Just days to acting Vice-Chancellor (VC) Prof. Joseph Chacha’s retirement on June 1, Maasai Mara University is at risk of a constitutional crisis as it will neither have a Council nor a substantive VC and Deputy VC.
The university has not had a substantive VC since 2019 when Mary Walingo was forced to step down over the “Mara Heist” that involved the controversial loss of Ksh177 million.
This has prompted the Kenya Universities Staff Union (KUSU) Narok branch to pile pressure on the Ministry of Education to appoint a substantive VC as well as a Council.
Prof. Chacha has been at the helm of the university since January last year after Prof. Kitche Magak, who had been picked by the Council upon Prof. Walingo’s exit, was hounded out as the PhD. certificate he acquired from Washington University came under scrutiny.
KUSU wants Education Cabinet Secretary (CS) Ezekiel Machogu to appoint a sober, reliable and competent Council as soon as possible for the university to jumpstart its operations.
“This university has operated for several months now without a university Council, bringing operations to a standstill because various approvals and policy directions are required for the varsity to function fully,” KUSU’s Narok branch Secretary Galfen Omuse lamented.
Prof. Walingo was sent home in 2019 after being implicated in the graft scandal, she later filed a court case seeking more than Ksh80 million in salary arrears that she claims the institution owes her.
The university is also required to pay the Ksh62 million in allowances it owes members of KUSU, the Universities Academic Staff Union (UASU) and the Kenya Union of Domestic, Hotels, Educational Institutions, Hospitals and Allied Workers (KUDHEIHA). KUSU is demanding a total of Ksh26 million, KUDHEIHA Ksh6 million and UASU Ksh30 million.
The unionist further called on the Ministry of Education, the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC), the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) and the State Corporations Advisory Committee (SCAC) to speedily conduct a forensic audit of Maasai Mara’s accounts.
“This will rule out cases of money laundering and the illegal mass transfer of its funds to the accounts of individuals, lawyers and contractors who at some point offered services,” read the statement.
KUSU also decried stagnation in job grades for the last 13 years, a matter it said was hurting staff morale.
By Thuita Jaswant
Get more stories from our website: Education News
You can also follow our social media pages on Twitter: Education News KE and Facebook: Education News Newspaper for timely updates.
