The Mountain Journal
Former Laikipia Governor Lands New Role at Dedan Kimathi University of Technology has appointed former Laikipia Governor Ndiritu Muriithi as a Policy Research Fellow.
The university said the appointment was as a result of Mr Mruiithi’s contribution in public service particularly in developing new approaches to small project implementation in the public sector and innovation in the financing of the public projects.
In addition, the former governor created frameworks for promotion of innovators in the informal sector as vehicles for realizing Kenya’s industrialization goals as well as empowering small, micro and medium enterprises for wealth creation.
Vice-chancellor Prof Paul Ndirangu Kioni said Mr Muriithi’s appointment is affiliated to Dekut UNESCO chair on Anticipatory Socio-Technical Systems. Through Research Fellow and Visiting Professors policy, the university aims at enriching research and knowledge dissemination environment.
“Research Fellows and Visiting Professors bring to the university new ideas and perspectives as well as knowledge acquired in an environment vastly different from that of the faculty in Dekut,” Prof Kioni said.
The VC added that this diversity of perspectives and backgrounds is a recognized powerful catalyst for rapid generation of novel ideas and solutions to problems.
Through Mr Muriithi’s appointment, the university hopes to achieve better engagement of faculty with the industry, enhanced relevance of the university education and research which is more responsive to the needs of society.
During his tenure as governor of Laikipia, Mr Muriithi’s administration collaborated closely with the university in areas of innovation, manufacturing and project management.
In May this year, the university and Nanyuki-based Mwireri Engineering -a firm under Mr Muriithi’s Laikipia Innovation and Enterprise Development programme-developed an industrial scale maize drier.
The county government purchased the drier for Kinamba cereal warehouse and were to produce two more for Sipili and Mutanga warehouses.
The university’s engineering department also worked with the county government to develop the Laikipia-made four-wheeler tuktuk BJ50 in Nyahururu.
At the height of Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, the two institutions also collaborated to develop a medical ventilator.
In June this year, about 90 senior county government officers graduated with a post graduate diploma in project management which they learned using public projects that they were implementing at the county level.
