Magadi Road, a vital transport artery in Nairobi, was brought to a standstill on Tuesday morning as students from Multimedia University took to the streets in protest, disrupting traffic for several hours. The demonstrations were sparked by mounting frustrations over a lack of essential services, including water and internet, at the university’s hostels. The students, after days of what they described as administrative neglect, blocked the busy road, leaving motorists stranded and public transportation paralyzed.
The protest, which had been brewing for days, followed a strike notice that the students had issued to the university administration the previous Thursday. However, with their grievances seemingly ignored, the students said they had no choice but to resort to more drastic measures.
Speaking to Citizen Digital, student leader Naomi Oketch expressed the deep frustration felt by the student body. “We resorted to going on strike since our calls to the administration remained unanswered,” she said. “We have been without water for days in the hostels and other parts of the school. How can we continue with our studies under such conditions?”
The lack of water has left students unable to maintain proper hygiene, causing significant distress, especially to those residing on campus. According to the students, this issue has persisted despite repeated calls for the administration to address the situation.
In addition to the water shortages, the students raised other critical concerns, including poor internet connectivity within the university, which has severely affected their ability to study. “There is little-to-no internet access in the school, which is making it difficult for us to keep up with our coursework and conduct online research,” a protesting student lamented.
For a university where technology plays a central role in the curriculum, unreliable internet access has become a severe hindrance to academic progress. Students, who often rely on online materials for their studies, expressed their anger over the administration’s failure to provide a conducive learning environment. “We are in a digital era, and without internet access, it feels like we are being set back. How are we supposed to study and succeed when we can’t even connect to the resources we need?” one student asked.
Beyond the water and internet issues, the protesting students also highlighted additional grievances related to the poor state of facilities in their hostels. Many of the dormitories, they said, suffer from a lack of proper infrastructure, with broken electrical sockets, insufficient study chairs, and other issues that have gone unaddressed for months. “Some of the hostels have dysfunctional sockets. Others lack study chairs. We have raised these issues, but no one has responded to our cries for help,” the students said.
For many students, the prolonged neglect has fostered a sense of abandonment, leading to growing dissatisfaction with the university’s management. They expressed that their protests were not meant to disrupt public life but were a necessary action to make their voices heard after what they described as a long period of indifference from the university authorities.
As the protests escalated, traffic on Magadi Road ground to a halt, with stranded motorists waiting for hours as students blocked the road with debris and makeshift barricades. Public transportation vehicles and private cars were unable to pass, leading to significant delays for those commuting to and from the city.
Despite the disruption, the students maintained that their actions were justified, citing the urgency of the situation and the apparent lack of response from the administration. “We are not doing this out of joy. We are doing it because we feel like we have no other choice. The university has forced us into a corner by refusing to listen to our demands,” a student explained.
Efforts by the university to resolve the crisis were not immediately clear, as the administration had yet to issue a public statement regarding the protests or the students’ grievances. However, the disruption on Magadi Road prompted local authorities to intervene in an attempt to restore order and ease traffic congestion.
As tensions between the students and the administration continue to rise, it remains to be seen how the university will respond to the ongoing crisis. For now, the students are standing firm in their demands for better living conditions and essential services, hoping that their protests will finally elicit the action they have long sought from the university administration.
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