Mount Kenya University’s main campus is located in Thika, about 45 kilometres – or an hour’s drive – from the capital city of Nairobi.
However, the university in fact has 14 campuses and centres, stretching from Nairobi and Mombasa to Kampala, in Uganda.
Originally founded in 1996 as the Thika Institute of Technology, it became a commercial college four years later, offering management- and computer-training programmes. In 2005, it became the first private institution in Kenya to train pharmaceutical technologists. A year later, it began offering degree as well as diploma programmes, paving its way to becoming a full-fledged university.
Mount Kenya offers degrees across nine schools: health sciences; business and economics; education; social sciences; computing and informatics; pure and applied sciences; law; engineering, energy and the built environment; and hospitality, travel and tourism management.
A dedicated student website – separate from the main university website – gives a full list of university clubs and society. These include the Christian Union, the divas of MKU club, the birdwatchers’ society and the I Choose Life movement, as well as clubs related to many of the degree courses on offer. There are also MKU talent shows, including Mr and Miss University.
The student handbook provides a detailed explanation of the contract between students and university.
