“The entry of Mount Kenya University as a cross-boarder educational institution into Rwanda“
Mountain meets land of a thousand hills is a book that manifests how Mount Kigali University has grown from strength to strength establishing campuses in major towns in Kenya, Somali land and Rwanda.
Launched on 10th, February, 2023, the book is a souvenir of Mount Kenya University Rwanda(MKUR) ten year anniversary that was slated for 2020 but cancelled due to COVID-19, and a dedication to the ‘thousands of students who chose MKUR as a place to quench their academic thirst’.
The Rwandan journey begun in 2008 when MKU(Mount Kenya University) signed an MOU(Memorandum of Understanding) with Rwanda Tourism College(RTC) now University of Tourism and Business(UTB) to offer its program of Bachelor in Business and Information Technology(BBIT) to students who had pursued a higher diploma in IT(Information Technology) at Kigali Institute of Technology(KIST).
Owing to the increasing number of students and the demand for undergraduate and post graduate programs, after graduating the first bunch of students (32) from RTC in 2009, MKU applied for a license to operate as a campus.
In August 2010, MKU was granted a license and with 200 students, they rented a place at KN4- Avenue 208.
Within a year, the number of students greatly increased and other premises in camp Kigali and Kicukiro St. Paul pastoral center were acquired.
In 2012, MKUR graduated 141 students, 191 students in the first half of 2014 and 328 students with the majority from the MBA program in the second half of the same year.
With regard to the increasing student numbers, the management resolved to acquiring land in Kicukiro-Kagarama where construction of MKUR current campus begun in late 2014 and was completed in July 2017.
“In terms of infrastructure, MKUR has invested massive resources to establish the 20billion Frw facility(school compass), school of nursing( 4 state of the art laboratory facilities), hospitality infrastructure(state of the art training facility for hospitality and an upcoming Hotel), media(well equipped with modern technology for training journalists), hostels(spacious swimming pool), student clinic(to be launched soon)“, Prof. Edwin Odhuno-VC Designate MKUR.
Making reference to Lake Victoria in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania that shares the name with Victoria falls in Zambia and yet they are in different geographical locations; Prof. Simon Gicharu asked how that was possible and he was told it was because by then, Africans didn’t know how to read and write.
Hence he wrote ‘Mountain meets Land of 1000 hills’ a 200 pages book with eight chapters to tell the MKU story from the Rwandan perspective.
“As Africans ,we have now acquired education, we should not wait for others to tell our stories, lets write about ourselves when we can“, he added.
Gracing the event were Key leaders from; Kenya, Rwanda and across the boarders.
“Our biggest challenge is not where we have been, but where we intend to be“, Prof. Edwin Odhuno-Vice Chancellor designate MKUR.
