Our Guest of Honour, the Honourable Cabinet Secretary for Education, Professor George Magoha, The Chancellor, Egerton University, Dr Narendra Raval , Chancellors of other Universities present, Chairs of Governing Councils of other universities present, Members of the Governing Council, Egerton University, Members of Governing Councils of other Universities present, the Vice chancellor, Egerton University, Professor Rose Mwonya, Vice chancellors of other universities present, Deputy Vice Chancellors of Egerton University, Professor Kahi, Professor Kibwage and Professor Bebe and Deputy Vice Chancellors of other Universities present, Members of the Egerton University Senate, Heads of Campuses, Faculties, Schools, Directorates, Departments, All Members of the Teaching as well as non-Teaching Staff , Members of the Students Council, All invited Guests, graduands, parents and all Alumni present, all continuing students, the Egerton University Neighbourhood Community, Ladies and gentlemen,

May I start by thanking all those who made this joyous occasion of the 42^nd Graduation  of Egerton University possible. The Cabinet Secretary and the Ministry of Education, the Higher Education Loans Board, the Commisison for Unviersity Education, the graduands themselves, the Chancellor, the Vice Chancellor and the Management, the Senate the Deans and Heads of Departments, all members of staff, teaching and non-teaching, parents guardians friends of the Unviersity, and all stakeholders. 

I would like share my thoughts on five related issues today. You can count them on the fingers of one hand.

• Privilege
• Responsibility
• Service
• Empathy and

In our country, where only a tiny fraction of the population ever gets access to University Education, you must count yourselves a fortunate and a privileged lot. A diploma or a degree is a ticket to entering a higher social strata, an exclusive club of laptop carrying digital natives, the club of the intelligensia and of men and women of letters. Society gives you a higher value and a superior position. This privilege extends into giving you higher chances of being employed or self-employed because you are skilled and because you have an informed consciousness and world view.

Privilege is a right or benefit given to some and denied to others. Privilege is the advantage wealthy and powerful people have over society. It borders with rights. The right to govern, to collect taxes to give instructions and expect to be obeyed.

Power and the privilege that goes with it is given to you to serve your country, its people. In this sense, privilege is honour, it is respect and you are held in high esteem. Privilege gives you an opportunity to serve. Not many get this opportunity. So you are a chosen few. A position of power and privilege is one of trust. You become a trustworthy person. You enjoy the confidence of the public and you are regarded as a man or woman of integrity, a steward of self-less service.

You will be faced with the temptation of using a position of power and privilege for personal gain. If you give in to this then trouble sets in. Corruption is beckoning. If you use your position of public trust, of privilege for personal gain, there is a conflict of interest and you are nolonger a person of integrity; you are nolonger trustworthy. You lose all-the aura of honour and respect, public trust, and being a man or woman of letters has no meaning. Infact it is demeaning. People will ask, how is that a university graduate has bent so low as to be on the take? How is it that he or she has accumulated so much wealth a few years after graduation? Is this not living beyond your income? People begin to ask questions and what happens? You lose. You lose respect. You lose honour. You lose your name. You lose your face. You lose your very identity. The abuse of privilege is the abuse of power and position. As Egertonians my first message to you is this. Respect and uphold your positions of privilege. Don’t ever abuse it.

My second isse for your ingestion and digestion is responsibility. Think of holding a coin in your hand. If the side facing you has privilege written on it, just turn it and the other side reads responsibility. Privilege and responsibility are but two sides of the same coin.

A position of privilege is not a free lunch. It comes with responsibility. When you are given responsibility, you are given a task. You take charge. You may get praise if you succeed and blame when you fail. It is a position of trust. You are entrusted with a job to do, a duty to carry out, something to do, usually within a given time frame. When you are in a position of responsibility, it is morally and legally incumbent upon you to do certain things. For example take responsibility of supporting your aging parents; support your siblings and see them through school and see to their housing, food, warm clothing and other basic necessities. If you are in a position to do so, you may take responsibility for donating to support the less fortunate in society, the persons with disabilities, orphans and vulnerable children, older citizens. You take your responsibility as a good citizen, as a tax payer to support your government, and not try to evade tax  obligations, because the development of our country, the provision of essential social services, all depend on those taxes.

 Men and women of letters do not shun responsibility. They take charge. Their presence is felt by the people around them by the good they do.

