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UoN suspends officer caught selling hostels to female students


The University of Nairobi (UoN) has suspended an ICT officer accused of selling female hostels to the highest bidder at its Chiromo Campus.

Director of corporate affairs at UoN John Orindi said the officer was suspended after two cases were reported to the management.

“We got the reports and acted on it, for now everything is fine,” said Mr Orindi, adding that application for hostels is done online and the system has ranking systems.

DENIED ROOMS

Students at the campus had complained that the hostels were going at a fee and those who do not pay are denied rooms.

“Congress ladies have been compromised by the halls officers to sell girls hostels to second years at Sh15, 000 per bed and Sh 20,000 for single rooms per semester. These racket affects mostly the girls maybe because they are considered to be ‘soft targets’ (sic),” read a concern.

Universities have been grappling with accommodation crisis due to limited hostels vis-à-vis a rapidly growing student population.

The University of Nairobi has already announced plans to construct a multi-billion shilling hostel complex to accommodate 4,000 students on its main campus.

The complex will sit on a 3.7-acre piece of land along Harry Thuku road between Norfolk Towers and Hotel Boulevard and is set to ease pressure on the existing facilities that have not kept pace with student numbers.

Construction will be through a public-private partnership (PPP) in which private investors will finance construction, operate for some time to recoup their investments and profit before transferring ownership to the university, according to Treasury’s PPP unit.

STUDENTS DOUBLED

Official data shows that the university’s student population has nearly doubled in the past three years to 98,713 last year from 69, 946 in 2014 and 50,895 in 2012.

This has piled pressure on the facilities with some government-sponsored students missing accommodation.