Moi University grapples with limited space

Hundreds of Moi University students have been forced to abandon their studies for close to a year as the institution is unable to accommodate them.

The students at the university’s Main Campus have been home for between eight to 12 months in order to create space for others to learn.

The affected students said they were only told to go on holiday and wait to be recalled.

They said the wait has been long and no explanation was given by the institution.

And the recent lecturers’ strike over pay has made the situation worse. 

HOLIDAY
Some of the students who spoke to the Nation and who sought anonymity for fear of reprisal, said they are just idle at home. 

A third year Human Resource student said they went home last year and is not sure when they will be recalled.

“We went on holiday from June last year and we are not sure if we will resume in June or September,” she said.

A student who was admitted to the institution in 2013 is yet to graduate because she was forced to go for long holidays.

“After third year I stayed at home for one year,” the fourth year student said.

Moi University’s Public Relations officer Alfred Wandera told the Nation that the institution was facing a serious shortage of facilities and was unable to accommodate all the students admitted every year.

“The problem has always been space. However, the current management is doing all possible to address this challenge,” he said.

EMPLOYMENT
She said that most employers were reluctant to offer jobs to students on holiday forcing them to just stay at home.

“It is frustrating. It is not easy getting a job since most employers don’t want those on holiday. Since they never specify when you are supposed to report back you are just stuck at home with nothing much to do,” the Film and Media Studies student said.

Another student said that they stayed at home from September 2016 until last year September when they resumed studies.

Upon resuming they were shortly welcomed by a lecturers’ strike that lasted for one month.

“I resumed last September for my final academic year but there was a lecturers’ strike in which we stayed for a whole month without studies,” the student said.

The university is located away from the Eldoret meaning that there are no accommodation within and around the university.

With the double intake, the government had directed that public universities to admit new batch of students from high school.