Mrs Merilyn Kimori, the dean of students at Rongo University College on Feb 28, 2014 COURTESY PHOTO.
The fourth line of the institution’s anthem proclaims that it is
a world-class university. Five lines down, the ninth one goes: “We
nature (sic) innovative graduates.”
Then finally the
16-line anthem, posted on its website, signs off with: “We give the best
in learning and practice/ Rongo University.”
Welcome
to Rongo University College (whose mother institution is Moi
University), where some students prefer having their lunch under trees,
while others like their meals spruced up with foodstuff bought from an
open-air market ‘The Black Market’.
Our attention was
drawn to the university after the death of one of its students on
February 16, a day after he collapsed while queuing at the
administration block.
According to dean of students
Merilyn Kimori, 22-year-old Simon Kamau collapsed as he awaited
clearance to enable him get an examination card.
“He
was then rushed to the university dispensary where a nurse tried to
stabilise him, but his condition didn’t improve and he was eventually
admitted to Tabaka Mission Hospital, where died the next morning,” she
said. The death of the First Year biochemistry student ignited protests
that Saturday and the following Monday.
Among the rioting students’ complaints was that Mr Kamau could not have died if the dispensary was better equipped.
The
claim that Mr Kamau’s brother had to come with a police vehicle from
the nearby Rongo police post to transport him to hospital is another
matter that the students were not happy about, as is communicated
through a post in one of the Facebook pages run by the students.
But Mr James Maina, the student’s uncle, absolved the institution of any blame.
“A
doctor explained to us that Kamau had brain haemorrhage; that it can
strike anywhere, any time. I believe my nephew’s death was just a case
of bad luck. The institution, I believe, did the best it could do to
save him,” he said.
That Saturday, there appeared a
not-so-flattering Facebook post by one of the students. It made
reference to the wanting state of facilities in the institution, among
them that students are forced to go to a nearby river to fetch water
whenever the commodity is in short supply.
Saturday
Nation was at the institution’s main dining hall on the evening of
February 17. It was anything but orderly as each student scrambled to
get their supper ration.
Demoralising thing
A
First Year student, who requested anonymity for fear of victimisation,
said it is a demoralising thing to live under such conditions despite
the prestige that is associated with scoring high grades and getting a
university admission.
The dean of students admitted that the dining hall is small, but not to a level where students are forced to eat from outside.
“We
have plans of building a bigger cafeteria that will solve the problem
once and for all,” Mrs Kimori said. She, however, denied reports that
students are sometimes forced to go to the river, asserting that the
institution is always on top of its game whenever there is a water
shortage.
At the Nyayo Hostel, students take showers in makeshift iron sheet bathrooms with no doors.
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