Varsity Suspends Student for Tweeting #TrendingTopic

By Maurice Oniang’o

We should silence anyone who opposes the right to freedom of speech and media…Riaz Gilani via #LetNyakundiTweet

It’s a shame to suspend a student who is expreswsing his opinions…mar4tin malel #LetNyakundiTweet

Meru University did more harm to their image by suspending that baga. Now we know there it’s a shitty institution…intellectual stoner #LetNyakundiTweet

Meru University has suspended Cyprian Nyakundi a second year Actuarial Science student for using his Twitter and Facebook accounts to raise concern on the poor state of things at the campus. The issue has caused an outcry in the social media circles and it is already a trending topic. The University claim that he used social media to tarnish the image of the institution little do they know that that action is giving them a more tainted image. Now Kenyans on Twitter (KOT) is telling Meru University and their disciplinary committee to let Nyakundi tweet.

The University is under sharp criticism from KOT who say that it is a shame for an institution of such caliber to suspend someone because of using the social media. ‘Suspending a student for tweeting issues is so 16^th century, these people don’t know time has changed’ tweets Danielton Iminza. He adds that at times our institutions of higher learning do not respect rights of their students. ‘Sometimes the universities operate like kiosks, without regard to natural justice,” says Iminza.  Victor Mumo, a KOT adds that it is sad for a whole University to suspend a student for criticizing it via social media. ‘Shame on Meru University for trying to silence the voice of the people,” adds Karani Mutonga a disgruntled KOT.

Nyakundi is also attracting much sympathy from KOT who feel that he has been denied his right to freedom of speech and that the decision to suspend him was very harsh. ‘I support Nyakundi. That was too harsh and personalized judgment. I pray for u bro,’ says I am Wilber. “A student can get suspended because of using twitter to say the truth. What happened to tolerance,” tweets Paul Njuguna. “On this one I must say let Nyakundi tweet,” tweets Kipchumba Murkomen, a prominent political analyst

For more information on Cyprian Nyakundi and the recent developments on his issue, follow the conversation on twitter via #LetNyakundiTweet

My Sentiments: It is a shame that in this day and era, an institution of higher learning can suspend a student for using the social media platform to raise his concerns. It is an ancient action and Meru University must face the facts and not sacrifice Nyakundi for giving his opinions about the situation at hand. If their Library is outdated they should update it, if there are no enough seats in the campus they should procure enough seats, if the road to the institution is in a bad state they should do something to it. Suspending Nyakundi for telling us that will not solve the issue at hand, at least now, I know what kind of institution Meru University is.

Lastly, they ought to respect the right of their student to use social media and recognize the immense power of the social media and LetNyakundiTweet. It is an act of shame that they have a twitter account @MeruUniversity yet they cannot let their own student tweet and voice his concerns via that platform.