By Mwitari, Omaita & Pauline Kagwire
Moi University conducted its first digital room allocation exercise at
the ICDC complex on Tuesday afternoon, an event which saw the allocation
of Ngeria Hostels rooms.
The exercise is seen as a step forward in improving the room allocation system which has often been marred by inefficiency and lack of transparency, with the MUSO chairman seeing it as a way of “raising the integrity by cleansing the system”.
The event was led by hostels officer Mrs. Tanui, MUSO chairman
Florence Doghana, Security and Accommodation director Enock Ogega, and a
handful of TSA officials and officials from the Dean’s of Students
office, and was witnessed by students from the School of Engineering.
180 bed spaces for male students and 120 for the ladies were
allocated, with only 17 of 27 applicants successful in retaining their
spaces. International students were allocated 3 spaces, while several
spaces were reserved for special cases from the Dean’s office including
MUSO members, TSA officials, class representatives from the various
schools and hostel wardens. The rest of the spaces were allocated
through a highly technical digital random sampling method.
The
process was largely a success according to the organisers and the eye
witnesses. MUSO chairman Florence Doghana promised to duplicate the
system for the next balloting exercises for the senior hostels.
Wednesday, May 30, 2012
PLIGHT OF THE BLIND
By Jally Kihara
Imagine yourself born blind – you join Moi University to pursue a Bachelor of Arts Education at the highly populous School of Arts And Social Sciences. You swing your cane back and forth as you struggle your way to locate LH1 only to find that it is full to capacity. Nobody cares about your visual impairment and you are left to sit at the back seat in LH1. Despite relying on audio, no one bothers to preserve you a seat closer to the lecturer. That is the story of freshmen who joined this institution to pursue the ordinary courses despite their sight flaw.
Jeremy, Denis, Fridah and Diana are among people with disabilities. They are blind. They have been neglected, either knowingly or unknowingly, by this society something that have exposed them to much suffering. They do not receive any special attention in spite of them being physically disabled. We go to class with them but seldom do we help them cope up with life. Their academic path is truly thorny; the class representatives’ do not consider giving them special attention, they always forget to update them on matters crucial and due to their (the disabled) small social circle it means them missing make-up lectures. They do not have as many ‘friends’ as I and you to halla them whenever there is a make-up. The lecturer dish out handouts and the blind have to hire someone to ’voice them’ so they can use their Braille to make their own notes. Some lecturers are not aware that they teach people who are blind; they announce CAT’s yet do not inform those in charge of the visually-impaired exams in order to set CAT’s in their readable form. They are left to forward their own miseries.
Think of accommodation – despite the existence of an admission form where we indicate any of our disabilities no specific number of rooms was reserved during this academic year for fresh men with disabilities. According to one of the people with disabilities, a number of first years who are blind were left to reside in Hostel D without much care to their daily lives. They did not have a choice on who to live with despite them depending on close friends for their daily chores.
“The first years were not aware that they can decide on whom to live with. They were given Hostel D until recently when the Engineering student signed out that they came here (Hostel F).” An official of the Moi University Student with Disabilities Organisation said.
What makes it impossible for us as an institution fail to identify those who have disabilities and offer them firsthand and unique services fit for their conditions? Why would someone in his right senses allocate a blind person a room in Hostel K, M or L and have to travel all the way instead of being allocated the much nearer hostels around Soweto? They should be left to choose which hostel they would like to reside in, whom to share a room with and automatically be left on the ground floor to save them the stairs trouble.
Do the disabled also enjoy the various facilities we have in this institution as we do? Can they use the free Internet at the library? What makes it impossible to establish a special section at the library for people with disabilities? How often is the audio-visual (the only place the blind can utilize in the much-hyped Margret Thatcher Library) updated? Does those in charge of such areas aware of the needs of the blind?
Does the library have staff assigned duties specifically to serve the physically challenged to save them the agony of moving from shelve to shelve in search of materials?
The disabled students have been neglected; by all of us! There is lack of a well established department to handle issues of the disabled people. The administration should come out with clear policies on how to assist those with disabilities.
To us with no disabilities life might seem normal as we criss-cross this land, nothing much to pay attention to. We rarely mind how we treat that person next to us. It is time the student fraternity be sensitive. Look around if that person next to you needs any assistance just pause and offer a hand. As you walk clear the way for him/her, be a bit patient and let them be served first.
The thought of giving the physically disabled persons special attention at all levels should come true – it’s the best love we can show.