When things go wrong under your watch, take responsibility. In a certain country that I would not name here, there are three ministries of transport: Ministries of Air, Rail and Road Transport respectively. When there is a plane crash in which citizens die, the Minister of Air Transport takes responsibility and resigns. When there is a rail disaster the same happens and and when there is bad road accident in which citizens lose their lives the Minister for Road Transport takes responsibility and resigns. Think about it. The respective ministers did not cause the accidents directly. But for everything under their docket the buck stops at their desk. They do the honourable thing and resign. That is taking responsibility.

My second message to you is this. Be responsible. Take responsibility.

My third issue as food for thought is service to the people.  You have had a privileged position in society by getting a University education, most at public or tax payer’s expense.  Education is the most powerful tool for social and economic improvement. It has and will continue to make a difference in your lives. Its incumbent upon you, it is your responsibility to give to others what Egerton University has given to you. If you are a teacher, you teach; If you are a Vet, treat and care for livestock and other birds and animals, both wild and domestic. If you have graduated in a branch of Agriculture, use your skills to enhance the country’s food security.  At this juncture, allow me to quote Benjamin Disraeli. ‘A university should be a place of light, of liberty and of learning.’ My third message to you is take the light the liberty and learning you got from Egerton in the service of the Kenyan people. It is your duty and responsbility to serve, and to serve selflessly.

My fourth point is on empathy. Listen carefully, empathy should not be confused with sympathy. Empathy is putting yourself in the position of others, in their shoes, if you will so that you actually go through their experiences. You join them in their times of sorrow and celebrate with them in times of joy. That ability to understand the person you  serve is empathy.

Let me give you another example that will I think notion of empathy clearer. A researcher in Anthropology came to a pastoral community from a western country to do research on culture. It was a year long field research. So the researcher built her own grass thatched hut like those of this people. She was given camels, cows and goats for milk, on loan. She would live in her hut and go out with the women for firewood, water and other needs. She lived the life of the members of that community in every sense. With time, she ate what they ate and drunk what they drunk. She learnt and spoke their language. She sold some of the milk from the livestock loaned to her to buy tea and sugar and other supplies from the market. She milked her livestock herself and took care of them. This researcher, no doubt has empathy towards members of this community.

So my fourth message to you is this. Have empathy for the people you serve.

My fifth and last point is hope. If you nurture hope, you will expect to achieve your ambitions. Hope gives you confidence that you will be employed or be self-employed, that you will get married and raise family, that you will have a roof over your head as a home of your own. A hopeful person is a positive thinker. If things are bad now, they will get better soon. You must enthuse others with hope. In one of Achebe’s books, Things Fall Apart, I think, hot water was poured on coakroaches. The young coakroaches cried to their mother that they are going to die. Mother coackroach did not hesitate to give them hope. ‘ Just be patient, for whatever is hot will soon turn cold.’ That is giving hope when its badly needed. If you embrace hope, you are always cheerful and free of stress. A hopeful you does not say things like, ‘I do not know,’ even if you don’t. You will admit ignorance but add, ‘I’ll find out and get back to you.’

So my fifth and final message to you today is this. Keep the flame of hope burning always and enthuse the people around you with hope.

Once the Chancellor confers degrees and diplomas upon you and the Vice Chancellor dissolves the congregation, you will go. Go and serve the people across the country with honour, dignity and pride, knowing very well that you lead best through humility, compassion, responsibility, commitment to serve, empathy and hope in your selfless service to all.

All the best for the future and keep safe.

Chancellor, Egerton University

Cabinet Secretary, Ministry of Education, Science and Technology

The PS Ministry of Education

Chancellors of other Universities present virtually

Chairman, Egerton University Council

Council Members, Egerton University

Chairpersons of Councils of other Universities present virtually

Vice Chancellors of other Universities present virtually

Deputy Vice Chancellors

Members of the University Senate

Senior Government Officials

Members of Staff, Graduating Class, Parents and Guardians

Ladies and Gentlemen,

I take this opportunity on behalf  Egerton University Management team , Senate , staff and students  to welcome you all to Egerton University and thank you for joining us today as we celebrate our 42^nd Graduation Ceremony. To those graduating, congratulations for a job well done. I’m aware that this is a unique graduation since we are used to seeing one another, laughing, hugging and taking selfies but because of the Covid 19 pandemic we had to do this virtual graduation.  We are here to grace the occasion with pomp, colour, joy and deep reflection because of your faith in yourself, in your abilities, the determination to succeed and your endurance through it all.  I know it has been tiring, rough, challenging, but you emerged victorious! Once more congratulations.

