EDITORIAL: Closure of university campuses a wake-up call

News that Kenyatta University’s Rwandan and Tanzanian campuses have been shut down causing the loss of some Sh518 million is distressing indeed.

It is yet another clear show of irresponsible management and investment decisions that are common among those managing our public affairs. The fact is that the university’s entry into the two countries was doomed from the start as due process was flagrantly violated.

First, the National Assembly’s Public Investment Committee (PIC) revealed in 2016 that Kenyatta University (KU) did not seek the necessary approval from the relevant authorities before venturing outside the country. Besides, the university is said to have flouted Rwandan regulations by failing to follow the laid down procedure in setting branches in the country.

But KU’s apparent disregard for the law and regulatory framework doesn’t end here. Former Education secretary Fred Matiang’i last year ordered the institution to close down its Tanzania campus on grounds that due process was not followed in setting it up.

Questions have also lingered on the quality of education the campuses offered. It is perplexing how a public entity - an institution of higher learning for that matter - can be as brazen as to commit such costly mistakes.

It is obvious that a Kenyan university seeking to expand across the borders can only do so with the assistance of the Commission for University Education. It now appears that KU’s forays into Rwanda and Tanzania did not have the backing of the commission, which is charged with supervising and sanctioning such moves.

Now that the taxpayers are being compelled to carry a burden that should have been avoided in the first place had the university simply allowed due process to prevail, someone needs to be held responsible.

KU’s woes are symptomatic of a wider problem of impunity that has seen public institutions operate without regard to regulations that ought to guide them. The result of such misguided actions is misuse and wastage of public funds and - in the case of universities - provision of substandard education. Poorly thought-out policies have seen universities rush to establish campuses that are shut down as quickly as they were set up, mainly because they lack resources to mount quality programmes.

To end this kind of impunity and irresponsible approach to serious issues, stern action must be taken against the architects of the KU debacle.