Imagine yourself born blind – you join Moi University to pursue a Bachelor of Arts Education at the highly populous School of Arts And Social Sciences. You swing your cane back and forth as you struggle your way to locate LH1 only to find that it is full to capacity. Nobody cares about your visual impairment and you are left to sit at the back seat in LH1. Despite relying on audio, no one bothers to preserve you a seat closer to the lecturer. That is the story of freshmen who joined this institution to pursue the ordinary courses despite their sight flaw.
Jeremy, Denis, Fridah and Diana are among people with disabilities. They are blind. They have been neglected, either knowingly or unknowingly, by this society something that have exposed them to much suffering. They do not receive any special attention in spite of them being physically disabled. We go to class with them but seldom do we help them cope up with life. Their academic path is truly thorny; the class representatives’ do not consider giving them special attention, they always forget to update them on matters crucial and due to their (the disabled) small social circle it means them missing make-up lectures. They do not have as many ‘friends’ as I and you to halla them whenever there is a make-up. The lecturer dish out handouts and the blind have to hire someone to ’voice them’ so they can use their Braille to make their own notes. Some lecturers are not aware that they teach people who are blind; they announce CAT’s yet do not inform those in charge of the visually-impaired exams in order to set CAT’s in their readable form. They are left to forward their own miseries.
Think of accommodation – despite the existence of an admission form where we indicate any of our disabilities no specific number of rooms was reserved during this academic year for fresh men with disabilities. According to one of the people with disabilities, a number of first years who are blind were left to reside in Hostel D without much care to their daily lives. They did not have a choice on who to live with despite them depending on close friends for their daily chores.
“The first years were not aware that they can decide on whom to live with. They were given Hostel D until recently when the Engineering student signed out that they came here (Hostel F).” An official of the Moi University Student with Disabilities Organisation said.
What makes it impossible for us as an institution fail to identify those who have disabilities and offer them firsthand and unique services fit for their conditions? Why would someone in his right senses allocate a blind person a room in Hostel K, M or L and have to travel all the way instead of being allocated the much nearer hostels around Soweto? They should be left to choose which hostel they would like to reside in, whom to share a room with and automatically be left on the ground floor to save them the stairs trouble.
Do the disabled also enjoy the various facilities we have in this institution as we do? Can they use the free Internet at the library? What makes it impossible to establish a special section at the library for people with disabilities? How often is the audio-visual (the only place the blind can utilize in the much-hyped Margret Thatcher Library) updated? Does those in charge of such areas aware of the needs of the blind?
Does the library have staff assigned duties specifically to serve the physically challenged to save them the agony of moving from shelve to shelve in search of materials?
The disabled students have been neglected; by all of us! There is lack of a well established department to handle issues of the disabled people. The administration should come out with clear policies on how to assist those with disabilities.
To us with no disabilities life might seem normal as we criss-cross this land, nothing much to pay attention to. We rarely mind how we treat that person next to us. It is time the student fraternity be sensitive. Look around if that person next to you needs any assistance just pause and offer a hand. As you walk clear the way for him/her, be a bit patient and let them be served first.
The thought of giving the physically disabled persons special attention at all levels should come true – it’s the best love we can show.
POST-HELB CRISIS AND THE SECESSION OF HOSTEL H
By Maalim Salat
Welcome to a week in which three out of four comrades are so rich that they find it hard to attend classes. You know that moment when the lecturer is busy teaching and you are seated there wondering; “hii lecture inaisha saa ngapi?” you badly want to impress your girlfriend by taking her to town simply because My University did you a favour by delaying helb so that you become rich towards the end of the semester. The week also saw a bomb explode in Nairobi and our sirikali subwoofer says, “hiyo ni pipe ya maji imepasuka. The government is not aware of the presence of any terrorists in Kenya. In fact, nothing happened in Nairobi”.
Our MP was also heard saying, “That can only happen in a movie. How can so many people scream at the same time in pain?”
Our own sec-gen was not left behind, “those were toddlers and infant business people who confuse a tire bursting for a bomb. Some political thugs are behind this. Agwambo was there and he was not hurt”.
This is a week in which Hostel-H decided to secede from My University. Do you remember, “HOSTEL-H SIO MOI UNIVERSITY”? Anyway, I saw that somewhere. So I also say Hostel-H should be declared independent from My University. They should be able to provide constant electricity and water for its residents; something the country of My University failed to provide. Last week, one of the residents told me, “maze wacha nikumbie. This hostel has been marginalized by the authority. All other hostels get electricity and water, sisi hatupati. Ebu jaribu kuingia hostel uone venye inanuka.” and I told him, “usijali bro. Oil will soon be discovered in this hostel and that is when they will recognize us”. Oil is likely to be discovered below Hostel-H because of the deposit of too much dead omena and unclean toilets.
