Matiang'i Bans Opening of Satellite Campuses By Public Universities

The Ministry of Education has given a directive to all public universities to stop opening more satellite campuses across the country.

In an order issued by Education Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i, the Ministry has banned the opening of new campuses by all institutions of higher learning and instead focus on developing the existing ones.

“Some of these campuses are being set up on top of bars while others have no essential facilities and we will not allow it anymore,” Matiang'i said at Kenya School of Monetary Studies during a meeting to review the growth of public universities in the country.

The Cabinet Secretary further ordered public universities to stop hiring staffs on permanent and pensionable terms as has been in the past and start employing them on contract basis. He said this should apply mostly to non-teaching staff and lecturers in lower cadres.

“We want to measure the productivity of these staff by putting them on contracts. Universities have now been turned into employment bureaus without looking at the benefits that these staff bring to the institutions,” said the CS.