What began with so much promise for Trans Nzoia County, its own public university, has now become a confusing tale of shifting agreements, foreign partnerships, and unanswered questions.
When Governor George Natembeya appointed a 12-member task force in 2022 led by Prof. Masibo Lumale, the idea seemed straightforward: open the first public university in the county, with Kibabii University as mentor. Public participation was overwhelming, and the team recommended the old Kitale County Hospital site. The hospital had been vacated after operations moved to the new Wamalwa Kijana Referral and Teaching Hospital, leaving behind extensive facilities and more than 20 acres of land.
But in a dramatic twist, the county has now inked a new Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Nigeria’s Bells University of Technology. Suddenly, the site is no longer at the old Kitale Hospital but the former Moi University campus at Bakhita. A new task force has been formed, and the Kibabii mentorship deal appears to have quietly faded away.
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This raises uncomfortable questions. What happened to the Kibabii agreement? Why abandon a free, spacious site at Kitale Hospital in favour of a rented campus? And more puzzling still, why turn to a Nigerian university offering the same undergraduate and postgraduate courses; Bachelor of Arts and Engineering in Agriculture, courses that Kibabii could have provided under a mentorship programme?
The irony is hard to ignore. Private campuses in Kitale closed down mainly because students could not afford fees, yet the county seems determined to repeat history by partnering with a foreign institution that may impose similar costs. For peasant parents already struggling, will this “game changer” be any different?
Trans Nzoia desperately needs a homegrown university, one that is affordable, accessible, and sustainable. But with shifting MOUs and unclear priorities, the dream feels, for now, too near, yet too far.
By Abisai Amugune
Abisai Amugune is a seosonal writer.
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