Nairobi Senator Edwin Sifuna has raised alarm over the soaring cost of university hostel accommodations, warning that the housing crisis is pushing students into unsafe and often dangerous living conditions.
Speaking on the Senate floor Thursday, Sifuna called on the Senate Education Committee to urgently investigate the steep rise in hostel fees across public universities, questioning whether the hikes are justified and whether the Higher Education Loans Board (HELB) has adjusted student financing in response to rising costs.
“Students are being forced into slums because they cannot afford the new hostel rates. This is not just about affordability — it’s about the safety and dignity of our students,” Sifuna said, expressing outrage at the financial strain placed on learners from low-income backgrounds.Sifuna said the situation has become untenable, with overcrowded and insecure off-campus housing now becoming the only option for thousands of university students who can no longer afford on-campus living. He demanded that the Ministry of Education and university administrations explain the basis for the fee increases, and whether proper consultations were made before implementation.
The senator linked the housing issue to broader concerns about student welfare and government funding for public universities. “It is unacceptable that at a time when families are struggling with the cost of living, our institutions are hiking fees without due regard to the consequences,” he said.
In the same session, Sifuna also demanded a Senate probe into two recent killings at Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH), raising serious questions over hospital safety. He said the two murders — which occurred in the same ward in February and July 2025 — could point to a potential serial killer operating within Kenya’s largest referral facility.
“The fact that two patients were murdered in the same ward, months apart, raises disturbing questions about the safety of our hospitals,” Sifuna said. “We may be dealing with a serial killer who has gone unnoticed.”He asked the Senate Health Committee to launch a comprehensive investigation into the incidents, audit KNH’s security measures, and review the hospital’s practice of detaining patients who have been medically discharged but cannot pay their bills.
Both issues — the killings at KNH and the student housing crisis — underscore what Sifuna termed a breakdown in oversight and public accountability in key state institutions.
“These are not isolated issues. They are symptoms of a system failing the most vulnerable,” he said.