Adelina Kinuthia and Tom Pyle at the SUF Office in Princeton, NJ USA

Associate. Ms. Kinuthia will be taking on management and administration assignments to further advance the networks and interests of Strathmore Univeristy in North America. She will report to Executive Director Tom Pyle, who will now move to the SUF Board of Directors to work on fundraising strategy and transfer most of his day-to-day duties.

Born in Murang’a in central Kenya, Ms. Kinuthia now resides in Morrisville, Pennsylvania, nearby the SUF offices in Princeton. Previously she has served in administrative roles with Capture Resource in Bristol, PA, Upward Bound Travel in New York City, and St. Regis Hotel also in New York.

“I am aboslutely delighted to have Adelina on board with us,” Pyle said. “She brings a wonderful blend of experience, networks, personal familiarity with Strathmore and, of course, Kenyan affinity to our work. She is a perfect addition to our team.”

Ms. Kinuthia is a graduate of Kingsborough Community College in Brooklyn, New York. She also attended Strathmore University, studying there for her CPA certification, before relocating to the United States. Her sister, Justina Kinuthia, is also a Strathmore alumna. Ms. Kinuthia is married to Mr. Steven Monaco, an elementary school teacher in Brooklyn, New York.

Discussing plans for Ikumbo: Strathmore Book Project Director Dr. Andy Sicree, Ikumbo partner Matt Gartland, Matt's mom Jeanne Gartland, SUF Director Tom Pyle

Aliki’s Journal #12.)

What’s in store? A new library at Ikumbo Secondary School to serve its 160 pupils and the local community. Now a medical student at Vanderbilt University in Tennessee, Matt will be spending his summer back in Kenya with Davis, working on the library’s future. “The Ikumbo library might start with 500 books and expand to up to 2000,” said Matt, “depending on the need as we will determine in our forthcoming visit.” Books are in desperately short supply, especially in Kenya’s upcountry secondary schools.

Thanks to a possible collaboration with the Strathmore University Books Acquisition Project, the first set of books for Ikumbo might come as soon as the end of this summer. During their visit Matt and Andy Sicree discussed ways in which the Ikumbo shipment can be included in the forthcoming shipment of 20,000 volumes to the Strathmore University Library. 

Initiated in 2007, the Strathmore University Books Acquisition Project has been building the collection of the new Strathmore University Library Building, constructed under a grant from the European Union. When completed next year, the project will have increased Strathmore’s collection from 18,000 to 100,000 volumes. 

A former Strathmore teacher and a confirmed bibliophile, Dr. Sicree sources books from donations, library deaccessings, and second-hard book sales, applying his keen eye and well-formed ethics sensibility to assure the highest quality books for Strathmore. After assembling and packing his acquisitions into 20 foot containers, he arranges for their shipment to Nairobi, where University Library George Gitau and his staff receive and catalogue them.

Citation by a President

Previously colleagues at the Nairobi office of the Clinton Foundation, Davis and Matt have now formed their own U.S. based tax-exempt 501c3 corporation to increase support for their project. Called Harambee For The Children, the entity hopes to raise funds for this project and, later, others like it in Kenya and the region. 

What Davis Karambi conceived six years ago in an essay on his Strathmore admissions application has now born full fruits—and garnered the accolade of an American president. In his recent commendation letter to Davis, who is still on the Clinton Foundation Nairobi staff, President Bill Clinton has written, “I extend my heartfelt congratulations on all that you have already accomplished in developing Ikumbo Secondary School, and I applaud your latest endeavors to expand upon this successful model of community-based education… In answering the call to action—one that is deeply rooted in your own experience—you bestow the precious gift of knowledge and opportunity on those who need them most, and the power of your contribution is beyond measure.”

South Africa’s University of Cape Town, at 359 in the world, is the highest ranked university in Africa, according to the latest ranking of universities. The top seven universities, as well as those in the ninth and eleventh positions in Africa, are South African. The American University in Cairo and Cairo University are in positions eight and ten respectively.

