The Murang’a University of Technology has written to National Lands Commission (NLC) seeking help to recover its land which has been grabbed by private developers.
This comes at a time when the university has embarked on fencing its land to curtail encroachment and beef up security in the institution.
The University Vice Chancellor (VC), Prof. Dickson Nyakiri said about 12 acres of land belonging to the institution had been grabbed by private developers who have put up hostels, shops and residential houses.
Nyakiri said from the original map, the university owns 82 acres of land but currently only 70 acres are left for the institution.
The VC was speaking on Friday after holding a dinner for the university fraternity to feast on three bulls donated by President Kenyatta when he landed at the institution’s grounds recently.
Nyakiri said fencing of the university land has faced challenges posed by those grabbed the college’s land.
“We had started construction of perimeter wall around the university’s land sometimes back but the project was halted after some people moved to court. We have started building the wall again especially on parts which have not controversies,” he added.
The construction of the perimeter, Nyariki said will also be done around the Technology Primary School despite protest from the primary school’s administration.
“The land where the primary school stands belongs to the University but fencing the school it will not mean the institution will be evicted, in fact it will be an advantage for the primary school as it will be protected,” said the vice chancellor.
He downplayed the differences between the university and the primary school saying the two institutions are both public entities.
“The primary school is part of the university. No tussle for land as some people may think, we all serve members of the public. The people we are against are those encroaching our land,” noted Nyariki.
He observed that they are waiting for the NLC to come on ground and help recover our land as were eying to put up more buildings as the university is expanding after it was granted a charter.
Meanwhile, the Vice Chancellor lauded the President for honouring his pledge to the students, saying they enjoyed the dinner.
“We received three bulls from the President as promised. The bulls were delivered by Governor Mwangi wa Iria. Members of the staff and students interacted well during the dinner and it has strengthened cooperation between the teaching staff and students,” noted Nyariki.
The VC said they are looking forward for the president to grace their graduation ceremony slated for August.
By Bernard Munyao
