Reasons Why A Moi University, Main Campus, Student Should Be More Worried Than A Nairobi Aviation Student… Details Into The Dangers Facing The Institution’s Students

Moi University is the second public university to be established in Kenya after the giant University of Nairobi. Back in 1984, the institution was put up thanks to a parliamentary act to cater for the growing number of students who were yearning for higher education.

The University of Nairobi had dominated as the only institution of higher learning in the republic, something that was detrimental to the young nation’s desire to educate its generation. Back then, the incumbent president, Daniel Moi, wanted to assert his authority even further and so proposed that the university be put up in Eldoret. It happened. And you know why it did.

Nairobi University had experienced a number of strikes then, when the likes of the now Siaya Senator James Orengo and former Premier’s aid, Miguna Miguna gave the Moi government sleepless nights. This prompted Moi to propose that Moi University be established away from town (Eldoret) to quash any plans to hold dangerous and uncontrollable strikes like those experienced in the University of Nairobi which is at the heart of the Capital.

Talai, a close friend to the incumbent president, offered him a vast piece of land to establish the proposed institution. And so Moi University found itself in the heart of Kesses, 35 kilometres from Eldoret town. That is a one hour driving distance when using a bus.

The Moi University Administration block

However, blame still lies with the planners of the institution. They never foresaw the dangers associated with putting an institution of higher learning in a village where students and villagers’ cultures collide and clash every now and again.

Fast forward to yesterday’s moronic and barbaric incident where a female student was found raped and murdered outside one of the university’s rented halls of residence.

The murder of Charity, a third year student in the School of Arts and Social Sciences was just an escalation of the perennial problem that the university administration has again and again failed to deal with: Insecurity.

When I first landed in the institution as a first year student back in 2010, I was told a story. A story that at first I took for granted and thought it was one of those pranks continuing students draw on freshers to scare them about campus escapades.

The giant Margaret Thatcher Library in Moi University where students who reside outside the institution late from as they do their assignments, only to be ambushed on the way.

I was wrong. Mashoka, as I came to learn, was real and existent.

Now you must be wondering who Mashoka is. I will tell you, for free. Mashoka was one unknown figure who attacked campus students at the fall of darkness. By the way then, and even now I believe, the University streets are poorly lit. This is where Mashoka performed his tasks quite perfectly.

He/she would hide in one of the paths in the vast institution and land on anyone who passed by at night. If not through God’s mercy, that would spell your doom. I never believed this story until it happened to several students I knew. Mashoka simply axed students and disappeared into darkness. To date, nobody, at least for those I have associated with, knows who Mashoka was and what his motives were.

We all wondered why we would pay colossal amounts of fees only to be preyed on. We lived in fear. Nobody came to our rescue. Not even the administration which we paid so much to ensure our safety and smooth stay in the institution.

Not until one student, Mwamburi Mwang’ombe, had an altercation with the killer that the attacks subsided. Mwamburi was on his way back to his hostel which is actually not secured by the institution on a muddy and poorly lit path when Mashoka emerged from a thicket and fizzled behind Mwamburi (he later became a student leader thanks to his altercation with Mashoka). Luckily, Mwamburi saw it coming and gathered himself to face the perennial attacker.

It happened and the story is long and scary. Mwamburi was a genius. He faced the attacker who was armed with a heavy metal club and some other crude weapons. To date, Mwamburi, who is as secretive as a grave in a jungle, has never revealed to the public who Mashoka is. He reported the matter to the administration but surprisingly, nothing, absolutely nothing was done.

Mwamburi snatched a torch from the attacker which bore some name. To date, he only knows whose name it has. The adminisatrtion wanted it from him but he refused to surrender it because he believes Mashoka was the university’s project. Institutions of higher learning have many projects you know. From the ones students do to those of Mashoka-like.

Fast forward again to the rape and murder of Charity yesterday, this can only be blamed on the institution.

Moi University has been admitting the highest number of students every year, thanks to the greediness its administrators have. It has always been given the tag A University with a difference. Almost everything is funny and different in the institution.

Professor Richard Mibey has been in the University for so long such that he thinks everything is normal. Accommodation for the students is a nightmare because of the large number the institution takes in each year which outdoes the available facilities.

One of the hostels (Hostel H) in the institution. Such hostels are very few to accommodate all the students admitted to the institution.

Charity died because she couldn’t secure accommodation in the university compound. She lived amidst villagers who for so long have never peacefully co-existed with the students. Charity would have survived had the university ensured security for all students.

Those who cant afford accommodation within the halls of residence are forced to look for alternative accommodation to get education. One of them is to rent houses outside the campus. Houses which have been put up by villagers to take advantage of the University’s incompetence.

Moi University, unlike Kenyatta University which has a perimeter wall, is not fenced. Anyone can intrude from anywhere at will. Villagers traverse the university at will, with some grazing their livestock in the university. I mean Moi University is accessible by anyone, through anywhere. No security checks.

The institution is at the mercy of criminals who can, at any time, strike and cause havoc in the institution. This explains why the university poses more danger than any other institution in the republic.

A police Land Cruiser that was torched by students yesterday after one of their own, Charity, was found raped and killed yesterday morning outside one of the rented hostels.

A parent would rather see their children get fake degrees from Nairobi Aviation College than seeing them get raped and killed in Moi University because they are looking for genuine degrees. It is time something big was done to the esteemed institution which has produced individuals like Mombasa senator Hassan Omar, African youth ambassador to the Commonwealth Philbert Kiziah aka Super Tall, former VoA presenter Vincent Makori and many others.

Remember Majority Leader in the August House Aden Duale also studied here.

An overhaul of the University’s staff? Yes. Relocating the University? Yes, if possible. Proper security? That is a students’ right.