FIRST YEARS TO BREAK FOR HOLIDAY

First year students in session will break for the holidays to pave way for 887 Arts students. The Senate will deliberate next week on the proposals.

According to reliable sources in the administration, the group is drawn from schools: Education, Information Sciences, Human Resource Development, Biological Sciences and Business. They will break till 19th of October after the current third years go for the attachment programme. 

Meanwhile, all second years and incoming fourth years, will resume their studies on 22nd of this month. With the current third years commencing the second semester on the same date, a total number of 7787 students will be hosted in the campus.

The fourth years-to-be will be in session till early next year. However, the 2012 KCSE group are likely to officially join the university on 28th October this year.

TOO QUALIFIED!

By Simon Gichimu

Ever thought you are better?
Then reality is bitter.
Bouncing out as a comrade,
Joining the rest in parade,
Not as officers,
But hungry job-hunters..
If only I knew what matters!

If we were plenty,
Employer got hefty.
Selection applied tactics,
And dirty damn antics,
Little did I know,
I'd been cornered,
A sumptous surprise I garnered!

Your certs are extremely good..
Honestly my institute is too crude,
To tame and harbour, Such brains,
You are an ostrich,
We are just cranes!

I suppose or guess,
You look for better grounds to graze.
Talk of stare,
Or even a glare...
I got confused,
And lastly amused,
If that criteria was empirical...
Definitely it seemed satirical...

HR STUDENTS BACK TO MAIN CAMPUS

The 2nd year students from the School of Human Resources Development were relocated back to main campus today. The students who have faced various problems since their arrival at Annex participated in a go-slow and refused to go to class until their troubles were addressed. 

The students who have experienced constant blackouts in the hostels had sought audience earlier but it had not been granted. The students also felt that if they were to sit their exams at Annex, they would be disadvantaged.

After waiting for a few hours at the Annex compound, Prof Ogechi, Prof Kwonyike, Dr Ong’ondo and the Accommodation Director, Ogega arrived.

The School of HRD Dean, Prof Kwonyike, addressed the students and instructed them to go back to Main campus. Transport was provided for them.

Upon arrival at Main Campus, the students were allocated rooms at the Ngeria Hostels which had been left vacant by the engineering students who are currently on long holiday.

The students will finish the rest of their semester here and proceed with the second semester.

REQUIREMENTS NEEDED TO LIVE IN HOSTEL G

By Timothy Otieno

Now, it’s not good to begin a story with lamenting but it’s no secret…better call a spade a spade and not a big spoon. I was among the many ‘diasporians’ who got evacuated from our hostels at Veecam. The feeling then was that of bitter-sweet. Sweet because we thought we would transcend to Canaan after our long suffering in Egypt, bitter because we had not been moved to a place any more convenient. It was just next door to the Comfort hostels, the proverbial out of the frying pan into the fire can suffice here.

The problems with Veecam were numerous; it had no lights like all the time. The mud was maddening. Mosquitoes were our daily night house guests eating or rather, sucking on us as early as 7pm – the nerve they had! Comfort was no better! The hostels lacked electricity just as much as Veecam. I presume the move was just to temporarily blind us from the bigger problem – that we diasporians are a forgotten lot! I agree with my comrade Kinyua Njeri who wrote an article recently stating that instead of running from the problem, the administration should help us solve it. Thank God I was delivered finally to ‘Canaan’ or a place almost similar to it.
 
I’m a complete stranger to my new hostel. Save for rare minute-to-minute visits to my friends over the years, I have never been to Hostel G as a resident. The janitor there is good, same to her assistant. What perhaps she should have informed me when I arrived was that that hostel has additional requirements other than the usual bank slip, accommodation clearance form etc. 

About two days in the new residence, I received several comments from my classmates of how lately my eyes were becoming more and more red. “Tim kwani umeanza?” they would often ask. What had I started? I would ponder. The strong Christian background I had been raised in would not allow my conscience to realize they had been talking about smoking shisha, weed and those of that caliber. That was until my roommate pointed out to me that the red eyes we had been due to the smell that emanated from our hostel corridor every mid-morning and evenings. Any regular visitor to hostel G can attest to this. I say visitors because the residents seem to have gotten used to the smell. 

We walk around smiling and talking to ourselves like chipped monkeys in a national zoo, all the while we are (as they say) getting high on our own supply! Upon enlightenment on this new predicament I was facing in hostel G, which doesn’t even compare to the hell we went through while at Veecam/Comfort, I sort to sharpen my smelling skills and indeed realized that we had a unique smell emerging from our corridors. 

The strange thing is that my neighbours don’t seem to notice it at all even though their eyes appear ‘redder’ than mine. The pleasantries we exchange occasionally reveal their oblivion of the ‘foreign’ smell in the hostel. They however advise me that it’s due to the fact that I’m new to the hostel that’s why I notice such. “Ni vile we ni freshi huku, with time utazoea budah!!” one of them told me.
Of late I keep seeing the doorknob appearing smaller and smaller and even the ground I step on seems to sink every time. Perhaps I’m running crazy but I feel I need to invest in a gas mask and so should any new individual intending to reside in Hostel G. My friends, the cigarette smoke fumes combined with that stuff they call shisha or is it weed (I don’t even know) is no joke!! One goes to the bathroom and leaves it smelling of smoke! 

I think I’ll start a business of selling gas-masks at the entrance of hostel G. That’s a very good business opportunity that is not being exploited appropriately. Or rather I may start a fragrance spray business. Air fresheners and sprays could perhaps sell like hot cake around that hostel!