Vice Chancellor Olive Mugenda has signed an agreement with Integra Africa for the construction of Kenyatta University hostels with a capacity to house ten thousand.
The mega Kenyatta University hostels project is set to cost US$50 million that will see the students accommodation problem solved and accommodate 9,350 undergraduates and 650 postgraduates at the main campus. They will also construct 150 special units for married students.
The construction will be done by Africa Integrals on a 15-hectare piece of land and relocate them to the university after 20 years allowance period to pull through their investment.
During the signing ceremony Olive Mugenda said the move was a milestone towards easing housing stress in the campus while providing a benchmarking model for other institutions to adopt.
Prof Mugenda said that this partnership is the first of its kind in the country and the East African region because the hostels will be modified to cater for all the needs of the students.
Olive continued said that the hostels will be more convenient for all the students to benefit from on-campus life and they will ensure there is enough security and commodities will be of an affordable cost..
The Treasury’s of PPP unit director Stanley Kamau lauded the university’s management for being bold and moving the project forward as the first institution of higher learning in the country in spite of many challenges.
Mr. Kamau said that, this project will provide a useful benchmarking lessons for other institutions while meeting the Government’s loss in bridging the infrastructure gaps in learning institutions,
According to the VC Olive Mugenda, the campus at present has a student population of seventy thousand with only ten thousand being housed in 21 hostels.
