We continue to share comments from the Director of the Oklahoma Ag Leadership Program Edmond Bonjour as Class XXI travels across parts of Kenya for their International Capstone study experience.
On the second Wednesday of their international travel, the OALP visited Egerton University, the oldest institution of higher learning in Kenya. It was founded as a Farm School in 1939 by Lord Maurice Egerton of Tatton, and became a university in 1987. The university has 19,000 students and 1,450 staff. About 30% of the university faculty are in agriculture. We initially met with the CESAAM (Centre of Excellence in Sustainable Agriculture and Agribusiness Management) core-team and the Division of Research and Extension team.
There are 24 Centers of Excellence supported by the World Bank. This center was established in 2016. They have had 272 graduate students sponsored, 52% of which are women. Some of the issues they are working on include food insecurity and persistent hunger, and youth unemployment. Some of the innovations of the center are sorghum bread, cassava beer certification (8% alcohol), reduced-sugar jam, capsules to detect antibiotic residues in raw milk, and bean seed varieties for the market. They are very innovative, but there are challenges getting these innovations to farmers and the public. The center has farm internships where students live and work with farmers.
We then took a short walking tour of some of the agricultural center including the fish farm, black soldier fly project, vegetable greenhouse production, and yogurt processing. Before lunch, a few of us met with Professor Bernard Aduda, Deputy Vice-Chancellor of Academic Affairs.
Because of a miscommunication about lunch, Egerton University provided the OALP a buffet, so we had box lunches that we did not need. Through our tour guide’s daughter, we were able to make a connection with Shalom Gate Children’s Home to donate the lunch boxes. Shalom Gate started in 1998 by Margaret Nyokabi Muchiri, with two children whom she took into custody. Then in 2000, four orphans were added. In 2015, Margaret was approached by a well-wisher who gave her a small piece of land to put up a temporary structure for orphans and the vulnerable.
Since 2019, it has been officially registered as a Community Based Organization. They currently have 60 orphans and vulnerable children up to age 18. The center is built on a strong Christian foundation and all members live as an integrated family. Margaret shared about the center, the children sang to us, we gave them the boxed lunches, and then Margaret prayed for us. It was a moving, impromptu visit.
As Class XXI continues to travel across Kenya- the application for Class XXII is now available on line at the OALP website. Click here for that application– which is due by May first, 2025. In person interviews will happen in June and the XXII will meet for the first time in August of this year.
