News Making Headlines

by SHADRACK KIRONG

Five more years for Prof. Mibey

Moi University Vice Chancellor Prof. Richard Mibey has been added another five year term to serve in office. This was announced during yesterday’s Senate Meeting held at Moi University Main Campus. Prof Mibey will be serving his second and final term in office, which is expected to expire on September 2016. In all Public Universities, the appointment of the Vice Chancellors, is the prerogative of the Council and upon the expiry his/her term, the Council is charged with the task of either apponting a new or retaining the Vice Chancellor.

Hostel E breaks tradition

Hostel E, well known to many as the Archives, because of their seniority and ‘detachment’ from relationships in the campus, is seemingly breaking. This is becoming evidently clear after a recent research which showed that many campus guys nowadays are seen every Friday evening jamming the place, in pursuit of more promising hunting grounds or in company of a lady along these corridors, something that was rare in the past.

“Enyewe siku hizi mafourth year wameiva!” attested a guy implying that most fourth year ladies are very beautiful. Another keen observer residing at Hostel F, was quick to add that the ladies are now behaving like the rest.

“Hata siku hizi wanapika saa sita ka sisi.” said a male student.

Another day in the Court

On Wednesday all eyes were again turned to the International Criminal Court (ICC), where the confirmation hearing against the Ocampo Six’s last lot: Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta, Head of Civil Service Francis Muthaura and Post Master General Hussein Ali took off. This comes a week after Ruto, Sang and Kosgei presented their case. Unlike the other hearing, the suspects’ defense team for each will produce two witnesses, with Uhuru Kenyatta expected to step on the witness box himself to shed on what he knows about PEV—something some international Criminal lawyers have termed ‘a bold step’. The court’s president Judge Ekaterina Trendafilova and her team are expected to give a verdict sixty days after the end of the confirmation of charges. They will determine whether the Case meets the ICC Threshold, after accessing both the prosecution’s evidence and the defense team’s evidence. The hearings continue today.

The worst month?

The month of September has now acquired itself a second name, ‘a month of mayhem and maiming’. This is because this month alone has claimed many lives in this country and even in other parts of the world more than what recent history has witnessed.

“… people are dying in this country as if we are in a war.” an MP was quoted in a TV footage. It is even becoming obvious whether you miss news or not, that the first bulleting on TV will be; some people have died in grisly road accidents, fire outbreaks or have imbibed the deadly illicit Yokozuna drink. Here in Moi University things are not different, the statistics of staff members loosing their lives because of illness and or accidents calls fervent prayers.

World Peace Day hosted in Moi

Wednesday the 21^st of September marked the International Peace Day and was celebrated in the Students’ Centre’s Conference Room. The new born Peace Unit Program Group hosted the event which was officially opened by the Dean of Students Mr. Mureithi who urged students to initiate more in dialogue as a means of solving conflicts.

The clubs’ officials also urged staff and students to join their caravan of ‘Peace Unit Programme’.

Speakers drawn from various NGO’s also delivered talks on Conflict Resolution. Among them was Moi University’s Chief Security Officer Major (rtd) Ben Kiplagat.

Have a peaceful weekend!

Mwamburi Tells It Out

WHO KNEW THAT MWAMBURI MWANG’OMBE IS A VEGETERIAN BY CHOICE AND SINGLE AT THE MOMENT? ELSIE ODUOR AND KENNEDY OMONDI TOOK TIME WITH THE 25TH SGC CHAIR AND TELL US MORE.

Q: Mention five things you can’t do without:

A: I cant do without my family, the church, priorities, friends and works of literature.

Q: Three things you would look for in woman?

A: My ideal woman should be complicated in the essence that she must be creative and challenging too. Must be big bodied and a real African beauty, embraces the African aesthetics— ‘herbal’.

Q: Relationship status?

A: I’m currently single with very close female friends but none qualifies to be called my girlfriend.

Q: What makes you angry?

A: For those who don’t understand me, I use simplicity as my hideout and some people don’t get this. My way of dressing and even handling things is all simple.

Q: What led to the fight between you and mairura?

A: Political misunderstandings and maybe the opposition wanting things done their way. I am a child of defamiliarization and does not do things as everybody else does but I go out of my way and try to do things in strange ways.

Q: Any challenges as a MUSO Chairman?

A: I have been detached with my friends, I’m a very social person but now socialization is just but a dream. There are many meetings and trips leaving me with no time for myself, my class work and even literature that I love so much. Public curiosity, people questioning most things that I do even my dressing, not all MUSO officials dress officially, I spot them in shorts and rubbers but they are not questioned like I am. There is also pressure from comrades and at times I handle problems away from my docket, people miss rooms they come to me, health issues, finance, catering, security and even entertainment but I never refuse to help them. Nikiitwa hata comfort mi huenda tu. Some even haul abuses at me but its okay, I love them.

