The University of Eastern Africa, Baraton has shut down four campuses and sacked about 300 workers in order to deal with the high wage bill and help it survive.
The campuses shut down include; Nairobi, Kisumu, Kisii and Eldoret, and all students were forced to be transferred to the main campus in Chepterit, Nandi County.
The university also decided to scrap a number of courses that they considered unnecessary.
Prof Philip Maiyo, Vice Chancellor on Tuesday said the institution has struggled in the past two years to clear pending bills amounting to over Sh600 million owed to suppliers and other creditors.
“Because of mismanagement in the past, Baraton University, which was the first private university to be given a charter in 1991 by retired President Daniel Moi, suffered greatly,” Prof Maiyo said.
“When I took over three years ago, Baraton was collapsing because of high wage bill and pending bills. Suppliers were demanding over Sh600 million pending since 2016.
“We have implemented changes to reduce mismanagement and the university is now stable. We owe nobody anything,” he said, adding that the staff retrenchment had been conducted fairly, and those released were paid all their dues.
The Vice Chancellor also revealed that the institution has lost many lecturers especially foreigners after they had worked for a long time without pay.
Baraton University was started in 1980 by Seventh-Day Adventist Church and it became the first private university to be chartered by the government of Kenya in 1991.