Mount Kenya University (MKU) founder Prof. Simon Gicharu, during the institution’s 25th Graduation ceremony, announced a KSh82 million waiver in fees for all past students.

This was a sigh of relief for many students who are yet to collect their academic certificates due to fee arrears.

Dominic Lokoel Eipa, 33, is one of the beneficiaries of the recently-announced fees waiver. He was a student at MKU Lodwar Campus (Turkana County), and graduated in August 2019, with a Bachelors degree in Business Management – Banking & Finance.  

“All through my academic journey, I have had difficulty paying for my school fees,” he says.

Lokoel was born and bred in Turkana County, some 675 kilometres from Kenya’s capital Nairobi. Turkana is Kenya’s second largest county (by land area), sparsely-populated and often experiences drought, famine and intermittent clashes between the locals and neighbouring communities.  

American journalist Blaine Harden in ‘Dispatches from a Fragile Continent’ describes Turkana as “one of the more remote and hallucinatory corners on earth”, where the people’s “hardscrabble lives and vulnerability to famine typifies the existence of the 25 million or so pastoral people who wonder the Sahel, an arid belt of grassland that stretches across Africa south of the Sahara.”

“When drought hits,” Harden adds, “skeletons of fallen cattle bleach in the sun, flies crawl in the dull wide eyes of emaciated children and the breasts of nursing mothers dry up like prunes.”

This is the backdrop upon which Lokoel was raised. His father was a chief. And so, he knew the importance of education. As the eldest among his seven siblings, Lokoel would be the sceptre that shines the education path for the rest.

His father retired from the administrative position in 1997, before Lokoel had begun schooling. “It was a struggle. It has been a struggle, since.” Through bursaries from the National Government Constituency Development Fund, Lokoel scraped through secondary education, finishing in 2009.

“I thereafter wanted to propel my family’s pride by being the first one to pursue university education,” he recounts. He made inquiries for a Business course at two different universities, but the tuition fees was “discouragingly high.”

Right about that time, MKU opened a campus in Lodwar. It was among the pioneers in the remote county. “The fee was reasonable. The lecturers and administration staff were friendly. I immediately enrolled, starting with a Diploma in Business Management in year 2012. I graduated in 2014 and the following year, I commenced my degree.”

Lokoel says his father raised bare minimum fees by selling goats – a common economic activity among the nomadic pastoralists. But with returns shaky owing to drought, Lokoel’s fee arrears started accumulating at MKU.

“I had a good relationship with lecturers and they allowed me to sit for my end of semester exams even with huge fees balances,” he recalls. Lokoel eventually graduated in 2019. He says the degree was a “dream come true.” But due to the huge fees balances (over KSh200,000), he could not collect his degree certificate, to hold the academic accomplishment in his hands, to show it to his siblings as an inspiration, and most importantly, to look for a job.

“So, I make do with casual jobs at local non-governmental organizations with the hope that one day, I will save enough money to clear my arrears and support my siblings,” he says.

On Friday, August 2, 2024, the yoke on Lokoel’s neck was removed when Prof. Gicharu announced the blanket waiver for all past graduates who had not collected their certificates due to arrears.

“Today, I direct the University to release the certificates unconditionally to all those affected by fee balance,” said Prof. Gicharu, who is also patron, MKU Foundation. “Any collections from those accounts in case the beneficiaries after securing jobs feel indebted to clear the fees should go in support of the Chancellor’s Scholarship.”

The total amount waived for all students is KSh82 million, Prof. Gicharu said.  

“I am very grateful to hear this announcement of hope that will enable me pick my certificates and look for job opportunities to support myself, family and country,” said Lokoel. “I have a strong passion for education and I strongly believe education will help transform societies like Turkana.”