Leadership crisis looms at Kenyatta University over VC job advert

A leadership crisis is brewing at Kenyatta University following a contested advertisement for the vice chancellor position.

Vice Chancellor Paul Wainaina has protested the decision to advertise his seat while he was on leave, terming it an unfair attempt to push him out before the end of his term.

Prof Wainaina went on leave in April last year. In an internal memo addressed to the university community, he announced that he would be proceeding on accumulated annual leave, with Deputy Vice-Chancellor Academics Waceke Wanjohi appointed to act.

However, while he was away, the Public Service Commission, which oversees the hiring of VCs in public universities, advertised the position on January 21.

The advertisement was later canceled on February 19 after Wainaina protested.

In yet another display of leadership wrangles in the universities, the two VCs showed up at a meeting between the university management and the National Assembly Committee on Education last week.

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The meeting ended prematurely after the committee sent the management away over the leadership ambiguity. 

The committee further recommended for a meeting to interrogate the leadership troubles in the institution.

"We need a special sitting where the management will come and explain what exactly is happening at Kenyatta University," the committee chair said.

The move to send Prof Wainaina on leave mirrors a growing trend in Kenya’s public universities, where vice chancellors are being sent on leave as a precursor to their removal.

This trend was first seen at the University of Nairobi (UoN) and later at Moi University.

In both cases, sending the VCs on leave signaled imminent leadership changes.

At Moi University, Prof Isaac Kosgey was recently sent on leave and subsequently removed from office following a major staff strike that paralyzed operations.

The removal of Prof Kosgey, like Wainaina’s situation, exposed the crisis in governance and financial mismanagement at the institution.

Similarly, the University of Nairobi (UoN) has witnessed major leadership shake-ups.

Prof Stephen Kiama, the VC, was in 2023 engulfed in a leadership tussle with the council that saw him seek to proceed on a six-month leave.

However, Kiama resumed duty three weeks later, but this would offset a year-long conflict with the university council that saw Kiama eventually sent away on disciplinary grounds in September 2024.

The three universities now remain without a substantive VC even as leadership wrangles continue to dominate.

The increasing trend of sending vice chancellors on leave as a strategy for leadership changes raises concerns about due process and possible political interference in the governance of universities.

Prof. Wainaina’s tenure as KU’s Vice Chancellor has been marred by controversy, most notably his dismissal in August 2022.

His removal came after he opposed a government directive to allocate a portion of university land for the construction of the World Health Organization (WHO) African regional operations and logistics hub.

His resistance led to his ouster by the then-government, only for him to be reinstated three months later when the Kenya Kwanza administration took over.

His recent sidelining raises questions about whether history is repeating itself.

The advertisement of his position while he was on leave suggests a well-orchestrated plan to remove him from office.

Moreover, the fact that two vice chancellors—Prof. Wainaina and Acting VC Prof. Waceke—showed up for a meeting with the Public Investments Committee on Education last week is the clearest indication yet of the depth of the crisis at KU.