Today, a total of 1018 students are going to be awarded diplomas and conferred degrees across our various Faculties.  We are just about to award 90 Diplomas and confer 874 Bachelor’s degrees, 44 Masters Degrees and 10 PhDs. We take pride in the input of your parents, guardians, your faculty staff, family and friends who participated in one way or another in refining the individuals we are celebrating today though we miss seeing you physically. We still celebrate your achievement.

Mr. Chancellor Sir,

  Allow me to recognise and thank the CS Education Prof. George Magoha and his team for taking time from their busy schedule to be with us during this joyous occasion. I also thank the PS  University Education and Research Amb. Simon Nabukwesi for coming. We as a University are grateful for the support you through the Ministry has been according the us. I also thank the government through the Ministry of Interior for ensuring that the University is secure through deployment of security officers inside the University compound. Finally I thank my staff members for their efforts in making this ceremony successful despite all the challenges associated with covid 19 protocols.

Mr. Chancellor Sir,

Im glad that we are graduating students at this tough times of covid 19 which has disrupted learning throughout the country. The academic calendar was cut short and students advised to go home prematurely. The staff members were also advised to work from home. All these were done as mitigation measure against the pandemic. Despite all these challenges the university continue to make tremendous progress across various faculties.

Through the Division of Academic Affairs there has been streamlining and the delivery of education through harnessing of technology and other tools vital in enabling progress in learning despite the pandemic.

We have been conducting online thesis defences through the Board of Post Graduate Studies where students have virtually proceeded with oral presentations of proposals both in the department and faculties as well as projects/theses defences from across the country and the world at large. Through this method students from Ghana, South Africa, Rwanda, and Malawi were able to complete their studies on time with support from supervisors spread across the world. Our academic staff have been working round the clock to develop online modules of lecture content and coupled with virtual graduation we are living true to our motto of Transforming Lives through Quality Education.

Mr. Chancellor Sir,

The Division of Research has made tireless efforts in enhancing our capacity to attract funding through writing excellent research and development proposals, providing numerous consultancies, supporting students involved in postgraduate research, and coordinating student attachment programmes.  As a result of these efforts, the students and staff through their various faculties have won a number of scholarships, research funding, fellowships and consultancies as highlighted below:

• Mariam Karwitha from the Faculty of Agriculture won One planet Fellowship which seeks to build vibrant, highly connected and intergenerational network of African and European scientists leaders.
• Shadrack Nasongo from Rhodes University who is an alumni of this University won the 2020 Carnegie African Diaspora Fellowship where African born scholars participates in educational projects at higher educational projects in Africa.
• Stephen Mwangi from the Faculty of Natural Resources won full scholarship from Partnership for Knowledge financed by Italian Agency for International Corporation to study MSC in Geoinformatics Engineering.
• David Omondi from the Faculty of Science won two year Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Institute of Parasitology and Tropical Veterinary Medicine in Berlin, Germany among others.

I take this opportunity to thank these staff members for their hard work and for carrying the University flag high across the globe.

Mr. Chancellor Sir,

Early this year the country faced Covid 19 pandemic that affected all facets of human life and all resources were mobilised to fight it. I want to report to you that Egerton as world class University for the advancement of humanity was never left behind. Our staff members got involved in one way or the other to contain the pandemic as highlighted below:

• Our staff member from the Department of Industrial and Energy Engineering, Dr. George Owino fabricated and donated to Nakuru Level Five Hospital a booth for testing samples of the virus that overcomes most of the challenges associated with interactions between medical personnel and patients.
• The Faculty of Science through the Department of Chemistry mobilised and started producing hand-rub sanitisers and liquid soaps for the benefit of students, staff and community.
• The Faculty of Education through through the Department of Applied Community Studies also started designing and making face masks for students, staff and community.

Mr. Chancellor Sir,

In order to live to our mission of knowledge generation and dissemination, we are preparing to receive about 3490 first years through online admission. Currently the students are uploading documents online for registration purposes. We expect online reporting to be on 13/08/2020 thereafter orientation starts for two weeks, then online teaching and learning starts in September. As for continuing students online teaching and learning is already going and academic staff members are already trained on online lecture content on pilot basis. We plan to continue training of our staff members on online exam management through collaboration with Michigan State University in the US. As for face to face learning and teaching, this depends on the availability of facilities. With the unwavering commitment of our staff and support from our students, we are proud to say that we are on the right track.

Mr. Chancellor Sir,

Despite all these success stories the university has also faced huge financial   challenges as a result of this pandemic. Since the beginning of this pandemic when the academic calendar was interfered with and the University closed prematurely, this had financial implications on the university since all our sources of revenue were stopped. This situation has necessitated the University to pay staff salaries at 60% of the net and the Ministry is already aware.

