Fredrick Otieno former MMUST VC has passed away the family has confirmed that Otieno succumbed to a stroke at a hospital in Eldoret earlier today. He had admitted to at the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) at Tophill hospital a few days earlier.
The VC whose one term at the Kakamega-based institution was filled with fraud and corruption was visited by Kakamega Governor Wycliffe Oparanya on Sunday.
A report in the Daily Nation in December last year said officials from the institution’s chapter of the Universities Academic Staff Union (UASU), Kenya Universities Staff Union (KUSU) and the Kenya Union of Domestic, Hotels, Educational Institutions, Hospitals and Allied Workers (KUDHEIHA) had pushed for his removal. They reportedly wanted the Ethics and Anti Corruption Commission to investigate Prof. Otieno.
However, on Tuesday, the deceased’s lawyer Martin Oloo chastised critics and instead blamed them for allegedly ‘hounding’ his client.
“Those who know his battles with some Council members of Masinde Muliro including one member born in Western, and some staff of Masinde Muliro know how he was unfairly hounded out of office,” the lawyer said.
He further lamented that the former VC was harassed with no charges being preferred, convicted in the court of the public, without being given a chance to defend himself.
“For over a year he had no income. As a full Professor of the university his salary was stopped without justification, let alone the fact that his contract as a VC, which had a renewal clause terminated unfairly,” the lawyer added.
