Kaimenyi unhappy with public rebuke of universities - VIDEO

Education secretary Jacob Kaimenyi has hit out at professional regulatory bodies for publicly declaring a number of universities unfit to offer certain courses like law and engineering.

Prof Kaimenyi said the public rebuke had created the impression that courses offered by the universities are sub-standard, pointing out that only a few were affected.

The targeted professional regulatory bodies —the Engineers Board of Kenya (EBK) and the Council of Legal Education (CLE)— have suspended engineering and law courses in a number of public universities.

“This could have been done in a proper manner. We are going to have a stakeholders meeting between all the parties involved to discuss the best way forward to address the concerns of our children,” said Prof Kaimenyi.

“The Commission for University Education (CUE) is on top of things. We have also told them to address these issues and I believe it will be done.”

The University of Nairobi’s Mombasa and Kisumu campuses, The Catholic University of Eastern Africa (CUEA) and Jaramogi Oginga Odinga University have been found unsuitable to teach law courses and stopped from admitting new students by CLE.

READ: Catholic, two UoN campuses also seen unfit to train lawyers

Jaramogi Oginga Odinga University’s application for accreditation has been rejected while CUEA has been asked to show a closure plan by November 23. The council also ordered Moi University law school shut, prompting the university to sue.

Kenya School of Law’s director Patrick Lumumba admitted that the quality of education at the university level was below the required standards.

“We have lowered the standards to lower minimum, provided you can pay,” said Prof Lumumba, blaming the crisis on reduction of funding to universities by the government.

The EBK has asked public universities to stop admitting students for engineering courses that it had not approved and immediately suspend teaching of continuing students.

The list of institutions with questionable engineering courses include the University of Nairobi, Kenyatta University, Masinde Muliro University of Science and Technology, Technical University of Kenya, and Technical University of Mombasa.

Egerton, Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology, and University of Eldoret are also in the list.