Kenyatta University. [Photo/the-star.co.ke]
Kenyatta University Students Association (Kusa) leaders have blamed the closure of the institution on the ongoing lecturers’ strike.
This is after the institution was closed on Friday after the students rioted and torched an entire administration block the previous night.
A female student was also reportedly stabbed to death under unknown circumstances.
Led by Kenyatta University Students Association chairman Wycliffe Kipsang), the officials condemned the riots which they said had been fanned by a section of Kusa election losers and their supporters.
“The strike was the main reason for the rampage, the students elections just heightened the matter,” said Kipsang.
However, some of the students led by Morara Kebaso who failed to clinch the chairman’s seat said it was an expression of students’ anger towards the incoming chairperson who they alleged had been “fronted” and “sponsored” by the university management.
They also claimed that there were outstanding issues that they had listed in leaflets as ‘irreducible minimums’ which they want addressed by the administration.
These include demand for an overhaul of the university’s top management, repeal of the University Amendment Act 2016 to abolish the electoral college in student union elections, review of the university’s policies and student disciplinary procedures and abolishing of the supplementary fee among others.
Kipsang confirmed there are pertinent issues that the students require the university to address promptly but dismissed that he was the university management’s preferred chairman.