Theoretical Country: Fallacy of Kenyan Universities

Every year and every month, there is a graduation taking place somewhere in Kenya. People are graduating each coming day.

Kenya has as many institutions of higher learning as the students in them. The universities are

• University of Nairobi,
• Moi University,
• Kenyatta University,
• Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology,
• Egerton University, Maseno University,
• Masinde Muliro University of Science and Technology,
• Dedan Kimathi University of Technology,
• Chuka University,
• Technical University of Kenya,
• Technical University of Mombasa,
• Pwani University,
• Kisii University,
• University of Eldoret,
• Maasai Mara University,
• Jramogi Oginga Odinga University of Science and Technology,
• Laikipia University,
• South Eastern Kenya University,
• Multimedia University,
• University of Kabianga,
• Karatina University,
• Meru University of Science and Technology,
• Murang’a University College.

All these are public universities and there are even more private ones left out of that list.

These institutions release graduates into the job market monthly and annually. The job market is flooded, the jobs are limited, the few who are employed are being fired and nobody is being hired.

Most institutions of higher learning in Kenya have terribly failed in their efforts to great practical men and women out of boys and girls. What we have on the job market are theoretical human beings whose term practical is from another planet.

Read: Kenya’s Economy: State of Unemployment

Universities are concentrating on theory and overlooking the much needed practical aspect on the job market. We now have doctors who cannot treat, engineers who cannot build anything but can explain how it can be build, teachers who cannot teach and scientists who cannot invent. In other words, we have more academic zombies than the real ones.

Kenya at the moment needs practical minds. Minds that can take action and build the nation forward. Fifty plus years since independence and we still import engineers from China. Fifty plus years since independence and we still travel to India for cancer treatment. Fifty years since independence and we are dying of hunger, thirst and from common illnesses such as malaria. Who is to blame for all these? The answer is simple; institutions of higher learning.

I have been through university myself and am one of the theoretical products from these institutions. During my four years at the university, I realized that the problem is not about the students but their lecturers. Most lecturers in these institutions are lazy and hungry for money. Most of them are always operating as part-time lecturers, teaching in more than five universities. You will find a lecturer who has more than five classes in more than five institutions on a single day and he or she has to cover them all.

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That is the main reason why they prefer theory to practical, group assignment to individual assignment and class discussions to real practical in the labs. In most cases, students are left on their own and perhaps that is the reason why the only practical thing most of them know is engaging in sexual activities.

Degrees are no longer earned but awarded. First Class Owners degrees are no longer trusted for some are gotten from the so called STDs or Sexually Transmitted Degrees. At the end of all, the products that are released to the job markets are half-baked individuals who even have no idea of what is required of them.

Read: What the 21st Century Employee Needs from his Employers

The economy of Kenya is bleeding because of this. We are busy producing what we cannot consume and busy consuming what we cannot produce. Something needs to be done if we are to save this country.