The University of Nairobi is the second highest ranked university in Kenya at position 22, up from 25th position in July 2008. Other Kenyan universities in Africa’s top 100 are Egerton at position 50, Jomo Kenyatta at 82, Kenyatta at 84, and Moi at 86.

Kenyan universities improved in their world rankings between July 2008 and January 2009. Strathmore rose sharply from position 4,780 to 2,404. Nairobi improved from position 4,338 to 4,046.

Of the world’s top 200 universities, 123 are North American, 61 are European, and 14 are in the Asia-Pacific region. The highest ranked university outside the US is the University of Toronto at position 25. At position 27, Cambridge University, England, is the highest ranked university outside North America. At position 44, Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico is the highest ranked university in the non-English speaking world.

Ranked separately are the top 1,500 business schools in the world. In Kenya, Strathmore Business School is ranked at position 768, and the Kenya Institute of Management is at position 915.

The “Webometrics Ranking of World Universities” is an initiative of the Cybermetrics Lab, a research group belonging to the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC), the largest public research body in Spain.

Isidro Aguillo, co-ordinator of the ranking, believes the size of the North American advantage points to a digital divide between regions that cannot be explained simply as a question of resources.

“We often talk about a digital divide between the rich and the poor - so American universities score higher than African universities,” he says, “but the rankings reveal a divide between the rich and the rich, and this is not a matter of resources, it is a matter of leadership in the internet.“

“In Spain, for example, online university libraries tend to be little more than databases,” says Aguillo. “In the US, they are much, much more and include things like reading lists and other things which facilitate students’ work, so they do not have to visit the library to get what they need.“

Aguillo believes that webometrics’ regional rankings, which divide the world into seven regions, can be especially useful for universities further down the tables. Comparing yourself to your regional counterparts and using that as a yardstick to better your position is a lot more useful, he believes, than taking top US universities as your reference. Students from developing countries aiming to study abroad can use the regional rankings to find study opportunities closer to home that they might not otherwise be aware of.

Higher education institutions worldwide are much more concerned about league tables and ranking systems than expected, according to a report by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). “There is enormous attention given to every league table that is published as well as its quality ranking. And they are taken seriously by students, government and especially by the media,” says the main author of the study, Professor Ellen Hazelkorn from the Dublin Institute of Technology.

The study gives an insight into the impact of league tables and rankings on universities around the world, and shows how their influence is far wider than intended.

They were originally conceived as providing comparative information to key audiences such as students, public opinion and parents. But the survey of leaders and senior managers in more than 200 higher education institutions in 41 countries reveals that the tables and rankings are influencing key policy-making areas such as the classification of institutions and the allocation of funds.

“Because of this, they have a huge influence on university reputations and thus they promote competition and influence policy-making,” Prof Hazelkorn said.

Below are excerpts from a televised interview of. Dr. Oloo by RomeReport.com. See the YouTube interview here.YouTube: Interview with Strathmore\’s Dr. Florence OlooStrathmore Deputy VC Florence Oloo

Dr. Florence Oloo, Deputy Vice Chancellor, Strathmore University

Dr. Florence Oloo, Deputy Vice Chancellor, Strathmore University (Kenya): Our whole attention was focused on him. What’s he going to tell us, how are we going to support him? I think it was much more of that unity with him. We experienced it very much in a very tangible way. Because we followed his trip to Cameroon, we followed his trip to Angola.

Oloo, deputy vice chancellor at Strathmore University in Nairobi, says the Popes message was being listened to very closely because it was one of hope for Africas future.

Dr. Oloo: He spoke to us about looking at different ways of fighting corruption, because thats one of the big things in Africa that has somehow retarded development. And its something that is a challenge for us, that we have to see, how do we fight corruption? Not only in the government, in the private sector, in universities, in secondary schools. Thats a challenge for us.

Oloo says the issues highlighted by the Pope that most plague Africa like corruption and poverty, will ultimately have to be dealt with by African countries themselves. And that aid from foreign countries can only do so much.

