Ugandan university honours Mt Kenya University founder with PhD

Mt Kenya University founder Simon Nyutu Gicharu.

One of Kenya’s leading entrepreneurs in university education, Simon Nyutu Gicharu, has been recognised and awarded an honorary doctorate of philosophy (PhD) by a Ugandan university for his outstanding contribution to the sector in East Africa.

Mr Gicharu, the brain behind Mt Kenya University (MKU), which has 10 institutions and presence in Kenya, Rwanda and Somalia has been invited to share his extraordinary story of scaling the heights of education by Gulu University during its 10th graduation on October 25.

Gulu University said it had decided to honour the chairman and founder of MKU, with an honorary Doctor of Science degree for his contribution in the field of Science education in the region.

In the invitation dated October 18, 2014, Gulu University’s Vice Chancellor Prof JH Nyeko Pen-Mogi writes: “We shall be pleased if you can narrate your humble journey to building an academic institution of such magnitude to the audience and the young graduating students on that day.”

MKU started as a computer outreach programme and later became a formal institute of technology in 2000. Eight years later, it was awarded a letter of interim authority and started offering university education.