Nairobi — Former cabinet secretary and presidential adviser Moses Kuria has formally proposed renaming the Technical University of Kenya (TUK) after the late opposition leader, Raila Odinga, arguing that the institution should honour his legacy.
Kuria made the appeal shortly after the state funeral of Odinga on 17 October, emphasising Odinga’s background in engineering and technical education, including his studies in Germany and his teaching tenure. “I have today written to Education CS Julius Ogamba requesting to rename the Technical University of Kenya into Raila Odinga Technical University,” he said. “If I were CS, I would do it straight away.”
However, renaming a public university in Kenya is not a simple administrative decision. The legal framework — notably the Universities Act, 2012 and its attendant regulations — sets out a clear procedure. Under regulation 14 of the Universities Regulations 2014, “Proposals for the change of the name of a university shall be forwarded to the Commission for consideration and approval.”
TUK itself was chartered under the same Act as the successor to The Kenya Polytechnic, becoming the country’s first technical university under the Universities Act.
Any formal change would need the approval of the university’s governing council, the national regulator Commission for University Education (CUE), and the Cabinet Secretary for Education — followed by a gazettement. Critics of Kuria’s proposal say public institutions should engage deeply with stakeholders — students, alumni, staff unions, and the public — before such a major change.
Supporters, meanwhile, view the gesture as a fitting tribute to Odinga’s lifelong advocacy for technical and vocational training and his earlier professional background.
The debate now centers on timing, procedure and the broader implications of renaming an institution whose identity is closely tied to Kenya’s technical education history. Whether the proposal gathers the required momentum or stalls in legal and institutional review remains to be seen.