Big heads fall as Daystar fires council members

Kenya Private Sector Alliance (KEPSA) chief executive officer and Mavuno Chapel’s Senior Pastor lost their positions on the Daystar University Council members following an inquiry into the recent crisis at the institution.

KEPSA CEO Ms Carole Kariuki and Mavuno’s Rev. Muriithi Wanjau will no longer sit on the Daystar University Council following a reconstitution triggered by recommendations in an Independent Taskforce’s report that looked into the crisis that has gripped one of Kenya’s elite tertiary institution.

The changes were announced on July 24 by the Daystar Company Board — the legal sponsor of the University — during a special chapel service at the university’s Nairobi Campus.

Daystar Company Chair Rev Dr Macmillan Kiiru said: “The Company resolved at its [Annual General Meeting] AGM on July 9 to appoint a seven member Council, which is in a sense a transitional Council.”

The decision — according to Dr Kiiru — was arrived at in light of the resignations of some Council members, “not least the Chair and the Vice-Chair” as well as the fact that some of its members were due to retire in December 2018.

It also came as an Independent Taskforce that was commissioned by the Daystar Company three months ago with the mandate of looking into the crisis at the varsity handed in its final report to Dr. Kiiru.

“It’s rarely that reports are given and acted upon, but I want to re-assure that the recommendations will be acted upon. Some of the major recommendations include; we have had to reconstitute the University Council,” the Daystar Company Chair said.

RELATED: FORENSIC REVEALS ROT AT DAYSTAR UNIVERSITY

The reconstitution also sees University of Nairobi dons Prof George Khroda and Prof. Nancy Karanja cease to be Council members. Dr Fredrick Ringo, Mulatu Belachew and Dr. Victor Madziakapita also lost out in the new Council.

A blog post appearing on the Daystar University website lists the seven new members of the Council as Bishop Oscar Muriu of the Nairobi Chapel, Mrs. Nyambura Musyimi, Mr. Desmond Mtula (chairperson of the Finance Committee in the previous Council), CPA Donald Odera (chair of the Risk and Audit Committee in the previous Council), Dr Erastus Muriithi, Lillian Ogola and Prof Henry Moses Thairu.

Prof. Thairu, who chaired the Independent Taskforce, will now chair the transitional Council that will implement the Taskforce’s report.

SEE ALSO : POPULAR CAPITAL FM PRESENTER QUITS

The post also said the fresh Council will begin the process of recruiting a new Vice Chancellor for the Communication-famed university following the sacking of Prof. Timothy Wachira.