Q: Any comment on your dressing code that has raised several eyebrows?

A: I am from the coastal region and I’m attached to my socialization, we dress in kikois, sandals and therefore I find coats rather uncomfortable. I love my culture.

Q: What do you think about the opposition?

A: Brilliant. Yes they are brilliant. They give the real characteristics of politics and they are just but playing their role. It is easier for them to judge us harshly as they are not in our shoes and do not know what really goes on. I like what they are doing and they have my blessings. I even helped in the signature collection by signing, because it’s comrades who voted me in and therefore can still vote me out. I agree they are doing their work though at times they overstep without consultation but at least they keep us on toes. Its good to have them and they should be supported.

Q: What does being a MUSO Chair entail?

A: You become an advocate for students in higher meetings, interact with other student leaders like we once had a conference for student leaders across Africa, co ordinate the SGC and chair meetings.

Q: Whhat don’t people know about you?

A: I am from a very humble background and a strong SDA (Seventh-Day Adventist). I can also take a stage in preaching, a vegetarian but by choice, I hate meat.

Q: Compulsory meals in a week?

A: Anything to do with plants, fruits, vegetables, cereals. Sikuli unga wa mfuko lazima niende mabs nisiage. I love my health and read a lot about health.

Q: Football fan?

A: Yes, I even play football.

Q: Which team(s) do you support?

A: A Barcelona fan and Congo United locally.

Q: Parting shot?

A:The SGC appreciates comrades as we are made up of them but they should be more vigilant and vibrant in airing injustices and their views and also what they want especially when they feel we are wrong.

The enemies of change within

BY OBILO KOBILO

A tiger does not change its spots. This captures well the political activities unfolding within the campus. Two occurrences went without much media glamour sometimes towards the end of last week and early this week.

First the campus embraced the Kenyan political phenomenon with much swag and hullabaloo: A committee was formed to look into the issue of price exploitation-the same mess which was created by The 25^th SGC sending the prices of basic consumer goods on a mountain climbing spree since they own the shops overcharging us. Then followed the resignations of two commissioners of the CRC who are part of the brains behind the constitution review process. Dikembe Disembe and Steve Macharia aka Ras resigned.

The amorphous committee, to me, was formed to slow down the pace with which the signature collection had already gained. Among the people who gave the committee a green light to carry out the task were The 25th SGC MUSO Chairman Mwamburi Mwang’ombe, the controversial MUSO Sec Gen Okeri Orina, MUSO Vice-Chair Judy Waweru who should be more concerned with this issue since she is the custodian of the students’ welfare but has decided to take backstage in confronting this issue, the Academics Director Mr. Silas Ong’aro who is alleged to be one of the shop owners in collaboration with the Vice-Chair and the Security and Accommodation Director-Mr. David Orlando whose willingness led to the reduction of price of fries from sh.60 to sh.50.

The meeting, which I was part of, unanimously agreed that the tendering process is impractical impossible to re-do and settled for the price control measures since the students body (MUSO) is mainly concerned with the prices and not the owners of the shop. In the process of determining the committee, Mr. Silas Ong’aro-the Academics Director- was overwhelmingly proposed by nearly all members present to join the committee. For reasons better known to him and the ignoble circumstances surrounding him which he hopes the students will never get to know or hear about, the Master of Academics persistently opposed his inclusion in this committee and at some time threatened to walk out. The Vice-Chair on her part opted to pull a Public Relations stand by half-heartedly joining the committee and going underground to the extent of avoiding the Committee’s Chairman call when she was needed for a deliberation on the procedure to be adopted in carrying out the given tasks.

What followed was a price list pasted on the notice boards around the campus with price variation of between 50 cents and 1 bob from the previous prices! Now, tell me if two directors who are alleged to be among the owners of these shops decided to snub this process, then whom am I not to ‘claim’ that they were behind this controversial list?

Don’t tell me it was the Dean’s initiative since the timing of its release could not have come at a better time when we were busy deliberating on the same! Furthermore, the Dean was not in by then and the memo is claimed to have been signed by one of the staffs in his office whose association with these directors is in question. It is high time these directors should be reminded that they will never leave this compound with those shops and the legacy of impoverishing even the already poor lot will always stick on their backs.

Now to the Constitution Review Process (CRC). I want to assure you that the process will never pass the argument stage not until we stop mistaking hoax for change, pretenders for reformers and wolves for sheep. A power clique that always promises change of status quo but draws inspiration from some of the previous regimes and the current one has already stolen the drawing board. The custodian of the current rotten state of affairs in The 25^th SGC and the various offices, which always pledge their support to you during the day and laugh at you when you squabble with the current directors, will never let you go far!

