STRIKE OR NO STRIKE, MOI UNIVERSITY STUDENTS ARE A DAMNED LOT

By Isaac Meso

It all started with the postponement of the opening date for the current fourth years who were to report back late July last year. This was followed by a series of flimsy excuses mixed with a concoction of public notices relating to rescheduling of opening dates that ended up keeping this lot of ‘finalists’ out of session for a whole academic year.

I have tried to seek an explanation for this glitch but all my efforts have returned me to one school of thought; someone is sleeping on the job. 

The best explanation that almost convinced my mind was that of lack of adequate accommodation for these students. However this explanation has a loop hole. For one it doesn’t make much sense due to the fact that the school has been running on low accommodation capacity for years now but never has it occurred to anyone that some students had to be locked out for almost almost a year for others to be in session. Moreover, what doesn’t add up is the notion that the number of first years who got admitted through the double intake programme was an all-time high despite the accommodation crisis which has plagued the school for years. 

The scenario that presents itself is that of an administration which has bitten more than it can chew. How it could admit first years who are double the number of accommodation slots available is still a mystery. We can throw the ball to the former Joint Admission Board (JAB) which was concerned with admitting students to public university but the buck stops with the university administration as it is the body which compiles and issues JAB with a list containing the number of first years it requires for admission in their various faculties. 

Another explanation that came through was that of the graduation ceremony in August. This one was the lamest of them all. Since when was an opening date postponed until further notice because a graduation ceremony was to be held mid-year. This just shows how things are out of hand in the upper level of management of our dear institution.

Like this wasn’t enough this lot of students came back to school with so much enthusiasm only to find the lecturers and non-teaching staff in a picketing mood; learning disrupted again. What the administration seem to forget is that the current fourth years are supposed to have graduated or would have been graduating any time now. This has now become a pipe dream for many since even it is not certain whether the first semester is going to end any time soon with exams dates being postponed with each coming day and the general elections factor.

What worries me however is the fate of the remaining students since after all the fourth years are in their final year of study. The current states of matters indicates that the current third years who are on compulsory one year holiday may have to wait a little longer to be recalled back for their final year. Worse still, a section of the second years are still counting on their luck as they wait to be recalled back to session. If the current mood is anything to go by, they may end up forgotten or report at a later date.

The big question therefore remains, who is to blame for the current crisis facing the student fraternity? Rather in a more African tone we should ask ourselves, who ‘bewitched’ our beloved university? The current crisis facing Moi is more of a lapse in the administration. Poor communication of opening dates is just but one of the many of the ways in which the administration has failed the student fraternity. The body that manages students affairs has done nothing to improve the plight of the students, not forgetting the future of the same body is in a limbo also.

It is said that a building is usually condemned when cracks of weakness emerges on its walls and foundations .Chepkoilel was a constituent campus affiliated to Moi. It broke ties with this same university on what was alleged as misallocation and poor management of funds meant for it by its Mother university (Moi). Information from credible sources has it that Moi University Annex campus is also planning an exit. 

Apparently it is the high time the management of Moi wake up from the deep slumber they are in or this time round they will be condemned by their very own; the main campus student fraternity, who until now are not a happy lot.