Ombudsman calls for suspension of campus relocation plan
Commission on Administrative Justice Chairman Otiende Omollo appears before the Joint Select Committee on electoral reforms on July 22, 2016. He has asked the government to involve stakeholders in the relocation of KTTC. PHOTO | JEFF ANGOTE | NATION MEDIA GROUP
What you need to know:
- The Ombudsman observes that University of Nairobi will require Sh12 billion and five years to set up a similar facility and that learning of 1,038 students will be disrupted.
- CAJ Chairman Otiende Amollo said the relocation should only be done after consultations with all stakeholders are done.
The Commission on Administrative Justice (CAJ) has asked the Education ministry to suspend the relocation of Kenya Technical Training College (KTTC) from Gigiri to Kenya Science campus.
The agency, also known as the Ombudsman, wants the ministry to temporarily halt the transfer of KTTC to the campus on Ngong Road, which is owned by the University of Nairobi.
The Ombudsman observes that University of Nairobi will require Sh12 billion and five years to set up a similar facility and that learning of 1,038 students will be disrupted.
In a letter to Education Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i dated October 13, CAJ Chairman Otiende Amollo said the relocation should only be done after consultations with all stakeholders are done.
Dr Matiang’i, in a letter dated September 9 to the university's council, directed Chairman Idle Farah to surrender the facility to KTTC by December 1 this year.
“I trust that your council will appreciate the weight and urgency of this strategic decision and act accordingly,” Dr Matiang’i said.
However, Mr Amollo insists the university has developed and improved 12 laboratories at the campus for special use by the students training in sciences.
He also said the laboratories would be of no use to the "KTTC students who require workshops instead".
Mr Omollo added that the oversight agency seeks clarification on: "Where it is proposed the former KSTC lecturers, employees and students should relocate to, and from where it is proposed they get the specialised laboratories they will have surrendered."
He is also concerned about the fate of the 1,038 students and staff residing in the campus, asking whether consideration was "made of the fact that the University of Nairobi will not have space to house these students and employees, being already overstretched with over 84,000 students".
Sources within government circles indicate that the government is planning to put up an ultra-modern conference on the land.
CONFERENCE TOURISM
This is to cater to the growing demand for conference tourism which the Kenya International Convention Centre (KICC) attends to, but cannot accommodate the demand.
The idea is influenced by Ethiopia and Rwanda, which have put up similar venues; and Gigiri has been seen as strategic to Nairobi’s diplomatic districts.
The area hosts several United Nations agencies and US embassy.
According to its website, KTTC, which admitted the first batch of students in 1978, "was established with the primary objective of training technically skilled personnel, to not only teach in Technical Institutions, but also for employment in all sectors of the economy".
Kenya Science Teachers College (KSTC), now Kenya Science Campus, was established in 1965 through a partnership between the Government of Kenya and the Swedish Government.
The college initially trained S1 teachers to teach Sciences and Technical Education (Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, Biology and Industrial Education) in secondary schools, its website reads.
It further states the institution "was elevated to become a campus of the University of Nairobi following recommendations by the Public Universities Inspection Board, which were accepted by the government for subsequent implementation".
It was officially handed over to the University on October 9, 2007 and renamed Kenya Science Campus.
