In 1984,the late Professor Douglas Odhiambo B.Sc (Bristol) PhD (London) was tasked with establishing Moi University as its inaugural Vice-Chancellor.
He took a bus from Nairobi accompanied by a secretary with a typewriter, and pitched camp at Kaptagat Hotel.
He erected two tents in the hotel grounds and organised for the transfer of 83 students from UoN to become the first students at Moi.
The institution, which was largely financed by Moi’s own efforts, later relocated to a 3000 acre piece of land donated by Tiny Rowland, Chairman of Lonrho.
Within a short time Moi University had transformed from a tented institution based in a hotel to a modern university with magnificent buildings and facilities.
Prof Odhiambo served until 1988 when he handed over to Prof Okoth Keya B.Sc (Makerere), M.Sc and PhD (Cornell). Just like his predecessor Prof Okoth also initiated and oversaw massive projects at Moi.
No one captured the indelible mark the two intellectuals left on the institution like the late Sir Michael Blundell in his memoirs ‘A Love Affair With the Sun.’
In his admiration of the efforts of Prof Odhiambo and Prof Okoth he wrote: “Moi University is a marvellous example of what a dynamic vice-chancellor,and his colleagues can create in less than six years.”
He went on to state that by 1994, “Moi University has 8,000 students in residence. Magnificent buildings built in a palladian neoclassical style, halls of residence, lecture rooms, a model village for estate workers which would be acclaimed anywhere in Western Europe, staff housing of quality and even a nursery of 250,000 trees, all of indigenous species to grace the university grounds and to help local farmers with the Government-accredited tree planting scheme.”
“To round it all off, a magnificent avenue, half a mile long leading the visitor up to the Senate building will be planted with Podocarpus gracilior trees – a lovely species, growing to 150 feet in height with dark green glossy foliage, a relative of the yew family. This decision alone shows imagination, a concept of long-term planning, and a desire to lift the human spirit above the whirls of dust, the waving grassy plains, the innumerable trials and tribulations of the peasant scene in Africa, which seems to me to augur well for the future of Kenya.”
Moi University’s current situation must be saddening to Prof Keya while Prof Odhiambo and H.E Daniel Arap Moi must be turning in their graves. All their efforts and vision to establish a world class university are almost going down the drain.
