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JKUAT closed until further notice as protesting students battle with the police

By Amina Wako November 11th, 2019 2 min read

Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology’s (JKUAT) main campus has been closed indefinitely after protesting students engaged the police in a violent confrontation on Monday morning.

The protesting students caused a traffic snarl up along Thika Superhighway at Juja.

PROTESTS

Police, who were called in to deal with the situation, engaged the students in running battles and even fired teargas canisters to disperse hundreds of students.

A memo issued by the university administration only states that the institution has been closed until further notice.

“In a special meeting of Senate held today, Monday 11th November 2019 at 10.00 am, it was resolved that the university closes until further notice,” the memo reads in part.

The students were then asked to leave the campus by 11:30am on Monday.

According to an internal memo from the student body, JKUSA seen by Nairobi News, the students were demonstrating the rising cases of insecurity around the campus.

The students claim that they have on several occasions got robbed by suspected thugs and their grievances to beef up security have fallen on deaf ears.

INSECURITY

“Due to the rampant cases of insecurity in Juja and total failure of the relevant authorities to protect comrades and their properties we call upon all the students to join in a peaceful demonstration on Monday at 9.30 am,” read the memo from JKUSA executive council.

“We have no classes today, I arrived in school only to find the students demonstrating. They want the police in Juja town to address the issue of insecurity in the area,” said one student by the name Amos Wafula.

Another student, Caleb Omari, told Nairobi News that the area around the university has been insecure in the recent past.

He said that there have been several incidents of students being attacked with the police doing nothing to deal with the situation.

“We have a right to demonstrate when things go out of hand. The police should provide us with security and not fighting us,” Mr Omari said.

In the last one month, students from Garissa University, Kenyatta University, Multi Media University and Moi University have protested over a wide range of issues on diverse dates between October 1 and November 10.