The Commission for University Education has been faulted over the way it handled the Kisii University crisis.
The commission initially ordered closure of 10 campuses affiliated to the institution in 90 days citing inadequate facilities as the major reason behind their decision before Ministry of Education intervened to give the university an allowance of a year to improve the areas in question.
During a public lecture on Monday at the institution, Budalang’i MP Ababu Namwamba seized the opportunity and accused the commission of tainting the reputation of higher education in the country and gambling with the future of thousands of graduates from the institution.
“There was no fair administrative action and CUE failed on that. The commission acted unjustly and actually has put the reputation of Kenyan education into question. It has turned its failures into punishing innocent students. They have the mandate to regulate the institutions and I keep wondering where they were when the campuses were established. It should always be there to guide universities,” he said.
He said the CUE had put to risk the reputation of thousands of students who had graduated from the institution saying the negative publicity could make it difficult for them to bounce in the job market.
“We are now talking of several graduates who are going to have their merit questioned and that is not fair. The commission had all time to work with the constitution to solve a few of the issues without necessarily going on air. It has failed on its mandate but going to an extent of rebuking the quality of the very education they are regulating in the country. They should own the mistake and resign,” he said.
He, however, urged the institution’s management to fix its challenges to continue offering quality education.
“Yes there could be a few challenges which are synonymous in any growing institution. I want to urge the management to take up the challenge and fix a few of those challenges but the world must know that this commission has failed terribly and it has tainted the image of our public institutions of higher learning by failing to work with the very institution they are regulating to curb the challenges in time,” he said.