The brawl over sh8.7billion Kenyatta University Teaching, Research and Referral Hospital (KUTRRH) facility has heightened.
This is after revelations that university staff and students have been denied access to do practicals at the facility.
“This is not happening given that KU students and staff have been denied access to these facilities,” said Universities Academic Staff Union (Uasu) Kenyatta University Chapter secretary general George Lukoye in the petition to Parliament.
President Uhuru Kenyatta gazetted the hospital as a parastatal under the Ministry of Health (MoH) on January 25 2019, effectively severing the relationship between it and the university.
The hospital as a parastatal under the MoH is not obligated to allow unlimited accessibility and availability to KU staff and students.
The lecturers’ union claims attempts to delink the hospital from the University started in 2016 when KU council moved to change its name to Kenyatta University Health Care Systems Limited.
However, activist Okiya Omtatah successfully challenged the change of name and appointment of former KU vice chancellor Olive Mugenda as the facility’s chief executive officer.
In April 2019, the Public Service Commission (PSC) seconded Prof Mugenda to chair the board of the hospital following its declaration as a parastatal.
Mr Lukoye maintained that the transfer of KUTRRH from KU to MoH is flawed and goes against the University’s Strategic Plan 2016-2026.
“The establishment of KUTRRH was meant to serve all students in the School of Health Sciences and not selected few,” he said.
