Varsities, NCIC clash over report on ethnicity

Public Universities and National Cohesion and Integration Commission (NCIC) have differed sharply over a report on ethnic composition in the learning institutions.

Whereas public universities said the report does not reflect the reality, NCIC insists that universities should not be unhappy with the truth.

The Vice-chancellors’ Committee Chairman Francis Aduol speaking during the launch of the report in Nairobi, said no one should not ruin the ‘good name of public universities’ by creating unnecessary stigmatisation.

“We should look at the issue of ethnicity in universities critically. Data can be very dangerous,” said Prof Aduol who is also the vice-chancellor of Technical University of Kenya.

He said that unskilled staff come from the locality and may not wish to work outside their counties and therefore that should not be considered as ethnicity.

Instead, Prof Aduol said, the focus should be on senior management staff whom he said majority of them were not working in their home areas.

He said universities are tasked with students, learning and research insisting that employment is a facilitation.

“This report is not good for us as vice-chancellors outside the country. No one can come to study in local universities and we need to address this problem without stigmatisation,” said Prof Aduol.

Universities’ Councils chairperson Prof Ratemo Micheka said it will be hard for universities to realise ethnic balance since they cannot sack all staff in order to create room for others.

“This will be chaos and politicians will be out,” said Prof Micheka who chairs Kenyatta University’s Council.

He called on the government to ensure that students joining universities are not placed in their regions.

However, NCIC chairman Francis Ole Kaparo insisted that there must be a reality check maintaining that it’s the constitutions that requires ethnic diversity and not him (Kaparo).

“Why should we be unhappy with the truth? Prof Aduol made justification for inequality which we are working hard to end. We must be ready comply with the law,” said Mr Kaparo.

The report reveals that out of 31 universities, it’s only five that have complied with the law in ensuring that have the face of Kenya in terms of staff.

It adds that Multi-media University, Technical University of Kenya, Egerton University, University of Nairobi and Co-operative University hired less than 33.3per cent of their employees from one ethic group.

Another important finding was that the worst contravening Universities included Kirinyaga, Kibabii, Murang’a, Jaramogi Oginga Odinga and Rongo University.

The report further reveals that six ethnic communities are hogging nearly three quarters of all jobs in the country’s 31 public universities.

The six communities – Kikuyu, Luo, Luhya, Kalenjin, Kisii and Kamba – occupy 70.8 per cent of all jobs available in the higher learning institutions, providing a skewed picture that does not reflect the national face as required by the Constitution.

In total, there are 28,935 jobs in 22 public universities and nine constituent colleges.

This means the six communities are sharing 20,485 slots in the universities leaving the rest to occupy only 8,449. There are 42 communities listed in the report.