Recently the government published the Universities Bill 2024. If enacted into law, the proposals will significantly alter the leadership and management structure of universities, especially those funded from the public coffers.
Stakeholders have been requested to submit their opinions through memoranda, according to constitutional requirements of public participation.
The changes are being proposed to address what stakeholders consider to be gaps and internal contradictions in the legal framework for the management of public universities. Currently the universities are established and managed according to the provisions of the Universities Act 2012. That was the first overhaul of the legal regime since the first university was created in 1971 and the 1985 Markey Report Recommendations.
The details of the proposed law will not be discussed here to avoid prejudicing public participation. However, it is important for Kenyans to understand the history of the leadership of universities and higher education development. For context and perspective, light should be shed on the leadership recruitment and succession management of public universities since the transition from University College, Nairobi, to the University of Nairobi in 1971.
The University of Nairobi was established through an Act of Parliament. The University of Nairobi Act created the institution in the mould of an ordinary parastatal but with unique autonomy and independence.
In the period of the transition from the Federal University of East Africa to the University of Nairobi, universities worldwide had become bastions of intense ideological discourse. The radical left-leaning scholars spared no time to portray their colleagues with capitalist sympathies as traitors and comprador oppressors of the masses.
Kenya found itself at a crossroads. The government loudly professed Africanism that closely mirrored a socialist approach, yet it actively and openly engaged in capitalist practices. Tragic events occurred just before this milestone that worsened the situation further by polarising the nation. Left-leaning political ideologue, Pio Gama Pinto was assassinated soon after Independence in 1965. The de facto patron, Jaramogi Oginga Odinga, quit the ruling party in huff the following year 1966.
The first African lawyer who represented the Mau Mau, the suave CMG Argwings Kodhek, died in a mysterious accident. The brazen daylight assassination of flamboyant Tom Mboya in July 1969 capped it all.
The Kiambu oathings that followed soon after sealed the fate of a united nationalist government. The politically unorthodox means of political liquidation became more of tribal than ideological settlement. These events emboldened the radical academics against their capitalism apologists.
Fortunately, at the university, the dichotomy took a more intellectual than tribal prism. However, mainstream government could not take chances and therefore decided not to let the leadership of the academic citadel fall into untrusted hands.
As Kenya prepared to get its first university, three powerful men in Mzee Jomo Kenyatta’s government are said to have held many meetings to determine the incoming leadership. The meetings were objectified to choreograph and manipulate the process to ensure they handpicked the successor to Dr Arthur Porter who was departing. Dr Njoroge Mungai, Mbiyu Koinange and Peter Gachathi pitched tent in Kiambaa, Kiambu District, to plot and hatch their plan. Prof David Wasawo had served as Deputy to Dr Porter. Together with other senior academics, he was seen as a natural first among equals for the job of the anticipated Vice-Chancellor.
However, the polarised political environment at that period conspired in favour of Dr Josephat Njuguna Karanja. Dr Karanja received his undergraduate training in India and later in the US for postgraduate studies. He would join the University College, Nairobi, to teach history before being posted to the diplomatic service. The trio settled upon him and presented his name to Mzee Jomo Kenyatta. Thus, the seeds of marrying parochial political interests cloaked as national with university leadership were firmly planted. It is instructive to note that Dr Karanja worked with Mr Solomon Karanja as University Registrar, Mr Chege as Finance Officer, Mr Ndegwa as the Librarian and Mr Koinange as the first Dean of Students in the inaugural University Management Board.
Dr Karanja resigned in 1979 to try his hand at the general elections that year. Mzee Kenyatta had passed on the previous year in 1978 and President Daniel arap Moi assumed the reins of power. Under Dr Karanja as Vice-Chancellor, one of the senior professors would be elected by the Senate to serve as his deputy. This deputy was understood to be adviser to the Vice-Chancellor on academic matters only and continued to perform his regular responsibilities. At the time of his departure, Dr Karanja had Prof Joseph Mungai from the School of Medicine as deputy.
President Moi therefore found in Prof Mungai a natural successor to Dr Karanja. The country was still in mourning and going through political transition. Prof Mungai filled the bill on two fronts. First, the President was deliberately going out of his way to placate the ego the Kikuyu ethnic community by demonstrating gratitude through any opportunity of presidential act.
