Late last year, a group of Members of County Assembly (MCAs) from Trans Nzoia visited President William Ruto at State House in Eldoret to present an idea of the county having its own autonomous public university.
The backdrop came after a continuous closure of constituent colleges of public and private universities in the county following several years of struggles to operate amid low enrollment of students and high cost of operation.
The universities that have closed doors in Kitale include Jomo Kenyatta University of Agricultural Technology (JKUAT), Mt Kenya, Kisii, Moi and UoN.
This was supposed to be the first ever university in Trans Nzoia since Independence more than 60 years ago.
Led by the member of Waitaluk Ward and a professional teacher Furaha Lusweti, the group of the MCAs asked the head of State to intervene and assist in the establishment of a university to cater for the local students currently seeking higher learning outside the county.
Perhaps concerned about Trans Nzoia County being among the few counties out of the 47 countrywide that do not have university campuses in their jurisdictions, the immediate former Kenya Union of Post Primary Education Teachers (KUPPET) Trans Nzoia Executive Secretary did not expect resistance towards the noble idea to extend higher learning to the area as it has turned out to be.
Secondly, the group of civic leaders had become impatient of waiting for the inauguration of another public university that had been initiated by the Trans Nzoia Governor George Natembeya in conjunction with a Nigerian NGO Bell’s University Agricultural Technology whose negotiations started three years ago.
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During the meeting with President Ruto, Furaha went ahead to propose for St Patrick’s Waitaluk Mixed Senior School to be transformed into a constituent college of Egerton University as the initial site for campus after the school failed to garner enough number of students for the Grade 10 intake at the beginning of the year.
Further, the proposed Kiminini campus for Egerton University is awaiting a no-objection verdict from Natembeya even as the governor pushes for his separate university with foreign investors.
What followed the plea to Ruto from the MCAs was the Kiminini MP Kakai Bisau through the NG-CDF inviting the top management of Egerton University to the site with both sides committing themselves to the conclusion of the MoU for the college to take off immediately with the first enrollment of students expected within the 2026 academic calendar.
But confusion has continued to engulf both sides of Natembeya and Bisau with each group trying to outsmart each other and earn credit for the starting of the higher learning institutions especially as the two eye the governor’s seat in the 2027 General Election.
Inside sources say the Natembeya-led crusade had brought on board the Bungoma-based Kibabii University as mentors for the proposed Trans Nzoia County University earmarked for the former Moi University facilities at Bakhita site along Kitale-Kapenguria highway.
The sources disclosed that Kibabii as public institution had been engaged after it was learnt that the Nigerian partners acting behind powerful foreigners were likely to take over the new university thus denying benefits for the local stakeholders.
And as the Natembeya and Bisau groups battle it out for the respective universities and local students continuing to seek for university education elsewhere, one would ask: who will blink first? And who are the losers and beneficiaries?
One MCA who attended the Eldoret State House meeting said: “Bakhita is a private university initiated by some powerful Nigerian leaders for their people living in Kenya. The Governor Natembeya could have rejected direct foreign investment that will work against our local students”. He, however, ruled out conflict between the two universities once established.
By Abisai Amugune
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