Audio By Vocalize Safaricom divestiture offers policymakers a chance to demonstrate that public participation matters. [File, Standard] As National Assembly’s Finance and Planning Committee conducted the first phase of public participation on the government’s proposed partial divestiture from Safaricom Plc, Kenyans asked deeper questions about fairness, trust, and whose priorities shape national decisions. Across counties, two concerns emerged repeatedly. The first one was why proceeds from the divestiture should be ring-fenced for infrastructure projects widely perceived as Nairobi-centric, rather than distributed across all 47 counties using the Equitable Share Allocation formula. The second concern was why the government should prioritise long-term…
Author: By Danson Kimani
Lab technologists during routine clinical research at Kombewa Clinical Research Centre in Seme, Kisumu county. [File, Standard] Today, Kenyan universities have expanded student enrolment, opened new campuses, and grown postgraduate programmes. Yet the country still struggles to generate knowledge, innovations, and solutions to its most pressing problems. This is not because our academics lack talent or ambition, but because the university system itself is not designed to properly support research and innovation. Nonetheless, if Kenya is serious about becoming a true knowledge economy, we must rethink how research and innovation are organised, funded, and supported across higher education. For more than…
A student overwhelmed with homework. [Courtesy/GettyImages] Kenya faces a pressing crisis in its higher education system stemming from the staggeringly low completion rates for PhD and Master’s degrees. Many postgraduate students fail to graduate on time, according to the Commission for University Education (CUE). This is because many students remain trapped in academic limbo for years, sometimes up to a decade, due to inadequate supervision, funding shortages, and bureaucratic inefficiencies. This risks turning Kenya’s universities into factories of unfinished dreams, where systemic failures stifle potential rather than nurture transformative impact. Estimates show that around 70 per cent of students enrolled…