Trouble
is looming at the Jaramogi Oginga Odinga University in Bondo as pressure mounts
on the Vice Chancellor, Stephen Agong, address the problems facing the
institution.
Investigations
reveal that under Agong’s leadership, there has been no tangible development.
Already, three buildings have stalled as contractors have deserted the site due
to what inside sources say is nonpayment. Three buildings which were to be
students’ hostel stalled last year and the students are now faced with
accommodation crisis. Another building which has since stalled and abandoned by
the contractor is the construction of a laboratory block which stalled in 2009.
The
university’s library construction has also stagnated and the contractor,
according to sources, abandoned the site after the university failed to pay
him. The laboratory block was also to accommodate offices and lecture halls.
Tension
is high at the university with the local community now threatening to hold a
demo after the administration stopped selling water to the community.
The
water tank at the university’s main entrance was inherited from Bondo TTC and
ever since it has been sold to the local community at subsidized rates but last
year, Agong stopped the sale of water something the local community has not
taken kindly.
What
is surprising is that even the university staffs that live outside the college
have been denied the opportunity to use
water something that they have planned to petition through their union
officials.
Another
bone of contention that is building up tension between the university
administration and the local community is a case in which a school worker who
was in charge of the college farm was sacked. The local community now demands
that his contract be renewed since he has not been told why he has been sacked.
Sources say the sacked worker’s father is one of the people who donated the
land on which the university stands today.
Agong
is also said to be at pains to explain to the non-teaching staff the criteria
he used in employing, promoting and demoting of staff. Recently, the university
conducted staff appraisal and what has now come out is that only staff from his
Homa Bay county benefited from the promotions while those from Siaya county were
ignored.
It
is alleged that majority of the staff are from South Nyanza region who also are
appointed to lucrative and influential positions as compared to their Central
Nyanza counterparts.
An
example is the appointment of Registrar Academic Walter Akuno who is Agong’s
nephew. It is alleged that he does not have academic and professional
qualifications to hold that position. He is also the treasurer of Bunista Sacco
which is also on its deathbed.
He
is known to spend most of his time attending to his private business in Bondo
town. He runs a chain of hostels around the university where during new
admissions, students are directed to seek accommodation at his premises.
Investigations
reveal that most of the income generating activities run by the university are
collapsing and are known to either make losses or the money generated ends up
in the pockets of a few individuals. Since last year, the staffs have never
received any benefits from the projects. The projects are dairy farm and
poultry farm.
We
have also discovered that the university’s marketing department is
non-functioning. The marketing department has not done much to market the
university competitively as other universities do.
Already,
the lecturers have been complaining because of poor management which has led to
the university having three semesters instead of two semesters per year. To
make matters worse, the university continues to experience mass exodus of
lecturers. We have also gathered that the number of students joining the
university is low to the extent that some courses register no students while
others have as few as five students per class.
When
other universities admit students in September this year, those selected to
join Jaramogi are expected to report in January 2015. The sources say this is
due to lack of lecture halls and lack of academic staff. It is worth noting
that some lecturers operate from a tent due to lack of lecture halls and office
space.
The
university is said to be totally understaffed by both the academic and
non-teaching staff. The available staff are forced to work overtime which the
university does not pay them. Provision
of health services is very poor at this institution. At one time, it forced the
county health executive to intervene after it was discovered that the man who
was employed as a pharmacists was not qualified and was dispensing wrong
medicine.
The
man in charge is a retiree from Agong’s Homa Bay. Staff complain that the
facility is not well equipped and wonder why referral cases are only taken to
Aga Khan Hospital, Kisumu. At one time, a staff who visited Aga Khan was turned
away because the university had not made payments running to hundreds of
thousands of shillings.
Security
at the institution is wanting. There have been cases of theft at the students
hostels and cases of female students being raped have been reported but no
action taken. The blame is on the security officer who also happens to be a
retiree from Homa Bay county.
The
non-teaching staff also claim that the university has never taken interest in
improving their welfare. Most affected are the cooks and groundsmen who have
never been issued with protective gear as well as poor pay and poor working
conditions. Our efforts to reach the union officials to verify the claims of
staff welfare were fruitless.
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