Nairobi — Universities in Kenya have postponed their opening dates for fear that students and academic staff members might be caught up in the violence that has hit the country following opposition leaders’ claims that last week’s presidential election was rigged.

The Nairobi campus of United States International University, Egerton University, Kenyatta University, Moi University, and the University of Nairobi have advised their students not to report to their campuses on Monday, as earlier planned.

Catholic University of Eastern Africa, Kenya Methodist University, and Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology also have decided not to resume classes next week and have asked students not to return to campus.

Olive Mwihaki Mugenda, vice chancellor of Kenyatta University, said new opening dates would be announced when the country returned to normal.

At Maseno University, which has asked its students to report to the campus on January 14, Vice Chancellor Frederick Onyango said it is not safe for students to start traveling in large numbers to western Kenya, where the university is located.

“Rival gangs are reported to be erecting illegal roadblocks and harassing motorists and commuters, and we have considered this situation could be dangerous to our students if they traveled,” Mr. Onyango told The Chronicle in a telephone interview.

Paul Wainaina, a professor of educational philosophy at Kenyatta University, said that by keeping campuses closed, universities were also trying to prevent their students from getting involved in the post-election violence, which is playing out along tribal lines. “The ongoing political anger has taken ethnic dimensions, and universities would like the students to stay away from the campuses to avoid internal conflicts,” he said.

The secretary general of the Universities Academic Staff Union, Muga K’Olale, has called on President Mwai Kibaki, who claimed victory in the election, to resign and pave the way for new presidential polls. “The current political stalemate is likely to plunge the country into a civil war, as Kenyan ethnic groups turned against each other,” Mr. K’Olale said. —Wachira Kigotho