Newest kid on the block, varsity named after Tom Mboya

HOMA BAY: Flamboyant trade unionist and educationist behind the popular ‘air lifts’ that would change the face of education on the continent never lived long enough to see his dream of tertiary education for the masses come true in his own backyard.

Forty years after his demise, Tom Mboya’s name will once again be engraved on a national institution; Homa Bay County’s first ever university.

The Tom Mboya Memorial University College, a constituent college of Maseno University, opens its doors on September 1.

Excitement is rife in the county and Governor Cyprian Awiti says the university will solve the growing thirst for higher education in the area.

More symbolically, though, the development will fulfill the ambitions of one of Homa Bay’s greatest sons to provide higher education to his people.

It was through the Airlift Africa project started by Mboya in the late 1950s in conjunction with African American Students Foundation in the US that saw 81 Kenyan students study at American universities.

Indeed Barack Obama Sr, US President Barack Obama’s dad, and Wangari Maathai were some of the products of the airlift.

The political grapevine has it that Mboya was determined to set up a university in his own village—even though he did not go to school to that level himself; something that baffled many owing to his brilliance.

According to Odede Ouma, Mboya’s maternal cousin, the firebrand politician was development conscious, adding that: “His biggest wish was to get as many children to school as possible.”

Now, Mboya’s dream of quality higher education is being realised at his own backyard.

Last week, contractors were putting final touches on the hostels two of which have been named after Kenya’s First Lady, Margaret Kenyatta and Ida Odinga, wife to former Prime Minister Raila Odinga.

“We have refurbished the Agricultural Training Centre. The lecture rooms are ready and we are set to open on September 1,” says Awiti.

Two months ago, the governor signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the management of Maseno University that would see the establishment of the college.

“Our prayers have been answered. We finally have a university college,” Awiti said after he appended his signature to the agreement at the county headquarters.

Prior to this, the governor had requested the County Assembly to approve a Sh38 million in the county Supplementary Budget to help facilitate the refurbishment of the former agricultural centre that would serve as the new university premises.

“I know higher education is not fully devolved but we have to help hasten the process. Our people are very thirsty for a university,” Awiti observes.

The Commission for University Education has inspected the facility and cleared it to operate as a university college.

Maseno University Vice-Chancellor Prof Dominic Makawiti says they hope to have the first enrolment in September. “If all goes well, Tom Mboya Memorial University will be a chartered university in the next three years,” he says.

The governor observes that Homa bay was among the few counties in the country that had no universities.

With a university, opportunities for locals open up. Awiti has advised local investors to start constructing residential and business facilities in Homa Bay Town to accommodate students and lecturers for indeed the university will wake up the town with a buzz of activities.

In a short while, the town will be ready for a rapid economic take-off never witnessed before, he believes.

“We will need facilities and we must start building them now. We will also need a lot of food and our farmers must double their efforts in food production through mechanised farming,” says the governor.

He said the signing of the MoU was a culmination of a long process by a task force led by former Moi University V-C, Prof Selemia Keya and a team of scholars hailing from Homa Bay.