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KENYA: Campuses stay closed amid
concern over student protests
NAIROBI, 28 January 2008 (IRIN) - Most of Kenya's public
universities have yet to reopen amid fears of riots and ethnic
bloodshed following December's disputed polls.
The opening of Maseno University in the opposition stronghold of
Luo-dominated Nyanza Province in western Kenya has been postponed
until April because it was not considered safe for Kikuyu students
from Central Province, the home turf of Kikuyu President Mwai
Kibaki, to return.
"The community around [Maseno] are mainly Luos and Luhyas and
they've become so volatile. There are very many students who are
from Central Province. That would mean if they go there, apart
from students fighting students, it would degenerate to community
fighting students," Joseph Adinda, chair of the Kenya National
Association of Universities, told IRIN.
"When they were supposed to open, a group of students went there
to wait for fellow students from Central Province - Kikuyus - so
that when they alight from the buses, they deal with them even
before they reach campus," Adinda said. About 45 percent of
students at Maseno are Kikuyu.
Some of the worst violence in Kenya has been around Eldoret in
Rift Valley Province. Here, Kikuyus and Kisiis have been targeted
by pro-opposition Kalenjin determined to force "outsiders" to
leave "their" province. Moi University is 36km outside the town.
However, Nabos Ekwam, chair of Moi University Student
Organisation, was optimistic there would not be trouble when
campus reopens on 8 February, after two delays. The university
needed more time to find alternative accommodation for some of the
8,500 students whose hostels in town were destroyed during the
unrest.
He did not believe there would be any tension between students and
townspeople.
"My [positivism] is based on the fact that I was in campus a few
days ago. The main campus is located in the interior, surrounded
by the community. There was nothing of the university that was
destroyed. The only destruction was outside the university," he
said.
Student politics at Moi University is not divided on ethnic lines,
Ekwam said, using the fact of his own election as a student leader
to illustrate this. He is one of about 10 members of his Turkana
community at the college.
"People do not vote in terms of tribe," he said. "There hasn't
been much aggression in terms of tribe."
However, students will respond to the nation's political crisis
when they return.
Student duty
"Student politics will be a bit hot because of national politics,"
predicted Ekwam. "It is going to be a reaction not to fellow
students but to what is happening in national politics and the
entire society. You feel it's not right. You have a duty to point
it out. Once we get to campus, students have to take a position."
The student governing council will meet first and then there will
be a meeting known as a kamakunji, with all the students, to
decide the course of action.
"The main way of being heard is to make a political demonstration,
to meet the press and say what we feel should have happened," said
Ekwam.
Only a few months ago, Moi University students held their first
demonstration in several years to protest against fare hikes on
public minibuses.
"It was a peaceful demonstration. We sorted out the problem," said
Ekwam.
The University of Nairobi (UON) has traditionally been the most
politically active of Kenya's seven public universities. It is the
country's oldest and most prestigious university with a history of
producing radical student leaders. Many have gone on to become
prominent national politicians, such as James Orengo, and rights
campaigners, such as PLO Lumumba, currently a lawyer for the
political party Safina.
UON's main campus is in the heart of Nairobi's central business
district. During the 1980s and 1990s, UON students who opposed the
excesses of President Daniel arap Moi's one-party state regularly
engaged in battles with riot police. While UON students have not
rioted since 2003, there are fears they could do so now.
"I foresee student protest. There is a likelihood students will
express their anger," said Hassan Omar, who was a student leader
at the university during the 1990s and is now a human rights
activist.
"The goings-on right now have radicalised every element of society.
The net effect of all this radicalisation is to transform us into
a violent society. I don't see the students will be left behind."
While Adinda insisted that "violence is the last option", he said
students wanted to express their displeasure at the outcome of the
presidential elections. Some have been displaced from their homes
by the post-electoral violence and are waiting for university to
re-open so they can get accommodation.
"Students are now saying when they come back they must show the
world that they were disappointed with the Electoral Commission of
Kenya [which has been criticised for its handling of the results],"
he said.
Campus politics follows national agenda
Politics at the university has closely followed the national scene,
with students voting on ethnic lines.
"Campus politics is exactly like outside politics. Everything
about national politics has come in, tribalism, which area you
come from," said Adinda, who is also chairman of the Students
Organisation of Nairobi University.
Demonstrations could turn into riots. All public demonstrations
have been banned since the elections and the police's heavy-handed
response to people trying to protest has repeatedly sparked
violence.
On 21 January, a riot broke out at Nairobi's Kenya Polytechnic
University College after students heard that its opening had been
suspended indefinitely.
Because of its status, what happens at UON is likely to influence
other institutions.
"If we go for very peaceful and well coordinated demonstrations,
the other universities follow. But if it is messed up and it is a
violent one, when others open it will be the same way," said
Adinda.
The priority now for UON students is to find out when the
university will reopen. Term was due to start on 7 January but has
been delayed "because of the prevailing circumstances", according
to Charles Sikulu, acting public relations manager in the
Vice-Chancellor's office.
"They wanted to make sure when they reopen its safe for the
students and for them to conduct their business peacefully," he
said.
On 21 January, post-graduates and the medical school reopened. A
date of 4 February has been pencilled in for the remaining
students to return to campus but it will depend on the outcome of
talks mediated by former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan between
Kibaki and opposition leader Raila Odinga.
"What happens in the meanwhile will determine whether we reopen on
4 February. If things crop up that dictate otherwise, then the
administration will have the power to delay. This is the first
time this kind of thing is happening in the country. We can't tell
how the students are going to react," Sikulu said.
University reforms
Kenyan students have been a lot less radical since Kibaki came to
power in 2002. Reforms within the university system have opened up
a channel of communication with the administration. The
introduction of parallel degree programmes for self-sponsored
students, many of whom are older and combine their studies with
jobs, has brought a more conservative element into campuses.
Under Kibaki, there has also been greater freedom of speech,
giving students other means to express their discontent than
through violence. The student movement "disintegrated", said
Hassan Omar, because activists believed they had "acquired the
necessary democratic dispensation we were looking for.
"The student movement was localised, deradicalised and
depoliticised on the basis of the perception that we had a new
framework in terms of leadership and the struggle we had could be
best won within government," he added.
However, "with the new developments, I don't know whether that
might reignite the politics of the student movement and whether
they will be immune to tribe, which appears to be one of the most
divisive issues we have in Kenya right now. If there were to be a
rebirth, I don't know what shape that would take," said Omar.
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