Court Halts University of Nairobi’s plan to Raise Fees

Although Justice Anthony Mrima rejected the claim by Kenya Medical Practitioners, Pharmacists and Dentists’ Union (KMPUD) that the fees were “astronomical and beyond the reach of many Kenyans”, he agreed with the union that there was no public participation before the university increased the new fees.

“In the end, there is no difficulty in holding that the 2nd Respondent violated Articles 10(2)(a) and 201 of the Constitution for failure to undertake sufficient public participation before the preparation of the Differentiated Unit Cost Criteria (DUC),” the judge said.

The university doubled the fees for postgraduate courses and parallel degrees to ease a cash crunch as a result of a dip in student enrolment.

Students pursuing medicine were to part with Sh3.8 million for the five-year course, up from Sh2.35 million, beginning August.

For those pursuing liberal arts master’s courses like communications and MBA, the fee was increased to more than Sh600,000 for a two-year program from an average of Sh275,000, reflecting an increase of 118 percent.

The union challenged the new fee saying most of its members, who are studying medicine (pre-clinical and clinical), dentistry, and pharmacy would be affected because the fees had been raised threefold.

In the judgment, Justice Mrima said the Universities Funding Board admitted that it only consulted some stakeholders in the process of coming up with the DUC.

“Apart from the selected few, the rest of the public was not reached out. Whereas I fully agree that the stakeholders who were consulted in the process of coming up with the DUC deserved such opportunities, the nature and effect of the DUC called for a more elaborate and robust mode of involving the rest of the public,” the Judge said.

The Judge, however, said the Union failed to demonstrate how the upwards review of the fees curtails the right to highest attainable health care.