New approach needed in hiring of VCs

What you need to know:

  • For too long, we have accepted a dysfunctional process in appointing university CEOs that places a premium on political and tribal capital than on academic merit.
  • The process of appointing a VC in Kenya is never consultative; obtaining too much State influence, thus making its condescending top-down approach woefully politicised.
  • Besides academic worth and administrative competence, a good VC must have an impeccable moral stature.

Appointment of vice-chancellors (VCs) in Kenyan public universities is rarely without controversy. It is routine for Kenyans to witness poorly concealed clashes among stakeholders over the outcome.

This is not surprising. For too long, we have accepted a dysfunctional process in appointing university CEOs that places a premium on political and tribal capital than on academic merit.
Besides, the process of appointing a VC in Kenya is never consultative; obtaining too much State influence, thus making its condescending top-down approach woefully politicised.

It is now taken for granted that a Luo must head a university in Nyanza; considered sacrosanct that a Kalenjin must be in charge in a Rift Valley campus, and a Luhya, Kikuyu or a Kisii hold the fort in Western, Central and parts of Kisii respectively. This outmoded thinking belongs to the dark ages. The appointments of VCs must be rethought, if we are to produce world class universities.

The vice-chancellor is the principal academic and administrative officer, as well as the most important functionary in a university.

Ordinarily, he or she is a distinguished scholar with a high standing in his or her field, coupled with adequate administrative experience.

Besides academic worth and administrative competence, a good VC must have an impeccable moral stature. Universities need distinguished and dignified persons as VCs so that they are treated with dignity and regard, which this office merits.

Broadly, there are two main processes of appointing a VC in public universities: A state controlled system and an autonomous one where state influence is virtually absented.

Since independence, Kenya has preferred the former, with founding President Jomo Kenyatta setting a controversial precedence when he bypassed more qualified scholars to handpick Kenya’s first VC from his Kiambu backyard.

Although the appointment of VCs has mutated over the years with varying degrees of state influence, it is still very much a political than a professional process.

Currently, the President appoints university councils, which in turn appoint the VC after approval of the Education Cabinet secretary. Since the CS is an appointee of the President, political pressure in the appointment of VCs is both intense and strategic.

Local politicians lay siege at the red-carpeted offices on Harambee Avenue, issuing threats and conjured narratives of ethnic entitlement. Often, they have their way.

In the process, not only is the autonomy of the university to pick the best candidate undermined, but the commitment of the academe to pursue scientific truth and academic freedom is shipwrecked. In our beleaguered state-centric model, the VC is both an academic leader and a symbol of specific ethno-political interests. Tragically, such appointees privilege political interests over those of the universities they lead.

Serious, forward looking democracies where academic freedom is valued prefer to use autonomous processes where the appointment of VCs is completely shielded from politics. Vice-chancellors appointed in autonomous, consultative processes pursue the interests of the university with a surgical singularity.

In such cases, once a vacancy is declared, a select committee comprising international distinguished scholars is mandated by the university council to shortlist candidates.

The candidates on the final shortlist then appear before both this committee and the university senate to make public presentations about their vision for the university, and the role that they envisage for themselves.

Senate then pronounces itself on the suitability for appointment of each of the candidates, and recommendations on their preferred candidate are made to the council. The council, devoid of uninitiated political appointees as is practised locally, but comprising eminent former academics, makes the final appointment after taking into consideration these views.

Frankly, however well equipped and well staffed a university may be, the quality and status of an institution gets affected by poor leadership. But more important, the performance of the person appointed as VC is a factor of the process used in his or her appointment.

We must consider a more professional process in appointing VCs, devoid of ethnic and political calculus.


Dr Omanga heads the Department of Publishing and Media Studies at Moi University, ([email protected])