Prof Stephen Kiama took over as vice-chancellor at the University of Nairobi (UoN) on January 6, 2020, promising to transform the country's oldest public university into a world-class institution of higher learning.
In his inaugural speech, Prof Kiama acknowledged the challenges plaguing the university and vowed to introduce reforms.
“We need to institute financial reforms, governance reforms even as we make key decisions based on data. We need a data management system. We need to re-engineer our business processes,” he said.
“With your support, we are set to reach the Promised Land. Together we can seize the tide and secure our ventures. Let us retreat to our stations of work, embrace teamwork: Unitate et labore.”
Unitate et labore is a Latin word which means in unity and work.
But the first year of his tenure couldn't have been more divisive.
In an apparent move to stamp his authority, Prof Kiama abolished offices and merged functions at UoN. He also created new posts in what he said was meant to eliminate duplication and cut costs.
But these reforms soon landed him in trouble with some people including within the council, the university's top decision-making organ.
He was accused of not consulting across the board before announcing reforms.
In his defence, Prof Kiama once told the Business Daily in an interview: “The university runs through a very elaborate system of consultation involving committees. But since I came in, fortunately, I developed another system besides the various committees. I talk to staff directly so that they give ideas and I listen too to the dissenting voices.”
Trouble, however, escalated at the UoN when the then Education Cabinet Secretary George Magoha stopped administrative reforms that Prof Kiama had initiated at the institution with the support of the council.
Prof Magoha also dissolved the Julia Ojiambo-led council and revoked the appointment of Prof Kiama as vice-chancellor 'pending consultations'.
Prof Kiama rushed to court and obtained orders suspending his sacking.
The embattled vice-chancellor said that during the scuffle, he was denied access to his office despite obtaining court orders to continue discharging his mandate.
This forced him to run the activities of the university from a temporary office.
Fast forward, and the man who came to the vice-chancellor's office promising to transform the university into a world-class institution of higher learning has run into trouble again.
Early Last week, Prof Kiama reportedly took a six-month leave. In his absence, the university council appointed Prof Julius Ogeng’o to discharge the duties of the vice-chancellor in an acting capacity effective August 1, 2023.
The University of Nairobi's director of corporate affairs, John Orindi, said there was nothing unusual about the leave request by Prof Kiama.
But the Business Daily has learnt that there might have been undercurrents to the request for leave by the vice-chancellor.
A source familiar with the matter said that Prof Kiama is opposed to the re-appointment of a senior member of management whose contract lapsed last year.
Prof Kiama himself alluded to undercurrents in a media report, saying he requested for leave to, among others, reflect on some issues.
"I had not taken leave for a long time so I had accumulated a lot of days. We have been rebranding the university to make it more relevant and I was also involved in the Presidential Working Party on Education Reforms," he was quoted saying in the Nation.
“I know where we want to go but I saw some governance issues which will not take us there. If it’s effected, it can’t be the university it is. Let all of us think about the institution we want. We can’t afford people keeping you busy with mundane things then they measure your performance based on those things. I request for leave so that I have time to reflect.”
Is Prof Kiama on his way out of the UoN as its eighth vice-chancellor? Time will tell if he will serve out the remainder of his term having been appointed to lead the institution until January 2025.
He took over from Prof Isaac Mbeche who had been acting after Prof Peter Mbithi was sent on terminal leave in June 2019.
Prof Kiama had been serving as the deputy vice-chancellor in charge of human resources and administration.
He has also served previously as the acting deputy vice-chancellor in charge of finance, planning and development, Principal College of Agriculture and Veterinary Sciences from 2016 to 2019 at UoN among other roles. Prof Kiama was first employed as an assistant lecturer in the Department of Veterinary Anatomy in 1990.
Prof Kiama is a holder of Bachelor of Veterinary Medicine and Master of Veterinary Anatomy degrees from the University of Nairobi and a PhD in Structural Biology from the University of Bern, Switzerland.
He was employed by the University of Nairobi in 1990 as an assistant lecturer and later promoted to lecturer in 1995, senior lecturer in 2002, associate professor in 2012 and professor in 2016.
He has 29 years of research and teaching experience at various institutions of higher learning, including the University of Nairobi, St. Andrews University in Scotland, Free University of Berlin, Germany, University of Bern, Switzerland, University of Witwatersrand, South Africa and the University of Ghana, Ghana.
