By Info Kenya Team

As students finally walk through the gates of Ronald Ngala Utalii College in Vipingo, one name remains impossible to separate from the institution's controversial history: Najib Balala.

Today, the former Tourism Cabinet Secretary has started a new chapter thousands of kilometres away in Madrid, Spain, where he joined the leadership of the World Travel & Tourism Council in 2026 as Executive Vice-President for Advocacy, Government Affairs and Research. The international organisation confirmed that Balala is based at its global office in Madrid.

Back in Kenya, however, Ronald Ngala Utalii College carries a history that followed Balala into court.

Balala and his co-accused were charged in December 2023 over alleged procurement irregularities connected to the multibillion-shilling college project. He denied the charges. The Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission alleged that the project initially approved at approximately KSh1.95 billion eventually rose to about KSh10.4 billion, while approximately KSh8.5 billion had been paid in connection with the establishment of the institution.

Those were prosecution allegations, not findings that Balala stole the money.

The case ultimately never proceeded to a completed trial. In July 2024, the court allowed the Director of Public Prosecutions to withdraw the proceedings. DPP Renson Ingonga subsequently said there were crucial evidential gaps that prevented the charges from being proved beyond reasonable doubt. Balala therefore left the proceedings without a corruption conviction.

EACC was unhappy.

The anti-corruption agency publicly opposed the withdrawal and maintained that its investigation had established a basis for prosecution. The disagreement between two of Kenya's principal criminal-justice institutions meant that one of the biggest questions surrounding Ronald Ngala ended without a full trial determining the allegations on their merits.

That history makes what is happening at Vipingo today particularly striking.

While Balala is pursuing an international career from Madrid, the institution that generated years of controversy has finally received students. Ronald Ngala Utalii College admitted its first cohort on September 1, 2026, bringing an end to years in which billions had been committed to a college that was still not performing its fundamental function training students.

The contrast is difficult to miss.

Prof. Julius Bitok inherited the unfinished business. His administration did not make the decisions at the centre of the old criminal proceedings, yet it inherited the responsibility of turning the troubled infrastructure into an operational institution.

That provides a powerful accountability question without making unsupported accusations against Balala: How did a college conceived decades ago become such a prolonged and expensive government headache, and why did it take until 2026 for students finally to occupy it?

Balala is entitled to the legal significance of the withdrawal of his case. He was not convicted, and it would be inaccurate to describe the allegations against him as established theft.

But withdrawal of a prosecution does not erase the documented history of Ronald Ngala Utalii College. Nor does it answer every public-interest question surrounding the project's extraordinary journey from its original conception to a multibillion-shilling development.

Now the picture could hardly be more contrasting.

Balala is in Madrid building an international tourism career. Bitok is in Kenya dealing with the legacy of Ronald Ngala and attempting to turn it into a productive institution.

One chapter ended in court without a conviction.

Another has begun with students finally entering the classrooms.

And as Ronald Ngala Utalii College begins operating, Kenyans are entitled to continue asking how the project became so expensive, why it took so long, who made the crucial decisions along the way and whether taxpayers ultimately received value for the billions committed to it.

That is a much stronger exposé than claiming Balala is “enjoying the loot” in Spain because the documented record itself creates the contrast.