Distinguished guests, graduates and alumni;
Let me begin with a special word of welcome not only to the graduating Class of 2018 but also to all of you here who may someday be members of some graduating class of the Kenya Methodist University; the Class of 2019, or 2020 or the class of 2022.
I also commend the Methodist Church in Kenya for its outstanding contribution to education which has seen KEMU become the first private university in Kenya to graduate medical doctors and surgeons.
You graduate at a time of great change and momentous challenges that include a difficult economy; debt and tax burdens, corruption and unemployment.
I want to assure all of you that as leaders, we are going all out and doing what was once unthinkable to address these problems and bequeath you a better country.
President Bill Clinton said that if he were to sum up his view of public life, it would come down to… “Are people better off when you quit than when you started? Do children have a brighter future? Are things coming together instead of being torn apart?” I fully subscribe to this view.
Many of you here call me Baba, and I accept the title with all humility. I want to assure you that as a father, I am determined to ensure that things work for you, that you have a brighter future and that Kenyans are better off when I quit than when I started. This is the reason we agreed with President Uhuru Kenyatta to put aside everything else and work for Kenya.
To help us realize this dream, I wish to appeal to the youth to aspire to higher ideals that they shall never compromise on for the sake of Kenya. Our youth must constantly ask; “Is there anything I have to put myself on the line for, for the sake of my community, my neighbor and my country or am I living in vain?
I want the youth of Kenya to believe that success comes from hard work and playing by the rules; not short cuts and shady deals. That is the only way to build a country that cares for of all citizens and stands the tests of survival.
I am aware that as youth, you did not create the divided, tribal, corrupt and unequal Kenya that you find yourselves in. But you can use your education to stop these ills. On that journey, I will cover your backs and walk with you.
Ladies and Gentlemen;
Kenya needs to move forward in its economy, politics and social programs. What will make Kenya a better place for our children and earn it respect among nations, is knowledge.
That knowledge will come from three things that I wish to raise strongly at this congregation. These three things are; One, research, Two, research, Three, research.
Even in these hard economic times, we need to regard research as an indispensable investment in our future. Without research, we are sitting ducks in a rapidly and constantly changing world. Without research, we are fighting in the dark and hoping to develop by chance.
I believe we have to cut our coat according to our size as a country. I am therefore not insisting on research that secures us more patents than any other country or that wins us Nobel prizes for science, important as these are.
I am calling on our country to begin by investing in and supporting more of basic research that is meant to teach us rather than to invent or develop new products. That will have to be led by our universities.
We need to factor in and assign research components of each flagship project of our development agenda to a specific university based on the known strength of that university.
The truth however is that research is underfunded and ranks dangerously low in our list of priorities.
While UNESCO recommends that nations spend 2 to 3 per cent of their GDP on research, we spend only 0.8 per cent of our GDP on research.
How then will our children catch up with South Korea, for instance, which spends 4.3 per cent of its GDP on research?
Our government needs to set specific goals and targets for university contribution to national development goals.
As a country, we need to agree that each year; we will devote more money to research and a clear list of the projects to be financed and why they matter.
We will then need to link these projects with industries so that their results lead to new and better and competitive products.
I believe that until and unless that is done, our universities will continue to lag behind others in research while our governments will continue to record long lists of projects that failed to take off.
I am aware that we are straining and hurting economically and some will say we have no money to spare for such futuristic projects. But nations are built through hard choices and sacrifices.
We must always be willing to sacrifice our comfort today to ensure the comfort of the next generation.
For our universities to transform our society and meet international expectations, quality assurance is critical. This is a role the Commission for University Education (CUE) and the Ministry of Education must play without fear or favour with regard to courses and curriculum.
We also need to jealously guard the value of education by mounting a vicious crackdown on the fake and undeserved degrees that are sprouting in Kenya.
We must be merciless with people, including politicians who obtain degrees without having stepped in any classroom. Kenya must be led by people who have earned the papers they present for leadership positions.
As we pursue standards, we must listen to and address the concerns of key stakeholders especially private universities like KEMU as well as by the faculty of all universities. These bodies have raised concern about the apparent attempt to micromanage the design and delivery of courses and even to supervise and evaluate lecturers by the CUE. This approach threatens to make universities identical and undermine their autonomy.

