becomes complacency. KU needs neither. It needs both.
This is perhaps the deeper significance of Prof. Okumu’s engagement with the non-teaching workforce.
It can become the beginning of a new institutional compact in which every employee understands two things simultaneously: every employee matters, and every employee must deliver.
The figure of 1,188 should consequently be treated as a starting point for a serious conversation about workforce planning and productivity, not as a headline for declaring the university overstaffed or understaffed.
If KU has enough employees but poor service, then management must examine productivity, deployment and accountability.
If departments are understaffed while workloads continue increasing, then the university must address staffing gaps.
If the right number of people are available but outdated procedures continue slowing operations, then the problem is systems.
And if people have the necessary tools, responsibilities are clear, systems work and performance remains poor, then the institution must confront the harder question of organisational culture.
That is the real test of leadership.
From workforce to strategic asset
Kenyatta University does not simply need more employees.
It needs a workforce that understands that every job contributes to the university’s core business.
The professor teaching a class, the technician maintaining scientific equipment, the administrator processing a student’s request, the librarian facilitating access to knowledge and the security officer protecting the campus are all contributing to the same outcome: a functional institution capable of producing knowledge, skills, research and responsible graduates.
The non-teaching workforce must therefore be treated as a strategic asset, not merely an administrative cost.
At the same time, being a strategic asset must come with strategic responsibility.
Employees must be encouraged to innovate rather than merely follow routines. Managers must reward efficiency rather than paperwork. Departments must cooperate rather than build bureaucratic walls. Technology must simplify work rather than create another layer of complexity.
And performance must be recognised.
Where employees consistently go beyond their responsibilities, the institution should have mechanisms for recognition. Where performance falls short, there should be constructive intervention, clear expectations and appropriate accountability.
This is how an institution builds a culture of excellence.
Prof. Okumu’s address should therefore not end when the microphones are switched off and staff return to their offices.
Its success should ultimately be visible in what happens after the speech.
Are services faster?
Are complaints resolved more quickly?
Are unnecessary procedures disappearing?
Are departments collaborating better?
Are students receiving more responsive services?
Are staff being equipped to perform?
Is accountability becoming measurable?
Those are the indicators that will determine whether the engagement was merely ceremonial or transformational.
The university’s future will not be secured by strategic plans sitting on shelves.
It will be secured when the strategy becomes visible in everyday conduct.
That is why Prof. Okumu’s message to the non-teaching staff should become a practical call to service, professionalism, innovation and accountability.
Every employee matters. Every department matters. Every student matters. And every minute lost to unnecessary bureaucracy matters.
Kenyatta University’s transformation will ultimately be measured not by what its leaders say about change, but by what students, staff, parents, researchers and the public experience when they encounter the institution.
The real legacy of Prof. Okumu’s engagement with the university’s 1,188 non-teaching staff should therefore be simple:
A KU where people do not merely occupy positions, but understand the responsibility attached to them; where systems serve people rather than frustrate them; and where every employee recognises that excellence is not someone else’s job.
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Because at Kenyatta University, the quality of the student experience is a reflection of everyone who serves the institution.
By Hillary Muhalya
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Kenyatta University Vice-Chancellor Prof. John Okumu addresses staff during an engagement at the university. The institution’s transformation will depend on both academic and non-teaching employees delivering efficient and responsive services.
