Prime Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi has come out fighting, seeking to ward off accusations linking him to a scheme to scuttle the establishment of Kaimosi Friends University (Kafu) in his Vihiga County backyard.
Mr Mudavadi has been on the receiving end since September 2014 after his close ally and former Sabatia MP, Mr Alfred Agoi, started a parallel process to set up another university in Vokoli.
But Mr Mudavadi says those linking him to the scheme to push for the establishment of a rival university in Vokoli “were playing cheap politics”.
The move by Mr Agoi was seen as meant to derail plans to have the first university in Vihiga established in Kaimosi.
The issue has been simmering since 2014 and, at one point, degenerated into political animosity after leaders from the Tiriki community expressed misgivings about the proposal for the university to be set up in Vokoli instead of Kaimosi.
Kafu started as Kaimosi Friends University College (Kafuco) in September 2014, with former Vihiga Governor Moses Akaranga spearheading the process.
Mr Mudavadi and Mr Akaranga are fierce political rivals — the latter trounced the former in the election for the Sabatia parliamentary seat in 2002. The plan to set up the university in Vokoli appears to have stalled, with Mr Mudavadi now welcoming the move by Kafu to convert the Vokoli institute into its campus to offer business and optometry courses.
Mr Mudavadi is now urging proponents of the Vokoli initiative to embrace the new plan. The initial plan was to place the Vokoli institute under the Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology.
Kafu was awarded a charter by former President Uhuru Kenyatta last August. Late last month, Mr Mudavadi graced the institution’s first graduation, saying, the move was “to dispel any lingering doubts about my keen interest in the initiation and in the success of this university”.
“Allow me to first declare my interests here. One, I come from this county. Two, I am very proud to be associated with the only university in our county,” said Mr Mudavadi. He described Kafu as a remarkable achievement.
“Kafu rekindles a dream deferred when, as elected leaders in 2012, we had focused on a Vihiga University of Medicine mentored by Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology,” said Mr Mudavadi.
He added: “I am glad that that dream will become a reality through the School of Medicine that will be domiciled in Kafu.”
Mr Mudavadi called on the Vihiga County Government to work closely with Kafu to develop a teaching and referral hospital for the medical school to thrive. On the stalled quest to establish Vokoli University that was being pushed by Mr Agoi using the Sabatia constituency development fund, Mr Mudavadi expressed relief that Kafu intends to turn it into a campus.
The buildings at the Vokoli institute will now host a School of Business and Economics as well as the Department of Optometry and Vision Sciences, whose practical base will be at Sabatia Eye Hospital.
On the housing and accommodation of students and staff, Mr Mudavadi said the Kenya Kwanza government will enter into a public-private partnership agreement with local investors to provide affordable housing as a solution to the problem.
