Education Cabinet Secretary Prof George Magoha has asked universities to stop setting up more satellite campuses countrywide.

The professor said that it is of no importance to set up campuses all over even in areas with already established universities

The CS was speaking in Nairobi on Monday when he opened a one-week conference on university education organized by the government in collaboration with the World Bank.

Magoha’s utterances come after Moi University announced its intention to shut down two of its campuses, Kitale and Odera Akango due to lack of students.

Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT) is under pressure from the Commission for University Education (CUE) to shut down its campuses in Eldoret and Kakamega over quality standards.

A total of 24 satellite campuses have been closed in the country over quality issues in the past four years.

Prof. Magoha has challenged university management to focus on providing quality education instead of enrolling more learners.

The five days conference with the theme ‘improving higher education performance’, has attracted international participants from different countries eg.

Benin, Tanzania, Malawi, Somalia, Sudan and Mozambique.

In a report by the Ministry of Education, the country has a population of more than 500,000 students spread across 74 universities countrywide.

The government has proposed that some universities should be merged, a move that has received strong opposition from university vice-chancellors who argue that Kenya should have more universities to

Some of the challenges facing the university education sector lack of enough funds to run the institutions, poor management, and duplication of programmes.