The High Court in Kenya has prevented the management of University of Nairobi (UoN) from executing their new fees for doctors looking to get Masters degrees, until all stakeholders involved have been consulted.
While Justice Anthony Mrima disagreed with the claim by the Kenya Medical Practitioners, Pharmacists and Dentists’ Union (KMPUD) that said fees were “astronomical and beyond the reach of many Kenyans”, he did agree with the Kenya Medical Practitioners, Pharmacists and Dentists’ Union (KMPUD) that there was no participation from the public before the University of Nairobi (UoN) announced the new fees.
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In the words of Justice Anthony Mrima, “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 University of Nairobi (UoN) increased the fees for parallel degrees and postgraduate courses by more than 2 times the previous fees in a bid to reduce the financial strains brought on by the drop in student enrollment.
Beginning in August of 2021 students who are pursuing degrees in medicine at the University of Nairobi (UoN) would have had to part with 3.8 million Kenyan Shillings for the five (5) year course as opposed to the sum of 2.35 million Kenyan Shillings that was previously and currently the case.
Students who are pursuing Masters courses in Liberal Arts like MBA and communications experienced a fee increase as well as it now moved to more than 600,000 Kenyan Shillings for a two (2) year programme. This is up from an average of 275,000 Kenyan Shillings that was the case. It also signifies an increase of 118 percent.
The Kenya Medical Practitioners, Pharmacists and Dentists’ Union (KMPUD) has disputed the new fees making it known that most of its members who are studying medicine (both pre-clinical and clinical), pharmacy, and dentistry, would be very affected as the fees had been raised by as much as 3 times.
Justice Anthony Mrima in the judgement stated that the Universities Funding Board revealed that it only consulted some stakeholders during the creation of the DUC (Differentiated Unit Cost) model.
According to Justice Anthony Mrima, “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.”
Justice Anthony Mrima made it known that the Kenya Medical Practitioners, Pharmacists and Dentists’ Union (KMPUD) has not been able to demonstrate just how the fee increments affects the right to the highest health care attainable.
The Judge added that the need for a revision of the fees is inescapable.
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