education: Change of guard at MKU

 The Mountain Journal team

Prof Deogratius Jaganyi has been installed the second Vice Chancellor at Mt Kenya University (MKU).

In a colourful ceremony, Prof Jaganyi who worked previously at South Africa’s University of KwaZulu Natal, took over from Prof Stanley Waudo.

Waudo retired after steering  MKU   for  a 13-year stint as VC. 

MKU Founder and Chairman Prof Simon Gicharu extolled the achievements by the institution over the last 13 years, adding that in Prof Jaganyi is expected to continue setting the pace for higher education in Kenya and generally Africa. 

“There is no doubt that over the last 13 years, Prof. Waudo has navigated this ship with professionalism and wisdom,” he said at the ceremony. 

“Taking into account the commitment to continuous success now and for generations to come, we embarked on this exercise of recruiting Prof. Waudo’s successor more than a year ago. It was a challenging exercise. We cast the net far and wide, looking for an academic leader who had a strong work ethic, leadership skills and passion to steer us to the next phase of progress.” 

“Prof. Jaganyi was competitively picked. He has more than 20 years’ experience in management and academia from institutions of international repute.” 

Prof Waudo was tapped as VC in 2008 and under his leadership, the university was awarded a Charter. It has since then won several global meritorious awards and emerged first in a number of international research grants awarded to private universities in Kenya. 

Change of Guard 

MKU has also graduated over 100,000 students while achieving internationalization and established several allied institutions notably Equip Africa Institute.  

 Education background of the VC

He completed his primary education in 1974 and secondary in 1978 both at St. Teresa Boys in Eastleigh. 

He then went to high school at Strathmore College in Lovington, where he sat for his Form Six exams before getting his BSc and MSc from the University of Nairobi. He then proceeded to the Imperial College for his PhD. He later joined University of Natal - South Africa (later renamed University of KwaZulu-Natal) as a Physical Chemistry lecturer in 1993. 

He said he would steer MKU deeper into areas of research and innovation, while ensuring that students get not just the traditional skill sets but also new ones, which will be demanded of them at the job market, either as entrepreneurs or employees. He will also look at instilling more life skills to MKU students, noting that the world today requires much more than classroom knowledge. 

“The types of jobs being created are in the emerging fields, Information Communication and Technology (ICT) driven while the old require digital problem-solving skills. Companies already want ‘ABCD’: A for Artificial Intelligence, B for Blockchain, C for Cloud Computing, and D for Data Analytics,” he said. 

“These are emerging skills that companies need to remain globally competitive and they look to universities to provide the required human resource.” 

“The world is in the midst of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, where we are witnessing the extraordinary coming together of the digital, physical and biological realms… these technologies are advancing at a tremendous pace.” 

Jaganyi also added that he will ensure that MKU is ready for young Kenyans who have recently started schooling under the Competency Based Curriculum (CBC). 

“As part of its national mandate MKU has to be ready for the learner who will have gone through the CBC,” he said.  

“MKU will review and align the existing undergraduate programs to CBC and develop world-class, market oriented and transformative academic programs, tailored to address the current and emerging industry and global needs of the present times moving forward, so as to produce highly capable, future-ready graduates who are highly sought-after.” 

He takes over at a time when the country, and generally the world, is reeling from the harsh impact of Covid-19. Schools have to adhere to the protocols by the government aimed at minimising the spread of the disease including social distancing. 

MKU ventured into the world on e-learning with its Open, Distance and Electronic Learning (ODEL) platform. Jaganyi said the university will now increasingly use the platform in teaching, blending it with the traditional learning model. 

“MKU will therefore enhance blended learning and teaching going forward. This will be achieved by leveraging on current and emerging technologies to enhance access and improve quality of University Education as well as investing in the development of premium digital learning platforms,” he said. 

Jaganyi added that he will deepen research at the university. Already, the institution’s researcher have bagged major awards for their work, much of which has been aimed at solving challenges that Kenyans face. 

“If education is the foundation of the MKU, then excellence in research will have to be a defining feature of our institutional landscape,” he said. 

“MKU will embed the agenda of transformative research and innovation at the core of the institution's mandate and mainstream research function in the undergraduate and graduate programs. 

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