Dr. Oloo: Aid is important. But aid can only help us when it comes to help us with our own solutions. Aid does not help us when they give us that aid and they tell us how to use it, how to solve our problems. It doesnt help.

And then there are issues that cannot be solved with money alone, like AIDS and the situation of women in Africa.

Dr. Oloo: Yes, theres some cultural values that do look down upon the woman, but were trying to bring out the positive, the way that the woman is at the center of the family, that the woman is the one that looks after the home, the women is the one that educates the child, the woman is the one that obtains the food that she puts on the table. Im not saying men do nothing, they do something, of course, but the woman is very powerful.

While aid and assistance help, she is certain that African nations will reaffirm the idea of hope by investing in a powerful tool: education.

Dr. Oloo: I think the salvation of African countries of my country Kenya will come through education. Helping people to empower themselves. And once youre empowered you dont need someone to come tell you this is your problem, this is your solution. You have a problem, you get an innovative idea and you solve your problem.

Oloo says its through education that she hopes Africa can promote values that create more awareness about issues like AIDS, so as to foster a sense of hope for the continent.

Part of the workshop included an open lecture and discussions at Strathmore on the new “Atlas of Our Changing Environment”. The atlas is a free internet application developed in conjunction with Google Earth. It allows users to track the effects of global warming around the world. 

The atlas and other UNEP resources are available for public use. 

. The corner has UNEP resources on climate change for use by the University community.  

. Professor Gitile Naituli of Faculty of Commerce was one of the organisers of the event. Prof Naituli won the Mainstreaming Environment and Sustainability in African Universities (MESA) award in 2007. He is now the co-ordinator and host of the Education in Sustainable Development (ESD) International Training Programme (ITP).

Sustainability Generation workshop attendants present a book to University Library Mr. George Gitau (l) at the opening of the UNEP Corner in the library

Apps Champ Grace Kihumbi (r) receives award check from Kenya ICT Board Chairwoman Catherine Ngahu

Strathmore student Grace Kihumba has won the Kenya ICT Board’s inaugural Mobile Applications Competition, a contest to advance development of cellphone software applications in Kenya. Fellow Strathmoreans Sospeter Muriu, and Hussein Lightwalla were the first and second runners up respectively. Grace, Sospeter and Hussein have all just received their BBIT degrees from Strathmore last week.

Grace’s winning application was a sales application customized for use by East African Breweries Limited. The application runs on Blackberry phone and enables distributors to collect sales data on the phone, send data to a server, insert it in a database, and produce varied reports.

Sospeter’s runner-up application on Python makes it possible for users to view and manipulate ID3 tags on the S60 phones. While S60 phones can play MP3 files, their users until now could not view or manipulate the files’ ID3 tags, which provide information such as track number, artists, and genre related with MP3 files.

Strathmore

In the opening game, Blades, pitted against Africa Nazarene University,  won 47-42. Mohamed Abdi and Ambrose Sigu each contributed 11 points. In the second match, the Blades narrowly lost 49-44 to Lamboritz, a squad that was recently promoted to the premier league. Frank Simiyu scored 15 points as Michael Otula added 2 long-range three-pointers, but that was not enough to win the game.

. Edwin Otula, Mike Otula, Joshua Oswana and Mohamed Abdi each sank two three-pointers. The win lifted the Blades to the semi finals where they prevailed over KCA University 55-40. The team scored 40 points all from open shots as David Ogolla and Kelvin Waweru combined well to steer the team to the finals.The two teams were evenly matched in the first three quarters, with quarterly scores of 7-8, 11-11, and 12-12. But a strong 11-2 fourth quarter scoring drive by The Blades powered Strathmore to victory. Kelvin Waweru and David Ogolla led the way to ensure that Blades successfully defended their tournament crown.

Ochieng praised the team and noted that only two senior players took part in this tournament. “Most of the players we fielded today joined us this year which is a good thing for purposes of development and depth and ensuring there is more competition amongst players,” Ochieng noted.

. As of this posting, the Blades are leading in the Universities Basketball League, having won all the five matches they have played so far.