SPEECH BY THE GUEST OF HONOUR, HON. KIRAITU MURUNGI, GOVERNOR, MERU COUNTY DURING THE SEVENTEENTH CONGREGATION FOR THE AWARD OF DIPLOMAS AND CONFERMENT OF DEGREES AT THE KENYA METHODIST UNIVERSITY (KEMU) HELD ON SATURDAY, 14^TH OCTOBER 2017

I am delighted to be here to share in this joyful occasion with you today. I am particularly happy to note that today, the pioneer class of the School of Medicine and Health Sciences is graduating alongside the rest of the graduands. Congratulations!

This day marks the first day of your life after school. It is an exciting beginning of a new journey in your life. It is my hope and prayer you will enjoy the rest of your journey.

This day is also important because it has provided a rare opportunity for your parents and friends to meet and celebrate your hard work and achievements. Allow me to commend parents, lecturers and other staff of this great university and those who have in one way or another contributed to the success of all those graduating today.

As the Ubuntu philosophy teaches us ‘a person is a person through other people’. Each person is who they are because of the efforts of others.

KEMU is one of the top universities in Kenya. We are very proud of it because its main campus is located in our county. It offers high quality education and moral guidance to its students and we celebrate the intellectual diversity of this university. It is a jewel in our county because it is the only University in this Mount Kenya East region offering programmes in medicine and health services.

My government will work with KEMU to improve education standards in this county. We want this county to be the county with the highest number of professors, doctors and top scholars. In this regard, we shall establish a Meru Education Fund to support bright students to pursue higher degrees especially in medicine and engineering. We also have plans to make the Meru Teaching and Referral Hospital a top teaching and referral hospital by collaborating with this University.

We want KEMU to produce highly qualified doctors and other professionals who will transform our society and make Meru great. We all need to work together to improve learning infrastructure and environment in our schools.

My government will help schools’ boards of management to establish alumni associations in all our schools right from primary schools in order to encourage former students to give back to society. I urge everyone here today to go back to your former schools and help in improving their infrastructure and academic performance.

I do not believe that university education should merely be an accumulation and repetition of old stories and asking difficult abstract questions. The university should produce men and women of wisdom who will challenge and change our society and generate practical solutions for the problems afflicting our society.

While fulfilling our demands for skilled professional managerial and bureaucratic institutions, the university should not lose focus of its core function in research and pursuit of knowledge as we have many unresolved problems including cancer and HIV/AIDS.

We should not forget that no Kenyan has landed on the moon or space yet. I also believe that the university should not be an ivory tower institution cut off and alienated from our society. The university should be involved in our social struggle for liberating our people from persistent drought, misery and poverty.

The university should also not shy off from seeking problems to our seemingly unending political contradictions. This university is unique in its focus on Christianity and moral values in its programmes.

There has been much excitement about digital platforms and processes especially by politicians. While the digital era generates a lot of data, we should not forget that it is still a human being who analyses the data and determines whether it is relevant or irrelevant, or whether it is true or false. Focus on technology should not blind us to the moral and ethical issues of social injustice, economic deprivation and the dehumanisation of our society.

I also wish to add that development is so much more than roads, water pipes and computers. It is also about values and beings with a conscience. I thank this university for producing professionals who are human beings.

Education especially professional education should not confer us with masks, artificial titles, or superiority complex which alienates and separates us from our people. The various degrees we have received here today should help us to generate new ideas which will help our people to rise higher, suffer less and enjoy life for longer.

As you go out to the world today, smile, be positive, be curious and eager to learn as there are many more lessons of life waiting for you out there. I want you to see this graduation as a new beginning of your new journey to a more promising, richer and fulfilling life.

Remember what the Roman nobleman Cassins told his friend Brutus in the famed Shakespeare’s play Julius Caesar, ‘The fault dear Brutus, is not in our stars but in ourselves that we are underlings’. In this new journey, do not forget your responsibility to God, your family, your community and your country, Kenya.

When others are building roads and bridges, Kenya is still debating about its election date. It is time to move on.

As I conclude, allow me to most sincerely thank the Presiding Bishop who is also the chancellor of this university and all those who have worked tirelessly to make this very colourful function such a great success.

We shall be forever grateful to you for this institution, once again;

Congratulations and God Bless.