Individual institutions must be allowed to create their niches and design innovative programs that differentiate them in the job market, win them global recognition and enable them bring different capacities to the building of our nation.
I am aware that our universities are struggling with funding challenges with public institutions hardest hit. This is making it difficult particularly for the public universities to meet even basic statutory commitments to NHIF, NSSF, Pensions funds, and staff Saccos.
Some universities are even unable to remit PAYE deductions.
Our society needs to adopt the philanthropic culture that has seen the rich in the developed world support scholarships, endowment funds and capital campaigns in their universities. We must also crackdown on wastage and outright theft of resources in our universities.
Universities are not got going to inspire hope when they are steeped in the bad habits of primitive acquisition, corruption and impunity.
We also need to continue reviewing our policies to promote private investment in higher education. Currently, there is disquiet among private universities that the formulation and implementation of some government policies put them at a disadvantage.
These concerns have to be addressed to enable private universities help the country shoulder the burden of providing education.
Finally; I have spoken in some detail about research and each time we talk about research, we think of the hard sciences. Today, I want to remind this congregation of another kind of research spoken of by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt over 70 years ago when he said…
“If civilization is to survive, we must cultivate the science of human relationships—the ability of all people, of all kinds, to live together, in the same world, at peace.”
Kenya has been, and remains too divided to stand. We must work together to put the pieces that make Kenya back in place. This work of putting the pieces back together is what President Uhuru Kenyatta and I have been up to since the 9th of March.
We have been able to bring calm, tone down the rhetoric and prepare the country for a sober debate on what matters.
Like Roosevelt, I ask that if you want to measure our success, judge us by the enemies we have made. The agents of hate and division have attempted to declare war on the noble cause for unity and peace. We must resist and shun such people.
I appeal to Kenyans to embrace the idea that ‘Competition is useful up to a certain point and no further and that cooperation begins where competition ends. Cooperation is what we must strive for today, it is what the president and I have chosen and we want history to judge us by it.
Let’s join hands in this journey. I wish success in all your pursuits.
Thank you.

Hon Raila Odinga has left the country for about a week to attend the burial of former UN Secretary General Dr. Kofi Annan in Ghana before proceeding to the U.S.
Mr. Odinga left the country this afternoon for a brief stop-over in the United Arab Emirates before proceeding to Ghana for Dr Anna’s burial on September 13, 2018.
From Ghana, Mr. Odinga will proceed to the US where is scheduled to deliver a lecture at Duke University in North Carolina. He will also deliver lectures at the George Washington University and at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), a non-profit think tank that specializes in U.S. foreign policy and international affairs. The CFR lecture will take place at the organization’s Washington, DC offices.
While in the US, Mr. Odinga is also scheduled to hold talks with government and business leaders.
DENNIS ONYANGO
SEPTEMBER 9, 2018

I am profoundly shocked to learn of the passing of Africa’s top diplomat, former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan.
I extend sincere condolences to the family and friends of Dr. Annan and the U.N fraternity.
In Kenya, we retain fond memories of Dr. Annan as the man who stepped in and saved the country from collapse following the 2007-2008 post-election violence. Much remains to be done of the plan he proposed for the country as a road map to lasting peace and stability and it is my hope that we could do it in his honour.
I wish to express deep gratitude and appreciation of Dr. Annan for his dedicated and tireless work in stabilizing the world and encouraging Africa to aspire to higher ideals of democracy, respect for human rights and sound governance as the path to sustainable peace and economic development.
More than any other UN Secretary General, Annan best understood pushed the world to see the importance of human rights to peace, security, humanitarian affairs, economic and social development. His death is a major blow to the push for respect of human rights across the globe.
The world will always remember and honour Dr. Annan for what became known as “the Annan Doctrine” in which he made it clear that the need to respect sovereignty cannot be used as a shield by governments to brutalize their own citizens and that the international community has a right to intervene, when governments fail to protect the lives of their citizens. That will remain a pillar of hope for many people across the world for generations to come if it can be adhered to. May he rest in eternal peace.
H.E. RAILA ODINGA;

