[July 28, 2011] Court Rejects UASU's Bid to Stop University Tweet Jul 28, 2011 (Nairobi Star/All Africa Global Media via COMTEX) -- The Universities Academic Staff Union (UASU) failed yesterday to get court orders that would have blocked management of the Moi University appoint deans. High Court Judge J.R Karanja declined to grant the orders instead asked UASU to file a substantial application for the matter to be heard inter-parties. Karanja said the decision not to grant the orders was in line with new rules introduced last year that give provisions on how such orders can be issued. UASU had moved to court to have deans of universities elected and not appointed by the management as the practice is currently. UASU lawyer Ntenga Marube had applied to have the orders issued urgently as one public university, the Moi, was already in the process of interviewing and appointing deans. "I am informed that the process is ongoing at Moi University hence the need for the orders sought by my clients," said Marube. Secretary General of UASU, Prof Muga K'Olale is among officials of the union who moved to court over the issue that has strained relations between the Moi University management and staff. According to K'Olale, the university council and UASU had on April 12, 2005 agreed that deans be elected. This was followed by election of deans in 2005, 2007 and 2009. UASU accuses the university of unlawfully disregarding this arrangement and went ahead to alter its statutes to provide for appointments starting this year. UASU, said K'Olale, "is against this arbitrary changes without consulting the union which negotiated for the election of the deans in the first place". But a source at the university's management level who sought anonymity said lessons learnt from those years when deans were elected showed that elected deans are normally held hostage by members of different schools. The source said the university had already gazetted the changes of its statutes to allow for the appointment of the deans after scrapping the election mode and has already notified changes to the ministry of higher education. But UASU says the Ministry of Higher Education was misled to approve the change of statues to provide for appointment of deans. K'Olale argues that UASU as a major stockholders at the university representing the interests of lecturers, was not consulted on the matter. Failure by the judge to issue the orders implies that Moi University may go ahead with the process. [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]