Grace Jeptoo, a mother of three is one of the staff members of Baraton International School (BIS) the school that is serving the University of Eastern African, Baraton (UEAB) fraternity.
Jeptoo is perturbed by the impact of the 2007/08 post election violence whose seismic ripples are being felt as we prepare for this year, 2013 general election, voting exercise on Monday, March 4.
I cannot believes it, Jeptoo says, the manner in which students are streaming out of the campus heading to their various homes and countries. Why should elections turn us into strangers to one another? She asks with atone of regret.
We are friends; she goes on to explain, sharing our joys and tears, lifting one another’s burden as well as celebrating one another’s success regardless of tribe or color.
Jeptoo wishes that every Kenyan - come March 4 till the inauguration of the fourth president of this beloved nation will seize this period as an opportunity to usher in a new beginning – of a people who can stand together notwithstanding having diverse opinion and coming from different tribes.
UEAB, the first private university to be charted in Kenya and the first in East and Central Africa to start offering Bachelors of Science in Nursing (BSCN) as well as degrees in Electronics and Automotive Technology among other programs from diplomas to PhD attracts students from the entire continent and beyond was adversely affected during the 2007/08 postelection violence.
At the apex of the violence it took the intervention of government in corroboration with the Seventh Day Adventist (SDA) General Conference’s wing of the East - Central Africa Division (ECD) to air lifts some of the administration, lectures and staff as well as transporting students to their various destinations under heavy security. It was expensive, one of the administrators involved says.
John says with the commencement outbreak of the violence it was a matter of days before their means of accessing food become a night mere as they were not prepared for the same.
One of the professors, a missionary in the institutions says that one day after another, during the violence, they were engulfed in fear to eat or sleep – prayer for God’s intervention was their only source of strength.
Furthermore, Mr James Momanyi, now a retired student finance manager home was destroyed and everything taken to cite a case among the many who suffered great loss.
It is with this backdrop that the 2008 graduating class build the Amani monuments, two, one on the right hand side of the main entrance to administration block of the university with a dove overlooking the map of Kenya being showered with springs of water in the convergence of various streams colored of rays – a testimony that Kenyans can live in peace with one another and be partakers of God’s blessing notwithstanding being a tapestry of various tribes.
The second monument is built behind the university hospital, Jeremic and some safe distance from the university church, UEAB English church, and Bill and Malinda Gates Research Centre - a map of Africa with majestic faunas and elegant rivers flowing around it. A testimony to sense of belonging welcome to those from the rest of the world – UEAB lectures and staff comes from various parts of the world, too.
Last week the department of English and Literature head by Mr Edward Mooka extolled the UEAB community on the importance of nurturing right communication since words can build or destroy. The theme of the week was language as a tool of unity.
The speakers included Prof Okumu Bigambo, a communication expert at Moi University who demystified that communication goes beyond mere use of words rather the whole outflow of the heart in its various forms.
In the nut shell the leitmotif of the week was a call to use whichever means of communication to edify one another however how different their opinion might be as we are coming to the home stretch of the campaigning period.
Prayers and sermons punctuated the various presents on the power of words in form of poetry and drama. Prof Elizabeth Role, the director of post graduate studies challenged Kenyans to embrace the language of love, the language of Jesus which is understood by everyone and has the power of magnetizing Kenyans into a one people, one nation for the common good of all.
Kenyans were challenged to forget the past by each one of them examining how he or she has contributed, whether in a small or big way, to push it into negative ethnicity and vow to be a living solution from now enhance forth.
With the opportunity of students and faculty from different nation, some of them gone through a bloody past, yes some yet to recover fully – the Kenyan people have been challenged to use this election as a golden moment to proclaim to the world that: with one accord and in common bond they will be united to build Kenya, together, into its envisioned glory and joyfully share the fruit their labour - filling every heart with thanksgiving, to paraphrase part of the national anthem.
UEAB Vice Chancellor, Prof Miriam Mwita assured the community that the government has put up necessary security mechanisms, thus encouraging both foreign and Kenyan students who will wish to stay to do so at UEAB.
He called for the university students to be ambassadors of the Kenya they are dreaming to live in wherever they will be.
Prof Mwita says the objective of education is to transforms lives that will in turn transform their nations into a better and admirable place to live.
Yes, the change every Kenyan is yearning for should first be experienced by every individual thus justice, love and unity flowing like a mighty stream into a prosperous future, Jeptoo is envisioning.
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