Currently we are preparing to resume learning after complying with all the Ministry of Health Guidelines. I wish to inform you that we are still facing the challenges of inadequate facilities if we are to comply fully with guidelines. I make humble appeal to our Ministry for additional financial support to reduce the above challenges.

Mr. Chancellor Sir,

As I conclude, I want to remind my graduands that this is not the end of everything but just the beginning of good things to come. I want to remind them to continue beaming with hopes, desires and prospects for the future. We have innovatively influenced your development through holistic education, generation, acquisition, preservation and dissemination of knowledge and skills. It’s my wish that all these will contribute to national and global development. I look forward to your coming back for further studies to explore areas that strengthen your career. 

Congratulations. I expect great things from you. Please follow protocols and stay safe.

Cabinet Secretary, Ministry of Education, Science and Technology Chancellors of other Universities present Chairman, Egerton University Council Council Members, Egerton University Chairpersons of councils of other universities Vice Chancellor, Egerton University Deputy Vice Chancellors, Egerton University Vice chancellors of other universities All invited Guests, Members of staff, graduands, parents and guardians Ladies and gentlemen, It is my pleasure and privilege to preside over this 42nd graduation ceremony and to take this opportunity to thank all graduands for their achievements, dedication, hard work and perseverance that has culminated into this graduation ceremony. I know you have made a mark for yourselves. As a University we join you in celebrating your achievements on this day. It is my prayer that you shall put your knowledge at the service of humanity and that with the help of your contributions the country and the world at large shall be a better place for you and the generations to come. Allow me also to take this opportunity to thank the University Council, the University Management, staff, students and the whole university community for their tireless efforts that has culminated into this occasion. Well-done and continue doing this good work for the growth and economic development of our motherland Kenya.

 

The infection curve has recently steepened as young Kenyans are getting infected rapidly due to socializing with no regard to protection. I urge all the graduants and university students to keep healthy by practicing healthy habits, for example taking healthy diet, keeping fit by daily exercises and walking.

Keep yourself busy and your young minds occupied by being helpful to your parents and guardians at home. Help in the shamba, do house work and take care of your family’s economic activities.

To the graduands and all students, do not resolve or get involved in substance abuse, criminal activities and idling. As the saying goes an idle mind is the devil’s workshop.
In all your undertakings take precaution and always observe the government stipulated directives of social distancing, wearing of face masks, avoiding crowded places, sanitizing and washing hands with soap and water frequently.
The Government will not watch or police everyone. Always protect your loved ones and close associates from this deadly disease by observing these simple practices which will intern save lives. It is a personal responsibility and not the Government’s, plan your life keeping in mind the situation at hand. We cannot keep doing things normally, extra care is needed to save our lives.

This is a difficult time but I am confident that we will get out of it together. I reiterate we shall overcome this pandemic together and I am happy to say that this situation will not last forever. As His excellency the President stated, The Government will not close the country to preserve the economy but it is our individual responsibility to preserve our health. We have faith that the economy will be back on its feet again and businesses will start opening, whereby you will have the chance to apply the knowledge you have acquired throughout your years in the university.

As a university we stand in solidarity with the health workers, who are infected by Covid-19 while treating our brothers and sisters. Some medical workers have lost their lives We pray for their families for God to give them comfort and strength.

I appeal to each one of us to lend a hand in one way or another through humble donations of food supplies, drugs, medical equipment and financial support so that the less privileged people in society can be helped and saved.

I urge you to leave to the University motto of Transforming Lives through quality education by creating a world where there will be, no unemployment, no poverty and no extremism and each day the world would be safer, better and healthier than on previous days.

Ladies and Gentlemen, You are graduating from a University with rich history having been founded as Farm school in 1939 by Lord Maurice Egerton of Tatton. This University has given us many leaders in Politics, in Finance and also in Business. Many Governors and Cabinet Secretaries have been products of this institution. I am sure one day you will be the future leader and the business men and ladies from this great university. I take this opportunity to thank our donor partners, the National Government, County Government, the World Bank, the MasterCard Foundation, USAID, the European Union, the Chinese Government and many more who have continued to supplement the efforts of the University. We say thank you. Ladies and Gentlemen, In conclusion I urge you to keep walking because the journey has just started. Opportunity is waiting for you. Remove failure from your dictionary, be the ambassador of this great University and our motherland Kenya.

Remember to stay safe because we need you for tomorrow. I once again congratulate you graduands and wish you all the best in your future endeavors.