UoN to offer dry land management courses at Kibwezi campus
University of Nairobi's Jesse Njoka (Third left) joins some of the Makueni County residents in handing a document to Governor Kivutha Kibwana as his deputy Adelina Mwau looks on at Wote Town on December 21, 2015. Njoka announced that the university is planning to upgrade the Kibwezi Field Station to a full-fledged university college. PHOTO | PIUS MAUNDU | NATION MEDIA GROUP
What you need to know:
- Speaking in Wote Town after he paid a courtesy call to Governor Kivutha Kibwana, Prof Jesse Njoka said that plans to upgrade the university's field station in Kibwezi to a full-fledged university college had reached an advanced stage.
- African Dry Lands Institute for Sustainability, that would house the Kibwezi campus, is a reincarnation of the defunct Institute for Dry Land Development and Utilization that grounded in 2005, said Prof Njoka.
University of Nairobi is set to start offering courses on dry land management at its Kibwezi field station, the university’s director of the Centre for Sustainable Dry Land Ecosystems and Societies has said.
Speaking in Wote Town after he paid a courtesy call to Governor Kivutha Kibwana, Prof Jesse Njoka said that plans to upgrade the university's field station in Kibwezi to a full-fledged university college had reached an advanced stage.
“We are very keen to establish academic programmes in Kibwezi as a way of kick-starting that centre as a major campus or a college of the University of Nairobi,” said Prof Njoka.
Already, he said, the university’s Senate had approved bachelors degrees in Dry Land Economics and Agrosystem as well as Water Resource Management as some of the courses that would be offered at the new campus.
African Dry Lands Institute for Sustainability, that would house the Kibwezi campus, is a reincarnation of the defunct Institute for Dry Land Development and Utilization that grounded in 2005, said Prof Njoka.
He extolled the yet-to-be-set up campus, saying that it would offer experiential learning to students in the areas of irrigation and water management.
“We really look forward to work together with the Makueni County government and the local community in making this college a reality,” said Prof Njoka at the press conference that was attended by the governor and his deputy Ms Adelina Mwau.
Welcoming the proposal to set up the institution in the county, Prof Kibwana interested the university in nurturing a home-grown college under the University of Nairobi.
“We laud the Kibwezi community that surrendered 12,000 acres of land to the University of Nairobi, and urge this university to consider nurturing our own Makueni University College that would later grow into an autonomous university,” said Prof Kibwana.
Praising the courses proposed to be offered at the Kibwezi campus, the governor said that UoN’s presence in the area would help address perennial food shortage problem.
