Factors that attract students to vie for student leadership in public Universities in Kenya: A case study of Maasai Mara University

Abstract

Given the rising importance of leadership development in undergraduate education, it is the work of student affairs practitioners to ensure that the programs being used to teach leadership principles are both valuable and effective. This made it an ideal location for the study since it could give a real reflection of the factors attracting student to vie for leadership in university governance, in Kenya. The study was guided by the following objectives; to find out why university students should have unions, to examine factors that prompt students to be interested in leadership positions in student organizations, to examine the challenges that student leaders face in executing their leadership roles in the universities, to assess how the university administration works with the student leadership and to interrogate the students on their expectations of their leaders. A descriptive research design was used in this study. The target population of the study constituted student, student leaders, lecturers and administrators of Maasai Mara University. A simple random sampling was used because of the small population. 20 students and 2 lecturers from each school and all the student leaders were sampled. Questionnaires and interviews were used in data collection. Data was analyzed descriptively by use of frequencies and percentages. The results were summarized and presented using tables and figures. It was found out that.