Bid to regulate public varsities

• Planned law seeks to have operations of institutions under a single Act

All universities in Kenya could soon be regulated under one law.

Higher Education minister William Ruto said a Bill that will bring the setting up, operation, and administration of all public universities under one Act is being prepared.

The minister, who spoke at the Adventist University of Africa, said this was unlike the current situation where every public university is created by a separate law.

The Bill, he said, aims at bringing about “quality, relevance, access, and affordability” to university education.

Mr Ruto said more would be expected of Christian universities, such as the one planned by the Adventists, given that they are built on long-established traditions of Christianity.

“The challenges we face in universities... discipline, quality and even inequality, are not expected of this university,” he said.

Elsewhere, Mr Ruto has asked the government to consider spending one per cent of the gross domestic product on research.

Consequently, he said, an association of African ministers of science and technology had been formed to push for this.

“We cannot meet the targets of vision 2030 without pumping enough funds into research,” the minister said.

He was speaking during the inauguration of the National Council for Science and Technology at a city hotel on Monday. The council is a statutory institution established in 1977.

Its secretary, Prof Shaukat Abdulrazak, said the council was mandated to advise the government on all aspects of science and technology, including its application to national development.

In a related development, the University of Nairobi’s senate will on Tuesday hand Mr Ruto a report on the recent student unrest.

The minister, an alumnus of the university, also said he had advised the senate against high handedness and banning of the students’ union.

Student polls

Operations at the university ground to a halt following a dispute over the handling of student polls.

The elections ended in disarray on Friday last week following claims of attempted rigging and political interference.

Property was destroyed in the melee that ensued after an armed gang brought the tallying exercise to a halt.