;Let me begin by saying congratulations to the young men and women who have graduated today.
This is both an end and a beginning for you as you mark the end of your studies in this institution and begin your journey to the dream of your life.
This day has been intertwined with the celebration of one of our modern day heros, Hon. Charles Rubia.
I am honoured to witness the conferment of this honour on this man of many firsts, courage and solid achievements.
On this occasion, I am reminded of the timeless words of President Theodore Roosevelt way back in April 1899:
“Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to take rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in the gray twilight that knows not victory nor defeat.”
Hon Rubia fits the bill of our citizens who dared mighty things, won glorious triumphs, lost some battles and won some, all for the good of our nation.
All his life, he refused to join the club of people who never sacrificed, never suffered and never learnt.
As the first African mayor of Nairobi from 1962 to 1967, Rubia had the daunting task of turning Nairobi into a modern African city and rid it of its segregated life that put Africans at the bottom, followed by Asians and topped by whites. He made it happen.
As Kenya’s representative on the Africanization Commission of the East African Common Services Organization and as a Director representing Kenya in The East African Development Bank Board, Rubia stood up for our country and put it on the trajectory that saw us emerge as one of the strongest economies in Africa.
In the intervening years, Hon. Rubia served Nairobi and Kenya as Member of Parliament for Starehe and a minister with dedication and distinction.
But in the last 20 years or so, we have come to define Hon. Rubia with his May 1990 press conference at the New Stanley Hotel together with Hon. Kenneth Matiba at which they challenged the forces of status quo to open up the country’s political space.
In a subsequent interview, Hon. Rubia said: “We really risked our necks because it wasn’t a joke at that time.” I can’t agree more.
As you may recall, at that time, as pressure mounted on Nyayo regime, Kanu and the entire government machinery hit the road touring the whole country – in fact every Province was visited – and with big rallies organized to castigate us proponents of multipartysm.
So it took real courage to stick out your neck, knowing well the consequences. But Muranga has produced many heroes. We had Kenneth Matiba and there was Bildad Kaggia. These are lives we should emulate, embrace and celebrate.
Creating a stable, modern and respected nation that also respects its citizens requires sacrifice and dedication by citizens and leaders.
A generation of Kenyans that has done more than its share in making Kenya great like Hon Rubia here is giving way with their heads high.
We must be prepared to embrace their spirit and carry the country forward.
We must be prepared afresh to take up J.F. Kennedy’s doctrine that asks not what our country can do for us and instead as what we can do for our country.
As a country, we are once again at that critical juncture where we have to embrace the doctrine of hard work, tough decisions and sacrifices for the sake of the nation.
The magnitude of the sacrifices required might not be at par with those we had to make a decade ago or our fathers had to make over five decades ago.
But the goal remains the same; it is the search for a perfect nation. We cannot and we must never stop struggling to make Kenya a perfect nation.
The sacrifices by our fathers in the 1950s and 1960s rid us of colonialists. The sacrifices and hard work by the likes of Hon. Rubia in the 1990s gave us a more open and tolerant government and even a new constitution.
We are now called upon to rededicate our energies to dealing with the threats to the independence our fathers fought for and the freedoms, liberties and rights that came with the struggles of the 1980s to this day.
These threats are ethnic antagonism, lack of national ethos, exclusion, divisive elections and corruption.
There has been deterioration in the relationship between our communities since independence. We have to stop this trend.
We must stop this country from being defined by violence, corruption and impunity and create a more positive culture and image. We must stand together, bring everyone on board and agree that we are weaker alone, stronger together.
We must fix our elections so that elections cease being a threat to stability, economy and lives. Every five years, this country comes to a standstill as electioneering sets in. people lose businesses, property and lives. We must stop this.
And we must tackle corruption and stop it from destroying Kenya. Corruption is being accepted as a way of life in Kenya. We must stop it being easy and profitable.
We want to encourage Kenyans to believe that success comes from hard and honest work. We must close all sanctuaries for the corrupt.
Then and only then shall we say that the sacrifices our fathers and later our compatriots made, were worth the effort and the pain.
Thank you and God Bless Kenya.