They support your initiatives in your presences and scoff at the same when they meet the SGC! Some of those who resist change in the status quo are your fellow commissioners who are well known for double speak and for being watermelons! Now that the Sec Gen whose Office has performed worse than any was to present his proposal before you… Lets wait and see.

We Should Not Take Review Process for Granted

by FREDRICK ODERO

As the review team reached the most important and critical point on Wednesday at NCT 8, receiving presentations from various associations, media groups, religious groups and fellow comrades, there was need for us to be serious with the entire process.

This should have been the ‘NCT 8 acid test’ for the review team though none of the twelve 25th SGC MUSO officials attended the meeting despite the fact that they had been officially invited.

Need for unity

The review process must seek and create greater unity and not more divisions. There is nothing that will influence its ability to reconstruct and develop MUSO.

The Constitutional Review Committee (CRC) is committed to making laws that would enable all its (MUSO) members to work together across ethnic, gender, regional and political divides.

The search for unity and reconciliation is the priority of the CRC, and it must remain an indelible principle as we draft this constitution.

The new (MUSO) constitution which is being drafted is to make unprecedented demands for transparency and accountability in the management of MUSO affairs, and ensuring that public participation is critical in decision making. All these we must achieve as intellectuals in this institution.

Continuing struggle

We need to be alert, of course to the fact that the drafting of a new constitution in this university is only part of a continuing struggle for a better, freer and more equal MUSO representation. We salute those fallen comrades and we also pray for those whose daily lives involve a valiant struggle to cope with damages sustained while fighting for comradeship.

As comrades, whatever we do, we should not allow unhealthy debates to become the excuse that polarizes the MUSO institution and extends the argument that the new document being drafted will neither be passed at council nor work.

Greater reward

As comrades, we must understand that nothing can promise greater reward than reforms. We need to be prepared to pay the ultimate price of seeing our dream come true.

The Constitution Review Commission is appealing for calmness, sincerity, and gentleness to enhance effective presentation of these constitutional proposals.

With the new MUSO constitution, we will be able to redeem ourselves from a troubled and dark past.

This is why we must not take the process for granted.

Odero is the Spokesperson of the Muso Constitutional Review Commission.

Why I want to be a MUSO Chairlady

by DAVID MWITARI

When I decided to visit the place where we live in fantasy so as to think like the fellow professors of Sulphuric Acid gallopping at the frakaz like the Gitaus and Odhisi to quench my thirst with comrades, I realized we (the trouser wearers) have no relevance living as chairmen.

The Sulphuric Acid blood in me advised me to pull down my trouser so as to be a potential candidate for the Chairlady here in paradise. And for you to know that to be a rocket scientist, like me, especially if you come from the land where the horizon is the end of the world, you have to take a full canter of keg alias busaa kwa kimombo. These are the allowances as the Chairlady I will enjoy as discovered.

The first reason is to enjoy the flattery of the Chairmen. As you all know, they normally call the Chairladies chemical names like sweethearts, babies, darling and honey. Myself being the most honourable chairlady, I would be the ‘great sweetheart’ and ‘the most original honey’, the most anointed and adored by all babies. My name Julietos, which I will be referred by, would enjoy regular airplay at our great noise maker MU 103.9fm of where, when and what I was doing, especially bearing in mind that I am the commander-in-chief of the Chairladies and the Chairmen.

Of more important is the moustache I possess: it would create the attention of the equals from the other heartbreakers in Jerusalem city—the KU’s and UON’s. They would pay me a pilgrimage like the cousins of Semenya did when he beat our ‘ptiret and ‘ptagit in the race. Remember they would pay for the interviews with me. Moreover, possessing the hoarse voice like mine which I’m afraid Odhisi told me I share with Mashoka the Al-Shabaab, I would rule without consultation. The Chairmen should not down their tools when I say I would regulate their access of Hostel J, K and L. This would be by conducting a nominal roll to sensor those who follow the Chairladies every night.

Through this I would ensure they smell these hostels twice a month for only one evening which should be on a Monday and leave immediately the ten-ten rule beckons and on Sabbath hours before we the Chairladies leave for the shrine.

Consequently, being the great sweetheart, the only original honey and with a moustache I would ensure I leave in all Chairladies’ hostels changing every week to have a variety. Of more importance this should be a secret between me and you. It should not be leaked to our experienced pirates in Jerusalem city.

THE SHAMBA BOY SERIES: FROM GRACE TO GRASS: I AM DOOMED

BY MAALIM SALAT

It all started when I received the letter signed by our own prof. Ole Karei admitting me to the school of human resource development to pursue a bachelor’s degree in communication and journalism.

I remember how my grandmother went around Shanta Abaq, the village where I was born and brought up, to boast how I was going to be the first Somali president of Kenya. Reason? Because I was admitted to Moi University.