Finding Prof Mungai as deputy was a blessing in disguise. Secondly, Prof Mungai was considered by his peers as unassuming and an academic par excellence. This was in contrast to Dr Karanja who cut the image of a suave aristocrat with little or no time for academic enterprise. Lecturers found him aloof and far removed from their ivory towers. Prof Mungai’s appointment therefore helped to unite the academic community in pursuit of intellectual excellence.
Prof Mungai served with Prof Philip Mbithi as deputy, academics at one stage. However, the events of the 1982 coup attempt led to reorganisation of the management structure of the university. The Moi administration felt it needed more control of the university affairs through loyal academics. It therefore created the position of Deputy Vice-Chancellor in charge of administration and finance. Prof Mbithi was rewarded with the position and he took on the responsibility with rare gusto. He soon eclipsed Prof Mungai in the visibility of university leadership. When the dust of the coup settled, Prof Mungai had been moved to the lacklustre Commission for Higher Education and Prof Mbithi was the new Vice-Chancellor.
When Prof Shem Wandiga replaced Prof Philip Githinji as Deputy Vice-Chancellor for Administration and Finance, he found that he could not wield the immense powers that Prof Mbithi had enjoyed. The Vice-Chancellor had surreptitiously moved with all the powers and therefore their relationship remained frosty throughout their university association. When then-Prof Mbithi received the high appointment of Head of Public Service and Secretary to the Cabinet, he ensured that Prof Wandiga never succeeded him. Instead it was the new Deputy in charge of academics, Prof Francis Gichaga who filled the political bill. The government was implementing some harsh World Bank policies on higher education. Prof Wandiga was tasked to spearhead this difficult assignment and given a posh office at Anniversary Towers. This, to some extent, was meant to strategically remove him from the daily operations of university management.
When Prof Mbithi moved to Harambee House, Prof Wandiga was outside of the country and therefore Prof Gichaga naturally became acting Vice-Chancellor. He was swiftly confirmed in the position, ostensibly to forestall any instability owing to the volatile political environment at the time. Dr Robert Ouko had just been murdered and agitation for return to multiparty politics was being championed by Jaramogi Oginga Odinga. Hezekiah Oyugi had been jettisoned from government. The tribal coincidences became a bad omen for Prof Wandiga and conspired to seal his fate.
It was not until the Narc administration came into power that some semblance of competitive recruitment of vice-chancellors was witnessed. However, the political intrigues still found their way into the process. At the University of Nairobi, Prof Crispus Kiamba was asked to step aside and pave way for the open and competitive recruitment of his successor.
However, at the same time at the Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology, Prof Nick Wanjohi a political science lecturer, got appointed unilaterally as the Vice-Chancellor. Prof Evert Shitanda had to pave way for the blue-eyed lady Prof Olive Mugenda who had been serving as his deputy at Kenyatta University.
Deep-seated and long standing political rivalry almost stalled the appointment of Prof Richard Mibey at Moi University. Professors Fredrick Onyango and Domnic Makawiti, both had tumultuous stints at Maseno University. The bad blood between the Council of Masinde Muliro University of Science and Technology and the vice-chancellor Prof Fred Otieno became tribally toxic and eventually tragic.
The case of the University of Nairobi has been used as illustrative because of its long history. It should be noted that until 2012, all universities operated under Acts of Parliament drafted in the model of the University of Nairobi Act. Additionally, the pioneer leaders of the new universities were drawn from the ranks and file of the University of Nairobi. This therefore meant that the traditions and practices of the mother university were carried over and implemented at the new institutions. These traditions and practices have been useful in the smooth management of university education in Kenya.
However, they have also had their fair share of bad habits. These habits have affected the universities in terms of best management practices. This is most glaring during transitions of top leadership. The intrigues that characterize the process of succession management hampers smooth transition. The intense lobbying that happens behind the scenes leaves many interested parties with sour taste. It also inadvently leads to jostling of positions by competing local interests. It creates too much suspicion and unhealthy working environment.
The incoming leadership is forced to make changes in personnel so as to scuttle the perceived existing power networks and as well secure the interests of new power players. The transition therefore takes unnecessarily long and derails the mission of the university. Once again, the mother university comes to mind: since Prof George Magoha left office in 2015, the institution has known no peace. The intended changes anticipated by the proposed new legislation should seek to address these historical malpractices. Otherwise if left unchecked, the universities will be spending inordinately more efforts in managing negative energies during respective and successive transitions.
Political and public policy analyst