The Masinde Muliro university council has resolved to serve the students as the principal stakeholders.
Council chairperson Dr Pamela Sitienei said the university’s seventh council is the first to interact with students.
“At the beginning of our term, we inspected various projects that support students and decided that our students deserve 21st Century facilities, being a science technology university,” she said.
Sitienei said a team of investors have committed to fund and construct a fully equipped students’ centre for the university.
She said the university faces a 10,000 housing units deficit and investors have agreed to refurbish existing hostels before constructing new ones.
“We are working with the State Department for Housing to address the deficit. We are blessed with land and what we need is to pull together and work together,” the chairperson said.
Sitienei said the council has secured donors who have agreed to automate all university processes and systems to save time and enhance accountability.
She said the university is in the process of installing an automated education management system.
Sitienei said the system is able to provide a number of modules including admission, fees management and online and hostel application, adding that the issues of missing marks will be a thing of the past.
“One will not require travelling to the university to obtain their transcripts, you just need Wi-Fi and there you go,” she said.
“Automation and digitisation will ensure accountability and efficiency, thereby sealing loopholes for financial misappropriation.”
Sitienei was speaking during the university’s 20th graduation ceremony. Roads and Infrastructure CS Kipchumba Murkomen was the chief guest. Some 4,289 students for the 2022 and 2023 graduated with diploma, degree and PhD.
She said all students in the two academic years were allowed right to graduate regardless of whether they had fee balances or not.
Sitienei said the decision to allow students with fee balances to graduate and pay their balances later as they collect their certificates was in line with the Kenya Kwanza’s bottom-up economic model.
She said the university will embrace carbon trade to contribute towards lower carbon emissions.
Sitienei said the university was in talks with various companies to support the university to upgrade its cooking needs to gas.
“We are hoping that one of the big companies can offer to support the university with cooking gas for the next three years as we organise ourselves,” she said.
University vice chancellor Prof Solomon Shibairo said the institution had adopted zero tolerance to corruption.
He said some individuals have been pilling pressure on him asking him to engage in irregular employment and tendering.
“Let them know that money is not my interest,” Shibairo said.
Murkomen told said the Kenya Urban Roads Authority (Kura) will put Cabro on all streets within the university.
He also said that designs for construction of a footbridge requested by the university were ready. He said the bridge will cost Sh241 million.
Murkomen said universities should ensure there is a link between the institutions and the job market and cautioned Kenyans against tribalising universities.