Prof Dan Owino Kaseje, the Vice- Chancellor of Great Lakes University, dances with his students during their graduation in April. Photo/ KENNETH OGOSIA

Prof Dan Owino Kaseje’s triple achievements as a university don, medical doctor and ordained priest could symbolise the three stars that led the wise men from the East to Jerusalem .

A university that is his brainchild in western Kenya is the focal point of the country’s oldest and arguably most celebrated scholars seeking to impart knowledge to the younger professionals away from the mainstream universities. 

Aged between 60 and 80 years, the scholars, who once earned Nyanza Province the epithet “citadel of elitism,” have teamed up to start a university near their homes, perhaps inspired by the three wise sayings: old is gold, east or west, home is best and experience is the best teacher. From its name, the Great Lake University of Kisumu boasts a collection of the country’s most celebrated academicians.

The chancellor, Prof David Wasawo, was the first black African to get a First Class honours at Oxford University, the first black East African to teach at Makerere University and the first African professor in East and Central Africa. 

It is believed that he was to be the first black Kenyan vice-chancellor of the University of Nairobi, but the late Dr Josephat Njuguna Karanja caught the eyes of the late President Jomo Kenyatta.

Now Prof Wasawo is the head of Gluk, shorthand for Grate Lake University of Kisumu, with a unique staff of grey-haired men. Most celebrated was the late Prof A B C Ocholla Ayayo, but in his cohorts remain Prof Walgio Orwa, Prof Owino Okong’o and Prof John Kokwaro, among others

Gluk emerged from the ashes of war as the Constituent University College of Great Lakes University of Goma in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Prof Kaseje, a humble Anglican Church of Kenya priest, dropped out of Maranda High School in the 1960s due to lack of fees, earning him many years in various primary schools. But his dedication has given western Kenya its first private, or community university as he calls it, with a touch of philanthropy.

“It is a community university because it was formed to pull the community out of health disasters through public health education. I also don’t own it but the community contributes funds locally to develop a sense of need and ownership. Membership is open to all, ” he said in an interview.

New lease of life

He is the vice-chancellor who, 10 years ago, started the Tropical Institute of Community Health (Tich), an acronym for work in Dholuo, to bring change in public health for which Nyanza had earned a bad reputation. All the tags like cholera, HIV/Aids, famine, poor latrine coverage and repugnant cultures trail the province. Now the Great Lakes University of Kisumu is putting on a shine after confronting the reality here, giving Kisumu a new lease of life. Gluk recently hosted an international HIV/Aids conference through Sahara, at which even doctors infected with HIV, the virus that causes Aids, found reason to break their silence.

Prof Kaseje founded the Great Lakes University of Kisumu on the clamour to fight HIV/Aids, which has widely spread in Nyanza over the last two decades. It’s as if he was born to work his way up and help people trapped in poverty, ignorance and disease. Even learning through five primary schools in three districts as he sought assistance from relatives and an interrupted secondary education could not stop his quest.

Tich was coined as an education centre for research and working with communities to combat health problems. Prof Kaseje was touched by the plight of students drawn from the troubled Great Lakes countries like DRC, Rwanda and Burundi.

After retiring from the International Federation of Red Cross , the World Council of Churches, the University of Nairobi and other high-level positions, he decked his priestly collar and raised the red flag against disasters.

His experience in management by crisis seasoned him for what he is up against now. Prof Kaseje evacuated students from the war-torn Democratic Republic of Congo’s Great Lakes University of Goma 10 years ago to a peaceful academic environment at the shores of Lake Victoria in Kisumu, instantly transforming the lives of many paramedics to become leading African peacekeepers through health and humanitarian services.

Kisumu provided a constituent college for the GLUG, located on the lava-washed city of Goma on Lake Kivu. An integration programme that included the admission of Kenyan public health and nurses with certificates and diplomas, changed the core functions of paramedics known for just shuttling between messy hospitals and markets, dealing with opportunistic diseases and consulting for HIV/Aids projects.

Prof Kaseje says public health officials and nurses in Kenya were blocked from becoming the “cream of the nation,” as university graduates were referred to in those days since doctors were the only feted professionals in the medical field. Its core degrees were launched at a conference that brought together African countries through the Sahara (Social Aspects of HIV/Aids and Health Research Alliance), Universities in Solidarity with Disadvantaged Communities (Unisol, funded by Unesco) at the Tom Mboya Labour College in Kisumu.

Unisol aims to help paramedical professionals to grow into social health experts who can handle the challenges of HIV/Aids, wars, trauma and cultural impediments to economic and health provisions. Great Lakes University of Kisumu took over from Tich and will offer undergraduate and post-graduate education.

Prof Kaseje told the first graduands to “go out there and work very hard,” in line with Tich’s in the local dialect. “I believe in hard work because of my very poor background,” says the Harvard-trained scholar. “I had to change primary schools to get my education and stayed with relatives when it became difficult for my parents.”