Prof Stephen Kiama’s appointment as Vice Chancellor of the University of Nairobi in January 2020 was coated in drama.
He nearly lost the opportunity but fought hard to regain it. One month ago, he dramatically went on a six-month “extendable” leave before dramatically cutting short his leave after just one month and reporting back to office on Friday.
More intrigues followed when the University of Nairobi Council’s Director, Legal and Corporate Board Services, Collins Omondi, called a meeting on Friday evening.
The meeting was to discuss the VC’s sudden return, but Prof Kiama was not invited. The council is chaired by Prof Amukowa Anangwe.
Apparently, the council was caught off-guard and is less impressed by the sudden move. Fresh details have now emerged about conflict at senior management level at the university.
Prof Kiama’s return was unexpected as he had indicated that he might stay beyond the six months and would not serve as VC once his term expires.
However, during the one month he was away, a lot happened.
He addressed members of the university community on Friday afternoon where he announced key dates for the academic calendar.
A reliable source at the Ministry of Education said that Prof Kiama’s action amounted to “gross misconduct” and that was the reason for the meeting.
“I was at the university and the meeting did not take place. I don’t know why it was called by a junior officer yet ordinarily, council meetings are called by the Vice Chancellor. These are the issues we’re talking about but I have no doubt UoN has the capacity to sail through,” Prof Kiama told Sunday Nation on September 2, 2023 .
“Nation” understands that the meeting was scuttled after intervention by a senior government official.
Documents in court in two cases filed by the Universities Academic Staff Union (Uasu) point to a conflict related to governance at the university.
The union, which backs Prof Kiama, is seeking the cancellation of the appointment of the university council which has been in office for only three months as well as revocation of appointment of a senior manager.
Speaking to Nation on Friday, Prof Kiama said he cut short his leave owing to various issues that required his immediate attention. He did not give details of the issues, only saying that he was constantly being called by officials at the university.
Signs of cracks in governance emerged when he went on leave citing the need to exhaust his accumulated leave days before the end of his contract. He had not taken annual leave since his appointment as VC on January 6, 2020.
“I know where we want to go but I saw some governance issues which will not take us there. Let all of us think about the institution we want. We can’t afford people keeping you busy with other mundane things and then they measure your performance based on those things. I requested for leave so that I have time to reflect,” Prof Kiama told Nation without going into details, only saying a shorter leave could not resolve those issues.
However, on his return, he said that he had rested after one month and was ready to continue.
“It was adequate. It was a good break. We are heading into a new academic year, we have graduation coming up, new First Year students to receive and implementation of the new funding model for universities. There is also the climate summit in Nairobi next week. There’s no way I can just sit back and ignore what is happening,” Prof Kiama said.
Prof Julius Ogeng’o, the Deputy Vice-Chancellor in charge of Academic Affairs who acted as VC for one month will go back to his role.
“I vacated that position, as a responsible citizen,” he said.
In his letter requesting for leave, Prof Kiama had indicated that he would not apply for reappointment once his five-year term ends but he also made an about-turn on Friday.
“I vacated that position, too. I decided to reconsider my position. It’s important to serve the country when you can,” he said, adding that he will be involved in finalising a strategic plan for the university as the other one has expired.
The VC is the one who recommended Prof Ogeng’o to act on his behalf. However, it later emerged that there were differences between him and the council which was appointed in May following the disbandment of an earlier one chaired by Prof Miriam Were, barely a year into office.
In the case before court, Uasu is seeking cancellation of the university council, saying Education Cabinet Secretary Ezekiel Machogu did not have powers to revoke the former council and that the appointment of a new one was irregular. The union has listed the CS and the Attorney-General as respondents while the university is an interested party.
The union has also filed another case against the university challenging the extension of tenure of the chief operating officer, Brian Ouma by the council. In the court papers, Uasu argues that creation of the position on July 12, 2021 was unlawful. Mr Ouma has been in the position in an acting capacity. Lady Justice Linet Ndolo certified the application as urgent on August 30 while the hearing of applications is scheduled for September 20 before Justice Jacob Gakeri.
“The acting appointment was made purely as a transition role for six months pending the alignment of the statutory instruments to create the position in law and ensure subsequent appointments were subjected to competitive recruitment,” reads the court documents dated August 29. The union also argues that the position does not exist in the Public Service Commission structure.
On July 24, Prof Anangwe extended Mr Ouma’s tenure and directed that he discharges his mandate “without hindrance”.
“You will continue to be paid acting allowance due to a divisional head alongside commensurate benefits. By a copy of this letter, the VC and all other relevant offices of the university are directed to take note and ensure the status quo remains,” the appointment letter reads.
Three days after his appointment on July 27, the day before Prof Kiama wrote to the council requesting to go on leave, Mr Ouma wrote to the director of ICT regarding the disabling of his email address.
“I would like to bring to your attention that the official email of the chief operations officer was disabled on Monday July 24 at 2pm. There has been no communication on this failure from the ICT department. The purpose of this memo is to request a written explanation on this critical failure and reinstatement of the services to accord service delivery of the function of the office of the chief operations officer,” his memo reads.
Mr Ouma also appears to have differences with the Director of Human Resource, Jane Gatune, to whom he wrote a terse memo on August 10.
“It has come to my attention that certain activities have been carried out within the Human Resource Department without prior consultation with the respective divisional head. The chief operations office has designated responsibilities of stewardship of the human resource function, inclusive of the formulation and upkeep of human resource policies and procedures,” the memo reads, without giving details of the alleged activities.
“In light of the above context, I would like to advise that you seek concurrence with my office on all HR matters henceforth,” Mr Ouma states.
“The interested party (Mr Ouma) abrogated himself the powers to oversee all human resource functions including recruitment, in essence seeking to oversee recruitment the recruitment of academic staff without the role designated by law and Charter [of the university] and the same has caused unrest within the membership of the claimant (Uasu).
Sunday Nation has also seen a letter terminating the contract of director of security and safety services Samson Murangiri Mukaria who had been seconded to the university by the National Police Service. His contract was to end on September 16 but had already been renewed.
Last evening, Prof Kiama said he will “look into” the removal of Dr Samson Mukaria, saying it was irregular.