To my grandmother and most residents of our village, the word “Moi” means “president”. According to her, we had President Jomoi Kenyatta and Danyer Moi, we have Moi Kibaki and we shall have Raila Amoi Odinga or Willium Samoi Ruto. She argues that all the above were students of Moi University and that is why they became president.

All was well until the headmaster of the local secondary school read the letter again and confirmed that I was not going to the big school to “read” about how to become a president, a minister or a doctor. I was going to read about suxufi.

None of my family members exalted me for receiving “the big letter” that sends only the “great” to the big school locally known as ‘jaamacada’ where if someone from our community “finishes from”, he/she is assured of becoming richer than the people from Somalia, marry many wives (in the case of a man), live in a big self-contained house with a qaboojiye (air conditioner).

Students from my community who get admission from the big school usually receive a heroic send off and enough praises to give them the heart to compete with JVC ( jaluo very clever) students from kisumu and migori.

No one praised me because I was going to the big school not to read many books about medicine but to waste my time reading many books about talking and spying on other peoples’ affairs. Becoming a suxufi (journalist) meant that I will not be a big person in the government. This means my siblings and my relatives will not get the national ID easily. I am now a nitwit.

Even my mother-in-law-to-be stopped greeting me when she met me on the highway. Prior to this, she knew me as the boy who topped in KCPE, the boy who was admitted to a national school in the caasimada(the big city with many lights), the boy who is waiting to join the university, the one who will become a big man in the government and give her daughter a queen’s life. She now believes that I will not receive salary from Raila (the man who read the constitution for us and found it fit for consumption), I will get a job that will pauperize me and that throughout my life I will be running after MPs and mama mbogas looking for news. I am now an execrable young man; a good for nothing goon.

When I went home over the holiday, I didn’t expect a ngamia to be slaughtered for me. There was no fiancée to hug me. I did not deliver the speech I prepared for shanta abaq secondary school on how to pass KCSE exams by use of mwax. Who will listen to me anyway?

UASU – PSSP ad hoc Committee Stalemate

BY SHADRAK KIRONG

University Academics Staff Union (UASU) is now in a stalemate with an ad hoc committee formed by Moi University to oversee the allocation and management of Privately Sponsored Students Programme (PSSP) funds.

The lecturers who are also members of the union, are said to have boycotted a meeting that was slated for 19^th September on Monday, at Moi University School of Medicine and Dentistry , which is located at the of Eldoret town, opposite Moi teaching and Referral Hospital. The agenda of the meeting was to look for a consensus between the Union and the oversight committee over the matter. This dramatic turn of events comes barely a week after the lectures stormed out of another similar meeting when they could not strike a deal.

We tried to seek for possible answers over the disagreement, and in the process we visited some of our Lectures in some departments. And the following are their detailed factual part of their story. That the current deadlock between them and the ad hoc committee, as emanated from the University trying to encroach on their 35% PSSP payments, which fall under category 1, called the service provider. The bone of contention is that, the University now wants to reduce it from 35% to 30%, which will mean that their allowances also will significantly be reduced, something they termed as “35% to 30% uncalled for”. To shed more light on the issue, they gave us some simple debit and credit accounting basics over the issue;

Out of the total PSSP funds collected in Moi University, 65% of it goes to the University, while the remaining 35% goes to UASU. The 35% which falls under the service provider category, is further sub - divided into three categories:

first one is the academic category and under it are payment for the lectures teaching services, transport, invigilation and marking of exams. Under second category are payments for administrative cost which include, payment for the Deans, H.O.Ds, timetable coordinators, administrative staff and all school co - coordinators in Moi university Main campus and all other satellite campuses like KPA, Kitale, Rongo, Kericho, Karatina among others.

The third category is payments in support of academic conferences and workshops. Included in this category also are funds for marketing and publicity, stationary and postage stamps, travelling expenses in office of Deans, expenses that gather for cost incurred when students are sent for attachment, and finally the newly introduced Dean list of Merit, where all the best students who excel in academics will be recognized and rewarded at the end of every academic year.

On the 65% lion share that the University takes, part of it is allocated as payment of school workers and other University Projects like expansion of satellite campuses. The bone of contention arising now is that the University wants to have a slice of their bread whatever the cost, by reducing their usual 35% to 30%, and thus changing the traditional rule of 65% - 35% share, to 70% - 30% share.This they said is attributed to recent reduction of Government capitation, where the Treasury decided to reduce certain percentage of funds allocated to all Public Universities in Kenya, with the reason that the Universities are to top up the deducted percentage from their respective PSSP accounts.

And to achieve this, they said that there is a plan in the offing by the University to admit the Government Sponsored Students Programme (GSSP) to Moi University Satellite Campuses, a calculated accounting tricky move they said, In that the University, might only end up paying them lump sum amount of money as token of appreciation, since they will be teaching PSSP and GSSP students in these satellite campuses, hence getting an easy way to divert the 5% from UASU to their kitty.