Dear Cyprian,
I had written to you in early August about the deplorable conditions of Lukenya University but I was unfortunately unable to give you complete information.
The reason for my previous withdrawal from the same was because I was then a student leader at the said varsity and had received threats from the management and this coincidentally happened during the same time an outspoken Meru University student leader was murdered.
I and some other students then were suspended from school without the proper channels. I later managed to resume session in the school but with harsh terms and conditions in my warning letter which included gag orders.
This past Wednesday, comrades decided that enough was enough and peacefully boycotted classes and assembled at one place demanding the management to listen to us.
Some of the major grievances the comrades had and still have included; Fake Results — Where after the recent firing of the university administration the students complained that the results on their transcripts had been changed and/or were different from the previous semesters they had done exams.
The validity of the university letter of interim authority, lack of adequate lecturers, expensive living standards, lack of adequate recreational facilities, the university’s failure to protect the students’ sexual health, inadequate study areas, dictatorship by the varsities registrar academic and student affairs — said person undermines everyone in the university and is responsible for the gag orders and threats given to students who dare to speak up.
The same university management has forced and is still forcing students to take up insurance policies from SANLAM insurance valid at Ksh. 6,500 despite some of us already having paid for valid insurance covers from other bodies.
On Wednesday, we the comrades while peacefully seated in the school hall, the registrar accompanied by the Mtito Andei area OCPD, lobbed teargas canisters at students who had gathered, without intent to destroy school property, and his junior officers physically abused comrades. We were forced to run for our dear lives for approximately 5 kilometers with the officers behind us to a small town near the school known as Subati.
The comrades are now in Nairobi, some perhaps even stranded and some doing as much as they can to reach the Ministry of Education and CUE officials in order to get transferred to other varsities because most of us there were taken by the same government.
One of our biggest concerns is the fear that the MoE and CUE officials handling this case might get bribed to squash this story. We have not seen even one media house cover the story of the plight of the poor Kenyan’s child who cannot afford a decent varsity and has to settle for less that is the Lukenya University.
Please read through this email and get back to me as soon as possible. Right now you are among the fewest people who can make this public and come to our defence. Thank you.”
