Kenyan lawyer Dr. Miguna Miguna has disagreed with President William Ruto’s plan to stop funding public universities.
In a statement on Saturday, November 5, the firebrand lawyer stated that the government should fund public universities.
“Public universities must be funded by public funds unless you want to privatize all public universities!” Miguna tweeted.
His remarks come after reports emerged that the Kenya Kwanza government will stop funding higher learning institutions.
Education Cabinet Secretary Ezekiel Machogu told the universities to find other ways of generating income.
He argued that the institutions get a lot of money from public funding but still face financial problems.
“In Kenya, education takes about 25.9 per cent and we have to find other ways of creating and generating revenues for universities and they have to look at other revenues,”
“I’m going to move around each and every university in Kenya because a number is faced with financial problems and we are encouraging that they must generate their own income because the exchequer as it is now is not going to continue funding more.” CS Machogu stated.
Machogu issued the announcement following strikes in major higher learning institutions over lack of enough funds.
Universities Fund Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Geoffrey Monari recently stated that the number of students qualifying for universities is increasing year after year, making it unsustainable for the government to increase financial support for the institutions.
‘’The funding requirement for 2022 cohort of 145,145 students is Ksh.32.7 million while available funds are Ksh.12.6 million. The incoming cohort is larger than the graduates exiting by 52, 195 hence it’s expected that the funding requirements will increase,” he said.
Egerton University and Moi University are among the leading universities dealing with a management crisis after lecturers went on strike over pay cuts.
