Chaos as private university students oppose new funding model

Agitated university students brought the meeting to a standstill, demanding answers on why private university students have not been incorporated as beneficiaries of the new university funding model like their counterparts in public universities.

The angry students from various private universities chanted songs of solidarity to express their displeasure with the new funding model, demanding a stakeholders' meeting that largely comprises students.

The chaos erupted in the presence of the Principal Secretary for Higher Education and Research, Dr Beatrice Inyangala.

"Madam PS, one, what is the empirical evidence that underpinned the transition to this new funding model, and how were the potential adverse consequences anticipated and addressed in its formation? No two, Madam PS, how does the new funding model align with the provisions of the constitution that talk about the equality of education to all, including the marginalized?" A student leader said.

"Our private universities' vice-chancellors are here with us. We are not puppets. Hatujakuja hapa kuwabembeleza; we are rejecting it in totality. How can 16,000 students be sent to Kisii University while there is a university just here, which has lecturers, and most of the lecturers are young people? We are the ones that are employing young people. In public universities, how many tutors are below the age of 35?" He added.