UoN shut down indefinitely after riots

University of Nairobi has been shut down indefinitely due to the deteriorating security situation as the Senate orders students to vacate their halls of residents not later than 9 a.m Tuesday.

The students were planning demonstrations demanding the removal of their Vice Chancellor Profesor Peter Mbithi after the school administration admitted inviting anti-riot police officers into the campus to quash protests on Thursday.

On Monday night, students gathered outside the university’s security offices at around 11 pm and started pelting it with stones before breaking into the building burning documents and destroying property.

This comes less than a day after acting Interior Cabinet Secretary, Fred Matiangi, the varsity administration and the Student Organisation of Nairobi University(SONU) informed the public that the institution operations had normalized.

The student leaders in their presser condemned brutality meted on their colleagues by the police on Thursday, September 28, when they went on demonstration demanding the release of Embakasi East MP, Babu Owino, a former SONU chairman, who had been re-arrested by police.

Among the students’ demands were for the university management to condemn the brutality against the them and commencing of investigations to bring to account the police officers responsible.

UoN VC Mbithi said the university security department invited the anti-riot police officers into the campus to deal with ‘criminals’ who were using the halls of residence as hideouts and claimed that outsiders were inciting the students.