When the Public Service Commission (PSC) unveils one of the candidates interviewed for Egerton University Vice-chancellor's job, the lucky individual will be walking on a landmine.
The PSC is set to name the sixth Vice-Chancellor (VC) of the financially troubled Njoro based campus after a competitive recruitment exercise.
The PSC interviewed seven candidates who are seeking to succeed Prof Rose Mwonya who retired on January 12, 2021, after attaining the mandatory retirement age of 70.
"The sixth VC at Egerton University will face a baptism of fire and it will take an individual with nerves of steel to work in such a high-pressure job. The five-year contract period will not be a walk in the park. It needs a manager who will consult widely and is ready to listen from academic staff and non-academic staff," said a lecturer.
The Njoro-based campus is on the red and the new VC must have an impressive ability to remain calm in an institution that is facing perhaps one of its worst financial crises since it was founded as a Farm School in 1939 by Lord Maurice Egerton of Tatton, a British national who settled in Kenya in the 1920s.
The financial situation is so bad that after every three months the top management of the university is forced to negotiate with the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) not to freeze its accounts.
The Retirement Benefits Authority (RBA) has also threatened to put the financially crippled Egerton University Retirement Benefits Scheme under receivership.
Prof. Prisca Tuitoek and Prof Benedict Mwavu.
Photo credit: Pool
However, the Acting VC Prof Isaac Ongubo Kibwage allayed fears that the pension scheme will be put under receivership and assured the pension members that the university is working on strategies to save the pension scheme.
"We're working on strategies to make sure this does not happen," said Prof Kibwage.
The next VC five year-contact will be like facing the hangman's noose and must burn the midnight oil to avoid the wrath of the institution's more than 18,000 students and 2,000 academic and non-academic staff who have been on the strike trail for the last five years demanding for arrears or delayed promotions. The new VC will inherit a long list of debtors
The workers, pensioners and suppliers have pending arrears running into billions of shillings which the new VC will have to craft a payment solution or else he or she will not have a peaceful working environment during the first five years' contract.
The next VC should be spoiling for a fight between Uasu and Kenya Universities Staff Union (KUSU) on one side over the pension funds, delayed statutory deductions remittance and pending salary arrears.
"Some Uasu members have worked at Egerton for 40 years and are not sure whether they will get their pension. Some have already retired and they are not sure of getting their full pension," said another lecturer.
The new VC will be picked from the impressive list of the crème de la crème of some of the top dons in various academic fields in the country and will have to be bold enough to bite the bullet and turn around the institution that has remained with a begging bowl to survive.
The commission conducted the interviews on August 24 and all the seven shortlisted candidates turned up for interviews and included former Deputy-Vice-chancellor in charge of Academic Affairs Prof Alexander Kigunzu Kahi, Prof Peninah Aloo Obudho current deputy vice-chancellor in charge of Academic, Research and Students Affairs at Karatina University and Prof Prisca Tuitoek currently the Deputy Vice-Chancellor Academic and Student's Affairs at the Murang'a University of Technology.
Other candidates include Prof Bockline Omedo Bebe the Acting Deputy Vice-Chancellor - Division of Research and Extension at Egerton University, Prof Benedict Mwavu Mutua, a Professor of Water Resources, Hydraulics and Environmental Engineering at Kibabii University, Acting VC Prof Kibwage and Prof Douglas Shitanda who is the Deputy Vice-Chancellor Administration, Planning and Finance at Machakos University.