This week, HELB arrived and many comrades will grow fat because they will harass and exploit helb so much that the government will be forced to release it early next sem. We will grow fat because we enjoy our money more than the MUSO shopkeepers (sorry, I mean MUSO directors who own shops) they earn salary from their shops and do not have time for comrades who voted them in. The guys earn so much money and are still very thin because the promises they made haunts them to their bedrooms.
It was the best news any comrade would want to hear. Before I visited the ATM dispensing machine, I went to Violet Shop and had a little chat with Mr. Ruto, the shopkeeper. While we talked, I looked around to see what I can buy from the shop. I then went to the December shop and admired the flavoured condoms sold there. I imagined how I will be having tea with milk for the first time since I reported to this compound.
I saw comrades lined up at the studie waiting eagerly for that money that kina K’obilo sent from Nairobi when they visited Nakuru. Among comrades lined up at the studie was Dennis, a good friend of mine. Holding him was the fresher girlfriend I dumped last week when HELB virtually appeared on that place called the Internet. By the way, these days I don’t even google for answers when my lecturers give me assignment for fear that the Internet may lie and tell me, “it seems you have never enrolled for that course or you have entered the wrong question”.
Entrepreneurs bought enough stock for their businesses. I even saw the Moi University Wagalla Survivors Association (MUWSA) chairman ordering for what they call kangeta and giza for members of the association (that is how they celebrate). I don’t know the meaning of kangeta and giza but I am told it is that product that makes my people slim and beautiful. Hii Friday, kadunda pia itabamba. Na mimi sikuli tena sukuma choma.
Welcome to a week in which three out of four comrades are so rich that they find it hard to attend classes. You know that moment when the lecturer is busy teaching and you are seated there wondering; “hii lecture inaisha saa ngapi?” you badly want to impress your girlfriend by taking her to town simply because My University did you a favour by delaying helb so that you become rich towards the end of the semester. The week also saw a bomb explode in Nairobi and our sirikali subwoofer says, “hiyo ni pipe ya maji imepasuka. The government is not aware of the presence of any terrorists in Kenya. In fact, nothing happened in Nairobi”.
Our MP was also heard saying, “That can only happen in a movie. How can so many people scream at the same time in pain?”
Our own sec-gen was not left behind, “those were toddlers and infant business people who confuse a tire bursting for a bomb. Some political thugs are behind this. Agwambo was there and he was not hurt”.
This is a week in which Hostel-H decided to secede from My University. Do you remember, “HOSTEL-H SIO MOI UNIVERSITY”? Anyway, I saw that somewhere. So I also say Hostel-H should be declared independent from My University. They should be able to provide constant electricity and water for its residents; something the country of My University failed to provide. Last week, one of the residents told me, “maze wacha nikumbie. This hostel has been marginalized by the authority. All other hostels get electricity and water, sisi hatupati. Ebu jaribu kuingia hostel uone venye inanuka.” and I told him, “usijali bro. Oil will soon be discovered in this hostel and that is when they will recognize us”. Oil is likely to be discovered below Hostel-H because of the deposit of too much dead omena and unclean toilets.
This week, HELB arrived and many comrades will grow fat because they will harass and exploit helb so much that the government will be forced to release it early next sem. We will grow fat because we enjoy our money more than the MUSO shopkeepers (sorry, I mean MUSO directors who own shops) they earn salary from their shops and do not have time for comrades who voted them in. The guys earn so much money and are still very thin because the promises they made haunts them to their bedrooms.
It was the best news any comrade would want to hear. Before I visited the ATM dispensing machine, I went to Violet Shop and had a little chat with Mr. Ruto, the shopkeeper. While we talked, I looked around to see what I can buy from the shop. I then went to the December shop and admired the flavoured condoms sold there. I imagined how I will be having tea with milk for the first time since I reported to this compound.
I saw comrades lined up at the studie waiting eagerly for that money that kina K’obilo sent from Nairobi when they visited Nakuru. Among comrades lined up at the studie was Dennis, a good friend of mine. Holding him was the fresher girlfriend I dumped last week when HELB virtually appeared on that place called the Internet. By the way, these days I don’t even google for answers when my lecturers give me assignment for fear that the Internet may lie and tell me, “it seems you have never enrolled for that course or you have entered the wrong question”.
Entrepreneurs bought enough stock for their businesses. I even saw the Moi University Wagalla Survivors Association (MUWSA) chairman ordering for what they call kangeta and giza for members of the association (that is how they celebrate). I don’t know the meaning of kangeta and giza but I am told it is that product that makes my people slim and beautiful. Hii Friday, kadunda pia itabamba. Na mimi sikuli tena sukuma choma.
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