Get a hostel at the touch of a button in Nakuru

Thanks to the proliferation of the branches of many universities and middle level colleges in Nakuru Town, finding secure accommodation has been a big problem for students in these institutions.

However, this looks set to be a thing of the past after a groups of students from St Paul’s University ICT Club in the town launched a website to help their colleagues locate hostels.

The website, popularly known on social media as a “project by the comrade for the comrades” was launched on July 8 at the Nakuru campus by the Deputy Vice-Chancellor Academic affairs Prof Charity Irungu.

“Essentially this pioneer website by students is targeting university and college students within and outside Nakuru town seeking affordable and secure hostel accommodation,” said Peter Nderi, who chairs the ICT Club.

DATA SHARING

The ceremony was attended by various hostel owners, Kenya Copypight Board officials and other stakeholders.

“This website will not only address the looming shortage of good and quality hostels, but will also help the students get value for their money while at the same time challenging hostel owners to improve  their facilities,” he added.

Nderi, a fourth year student and member of the business information technology pioneer class at the Nakuru Campus, says besides serving the students, the website will also serve the entire community.

“This website will give guardians, parents and visitors to Nakuru crucial information about the hostels since we have included maps,” Nderi said, added that they collected the data themselves, constructed the website and are managing it. 

“Initially, the hostel owners wanted to upload their data on the website but we decided to visit the facilities ourselves because we wanted to guard against any market gimmicks by investors, who sometimes claim that they have certain facilities when they don’t,” said Nderi.

So how did they come up with the idea of launching the website?

“We were having a discussion with our patron, Mr Kennedy Waweru, and the Marketing Department and we thought that instead of letting the Marketing Department collect brochures from hostel owners and distribute them to new students and their parents, we could make them accessible to students, guardians and their parents and that is how the website was born and we have never looked back,” said Nderi.

But it has not been easy for the club members since they were not given any money by the university and had to walk from one hostel to another collecting data.

Besides the financial challenges, the hostel owners were reluctant to provide them with vital information, suspecting that the students were gathering the data to share with their competitors.