Kenyatta University Vice Chancellor Paul Wainaina has been relieved of his duties, and the university council dissolved. This comes as a result a few days after President Kenyatta warned to deal “swiftly and effectively” with unnamed persons.
Wainaina’s dismissal is believed to be as a result of a land row involving Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta. The president seemed agitated over the ongoing transfer of land between Kenyatta University and the Kenyatta University Teaching, Referral and Research Hospital.
The Vice-Chancellor was weeping on Tuesday when he addressed students at the Kenyatta University Amphitheatre. During his speech, Wainaina hinted that he was being fired for refusing to cede land that was allocated for the World Health Organization (WHO) project.
“This is the last day I’m talking to you as a VC. I understand a new council is being formed to that effect. That has happened because the university council and I refused to cede KU land,” Prof Wainaina said.
In a letter he read to KU students, Wainaina suggested that the head of Public Service Joseph Kinyua had asked him and the University Council to surrender some land owned by the institution.
“The letter by the Head of Public Service Kinyua had directed us to give the land to the hospital after a decision was made by cabinet. We have told the Education CS that the university council doesn’t have the capacity to give land, but to protect it,” Wainaina said.
The land where Kenyatta University sits is said to have been donated by the Kenyatta family in the 1970s to host Nairobi University’s campus for the bachelor of education program. However, Uhuru is now keen on reclaiming part of the land where the Kenyatta University Teaching, Referral and Research Hospital is located.
Professor Wainaina said that he received a letter proposing the subdivision of the land in question for various projects. 30 acres are allocated to WHO to establish a project, while 180 acres were apportioned to KUTRRH. Another 190 acres have been set aside for the settlement of Kamaye squatters, and 10 acres have been given to the Centre for Disease Control.
This plan is now under jeopardy as the Public Service is trying to force the institution to surrender the title deeds to the Ministry of Lands for re-planning.
Wainaina reiterates that the University Council does not have the capacity to give land belonging to the institution, but to protect it.
Uhuru Kenyatta disagrees with this view. While launching the ultra-modern Cath Lab at the Kenyatta University Teaching, Referral and Research Hospital (KUTRRH) on Saturday, Uhuru said that Wainaina and the Council were only caretakers of the land, and not owners.
The president vowed to deal with those who are intending to hold on to public land.
“I will go home with them in three weeks,” Uhuru said.