Kenya has temporarily missed an opportunity to host a key regional university meant to supply the bloc’s human capital, becoming the latest loser in a battle heating up among East African countries for control of the continent’s economic landscape.
A Nairobi meeting on Wednesday set to endorse a country which will host the planned Pan African University hit a deadlock, delivering a slap on the face of Kenya, the only nation which had applied to set up the project.
Sudan had also shown interest but it was not represented at the meeting, leaving Kenya as the top contender for the project.
Though Kenya has been the more brazen hunter of opportunities in the region’s integration process, this seems to have irked other nations keen to become Africa’s economic powerhouses.
Education ministers from 13 countries in the East African region meeting under the auspices of the African Union failed to pick Kenya, saying some nations had been side-stepped in the exercise.
Representatives from Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, Eritrea and Seychelles said they had not been asked to express interest in hosting the institution in what emerged as a fresh battlefront between the regional economies.
“The exercise requires countries to make crucial political decisions and therefore they must be given more time to consult on whether they intend to bid,” said Uganda’s Higher Education minister Mwesigwa Rukutana.
“The process was not transparent, neither was it fair and therefore we must go back to the drawing board, ” he said.
The project is meant to supply Africa with the critical mass of engineers and researchers in key areas identified as drivers of growth such as space, water and energy, technology and climate change.
Most countries hope to use the university — which will specialise in basic sciences, technology, research and innovation — as a pad to raising their profile as education hubs ahead of regional integration and as they push to emerge as economic bigshots.
It is also expected to see satellite campuses set up in various countries, who must also bid to be given the opportunity.
The African Union Commission plans to establish such hubs in Central, Northern, Southern and Eastern Africa, with all the areas assigned different concentrations.
The successful hosts are meant to cater for at least one third of the hub’s yet to be determined budget.
The African Union has given all the 13 countries in the region two weeks to formally apply if they are interested in hosting the university in what may delay the process which was planned to be finalised by July.
“Failure to quickly agree on the host is likely to delay the process of establishing the hub and therefore the prospects of improving our education in the region could suffer,” said Ruth Mukama of the African Union.
“Member countries were meant to pick the host by consensus but it appears this is not tenable and therefore we will have to go through the vetting process, ” said Prof Mukama.
“This matter should be handled urgently and transparently so as to ensure the project is rolled out as soon as possible,” said Education minister Sam Ongeri.
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