Peter Kenneth visits with WPI Professors

“Is it possible to get a location in Kenya,” was the simple direct question put forward to the Assistant Minister of Planning, National Development and Vision 2030 by Professor Njoroge and Professor Gerstenfeld. The professors, who have worked on conceptualizing an idea that would see the system of WPI currently demanded by students from 70 countries put in place in a new university in Kenya, pointed out that everything else is ready and Kenyans abroad are ready.

What lacks is someone with passion to find a location for the envisaged university. Currently the counties that are considered in light of their having developed road system from Garsen to Lunga Lunga, a distance of 300 km as well as Mombasa to Nairobi, a distance of 450 km, include: Kwale County made up of 8,270 sq km (about 2 million acres), Kilifi County made up of 12,610 sq km (about 3.15 million acres), Taita Taveta County made up of 17,000 sq km with 11,000 sq km (about 2.7 million acres) occupied by Tsavo East & West leaving 6,000 sq km (about 1.5 million acres) that can be considered, Tana River County 38,436 km² (about 9.6 million acres), Makueni County 8,008 sq km (about 2 million acres), Machakos County 6,282 sq km (about 1.57 million acres). There is thus a total of more than 20 million acres inside the title deed called Kenya that can be considered. Peter Kenneth said, “Great ideas like this should not be wasted,” and promised to look at this. 

The Kenya University Project, as it is called for now as we await the last system, which is the land, to be developed, is geared toward creating more opportunity for Kenyan high school graduates to get an education similar to what is provided at WPI. Professor Njoroge, whose career spans from setting up the systems and process that led to relocation and expansion of Mangu High School to the current location, having been involved in lecturing at the Nairobi University, transformation of Kenyatta University to a university, and formation of the accreditation body of Kenyan universities, namely, the Commission of Higher Education (CHE) said, “I have taught in many universities in Kenya and abroad and the system we have here at WPI is one of the best in the world today.” WPI is currently rated as number one in U.S. in Masters of Business Administration –MBA.

Professor Arthur Gerstenfeld, who at his mid 80’s, is currently the longest serving member of faculty at WPI and the Professor who helped not only to transform Namibia Polytechnic to the status of a university but also implemented some systems used at WPI at the university in Namibia. He also started the Wall Street and London stock exchange WPI project centers as well as the WPI project centers in Namibia and South Africa. The project center in South Africa is  currently is setting up systems to help local people in South Africa reverse a slum to a well planned town. Professor “Art” as endearingly known in WPI, after listening to Peter Kenneth, was asked what he thought of the Kenyan leader and replied: “He is quite an impressive brilliant man.”   

Professor Njoroge sees the vision of the university as one of empowering Kenya with new systems of developing good houses, and managing natural resources to give Kenyans a better quality of life. Giving examples he said: “Students will be motivated to study how fish in Lake Victoria is being adversely affected by hyacinth’s depletion of the oxygen that the fish need to survive with the unfortunate consequence of extermination of fish, which is a vital nutritional need for the people in the lacustrine region and in the rest of Kenya. Students will also be challenged to find ways of harnessing the resources in Eastern region to increase food supply.” Once the university gets going with the help of Dr. Endege of Harvard, Kenyan professionals, Kenya Professors, and WPI professors, Professors Njoroge sees the creation of project centers similar to those of WPI in many more counties like: Vihiga County, Siaya County, Nairobi County, Turkana County, Kisumu County, Mombasa County and others. He also noted that working with WPI fire department the new university would be able to help set up a good fire emergency system for all counties. 

The founders who have created the conceptualized ideas and integration systems, especially the pioneer system bringing in Kenyans from all over the world estimate that the project will create one of the best cities in Kenya. The project is also projected to create more than 20,000 new jobs in Educators, Staff, professional services and all jobs found in a city. The project will also lead to creation of a fire response system and have a direct impact to GDP growth and new wealth creation. The estimate is that the project could expand to anywhere from $3 billion to over $10 billion of new wealth creation as a new city fully emerges and various project centers. It was noted that majority of this new wealth will be owned by pioneers through systems set up to supply the over 200,000 - 500,000 units of residential and business space. The systems set are based on entrepreneurship and derived from great entrepreneurs of the past like Ray Kroc who set the Macdonald System that today generates $24 billion sales revenue per year at only 66 years old. When Peter Kenneth was informed of this fact after having a quick bite in one of the McDonalds, he said, “That is equivalent to the tax revenue collected by East Africa countries combined.”

Professor Njoroge who could not join Peter Kenneth in the main event contacted later said, “I was happy with Peter Kenneth parting words at WPI, ‘We will move the project forward.’”

Visit www.kenyauniversity.org or email pioneer@kenyauniversity.org for more info.