UON STUDENTS STRIKE OVER RAISED SCHOOL FEES

Today morning on the 14th July 2021, Nairobi woke up to a blocked Uhuru Highway as the University of Nairobi Students strikes. 

The students were demonstrated over an 118% increase in fees. They claim that their Vice Chancellor Prof. Steven Kiama announced the administration’s decision to double up fees for the self sponsored students and post-graduate courses. 

This is set to the students who pay 275, 000/= paying more than 600,000/=  for a two year programme. 

In their defense, the management admits to doing this in order to ease the schools cash prices which are on a high due to low student enrollment.

Late last year, the university students not only went on strike over the same issue but also protested the move by the Higher Education Loans Board (HELB) to slash the average loan offered to university students by Ksh 8,000. 

On December 3, 2020 the University of Nairobi Student Association (UNSA) Chairman Eddie Mutua asked the government to rescind the decision to increase university fees in 2021. This decision puts so many students in a hard situation due to the hard times of Covid-19. 

Yesterday, many students took their frustration on twitter, expressing their griefs and concerns over the issue. The increment is set to be implemented for the July intake students.

In an interview done by Switch TV, Eddie Mutua said

 “ We will go to the streets, the courts, we will engage the administration in the boardroom if it chooses to engage us. As long  as no student is injured or disadvantaged by this directive” 

What does this increment mean for the higher education students? Will the university  revise the decision?