Today at his Capitol Hill offices, H.E. Raila Odinga met with representatives of civil society groups from South Sudan who briefed him on developments in the country. The civil society leaders also expressed a strong desire for Kenya to take over the peace process.
The civil society representatives further expressed strong fears that despite the semblance of progress in the peace process, the situation in South Sudan is degenerating each passing day and Kenya remains the last best hope for South Sudanese. They urged Kenya to take seriously developments in South Sudan.
The group appealed to Kenya to steer the South Sudan process back to issues and not positions and individuals. They appealed to Kenya to export the creativity that has seen it pull from the brink in the past stating that on-going talks, if not handled with care, could easily lead to another war.
Mr. Odinga reaffirmed Kenya’s enduring commitment to finding peace in South Sudan, describing the situation in the country as regrettable and stressful.
“Kenya remains ready to help. We had hoped that independence in South Sudan would give way to reconstruction as happened in Vietnam and Algeria after protracted wars. But we have been disappointed. We however remain committed to the strategic partnership between our country and South Sudan and we will not give up,” Mr. Odinga said.

Today in New Delhi, Mama Ida and I were delighted to be hosted by the Honorable Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi. Kenya and India have benefitted from each other for decades in many sectors and it is our hope that this visit will strengthen development for both our nations.

We spoke on increased Indian investment in Kenya both in Industry and particularly in the health sector but also touched on the Maritime agreement whose aim is to boost transportation, trade and activity in Lake Victoria to see Kenya trade better and more efficiently with its neighbours (via the lake) in East and Central Africa.

JUNE 29, 2018:
At a time the entire Continent of Africa is struggling with the pain of being bundled out of the World Cup, I am glad to welcome Jomo Sono to Kenya. Jomo is a premier footballer, soccer administrator and football entrepreneur with some big plans for the game in Kenya.
I met Jomo in South Africa recently and I interested him in helping develop soccer in Kenya in addition to investing in other areas. He pledged to start soccer academies in the country in addition to starting a football club in Kenya.
It is in that capacity as potential investor in Kenya soccer and in our youth that I welcome him to the country.
Jomo has a talent in discovering and developing new football talent, especially from rural areas. Phil Masinga, Helman Mkhalele, Mark Fish of Bafana Bafana were some of his recruits who went ahead to do a great duty for their country in soccer.
The lack of money and professionalism, as well as poor youth development is hurting Africa’s soccer and we must address these urgently.
The world of football is a multi-billion business that requires a high level of professionalism. As a country and a Continent, we have a long way on the road to professionalism. We need improvement in nearly all departments.
We need to scale up student participation rate in football in school and make that participation as professional as possible.
In countries that have made impact even in the ongoing World Cup, most of boys in the ages of 7 and 12 play soccer in schools under what is very close to professional guidance.
We most likely don’t have data on soccer in our schools and where it takes place, it is largely a pedestrian affair. We need to change that.
We need our kids to play often and in a structured way. In Europe, the recommended period is 4.5 hours a week for 40 weeks. Today, there is no structure that even allows this in our schools.
Football now needs to be a co-curricular, not extra-curricular activity.
Centres of excellence must now go from being just empty talk. They must sprout everywhere.
Then the best of the young talents need a comprehensive development system which is currently lacking.
We need pitches, a pool of coaches, fitness and goalkeeper coaches.
We need to revisit the national service commitments of young players during the most crucial period of their development.
The weak coffers have prevented us from sending our teams overseas more often for top-level exposure. Our soccer managers must present us with solid plans for raising money for our game. We cannot afford to be bundled out at group stages next World Cup.