Mourning the Passing of an Academic Giant Prof Kibiwott Kurgat By Prof. Maurice N. Amutabi, PhD
Maurice Amutabi
Mourning the Passing of an Academic Giant Prof Kibiwott Kurgat By Prof. Maurice N. Amutabi, PhD
On 5th February 2024 at 11.52 am, I received the sad news of the passing of Prof. Peter Kibiwott Kurgat a.k.a PKK in great shock via a WhatsApp text message from Dr. Aggrey Asitiba Okutu of Kisii University, stating that he had received information to the effect that Prof. Kibiwott Kurgat was no more. Shortly afterwards, someone forwarded to me what looked like a rushed Eulogy message from one of the UASU list serves of our universities. The message was flat and indifferent and although it talked about Prof. Kibiwott Kurgat, it did not have the punch, vigour and rigour that we associated with Prof. Kurgat, the tall, and polite giant who stood at over 6 feet tall, and never shouted at anybody and rather talked in a very civilized and focused way and to the point. He always praised Alliance High School for transforming him from a rugged boy from Nandi to the fine scholar that we met at the University of Nairobi.
Prof. Kurgat and I had talked a few days earlier in late January 2024 and although he indicated that he was not feeling well and that he was under medication, one could not read anything serious in his voice. He had had some ear problems which affected the general balancing in his body affecting his walking, and that was it, and that he was on the way to recovery. Death did not feature anywhere in our thinking. As we mourn, we need to remember this great mind who was the first to put together all the legends and mythologies about the Nandi past and present. His accounts of Koitalel Arap Samoei were written based on oral sources via personal interviews and visits to personal libraries. His books on the Nandi were informed by deep sense of appreciation and admiration of the great warriors who resisted the British rule from 1896 to 1903. He wrote well and made sure that his readers followed what he was saying. He handed official copies of many of the books to me in my office as Deputy Vice Chancellor at Kisii University and many of which were documented in pictures available online. He made my work in performance contracting easy because he published a book almost every year and delivered many new programmes at undergraduate, masters and doctoral level for Senate approval.
Prof. Kibiwott Kurgat was my loyal friend for all the years I knew him. I first met Kibiwott Kurgat at the University of Nairobi when he was the Vice Chair of the Student Organization of Nairobi University (SONU). When we arrived on campus in 1986 in first year, he was already a veteran in student politics. He had attended Alliance High School and created a great influence in the Alliance alums at the University of Nairobi and who made part of his campaign machinery and networking. When the Vice Chancellor Prof. Philip Mbithi addressed us, there were three students seated in front with the University administration., and Kibiwott Kurgat was one of them. The student leaders were led by Omondi Aloyo who was the outgoing SONU chair and the others were Kibiwott Kurgat, SONU Vice Chair, and Kaberere Njenga, SONU Secretary General.
Within 3 weeks of our arrival on campus, Kibiwott Kurgat arrived in my room in the company of familiar faces requesting to meet there. He had done his research well and found out that I held a little influence in some fellow first years for reasons not known to me. Many third years and few second years were campaigning for peace and wanted us to support Nduma Nderi who was running for SONU chairman while majority of second years wanted Wafula Buke to be elected chairman of SONU. Kibiwott Kurgat was fronting for Wafula Buke and knew that a group of tired third years had been in my room rooting for Nduma Nderi and he was here to counter the narrative of peace, stability and diplomacy, and advocate for rights approach. We listened and made our decision and as they say, the rest is history.
Prof. Kibiwott Kurgat was never late for any meeting. He always arrived early before time. He was a keen listener and spoke less. He was soft spoken and impressed me by his sense of simplicity, love of dialogue and negotiation. He was very aggregable and sometimes too aggregable for the liking of some of his friends who did not know that Kibiwott Kurgat was widely read and knew that “only fools and dead men don't change their minds.” He was a strong negotiator and debater on one on one and small groups. Nevertheless, we struck unique friendship and bond that would last forever. After undergraduate we found ourselves doing masters around the same time, under full government scholarship. He was among many friends who visited me at Maji House where I had been posted as an administrator after a brief orientation at the Administration Police Training College (APTC) in Embakasi. I was a loyal civil servant and when he visited me I noticed that Kibiwott Kurgat had toned down, and not the campus firebrand. The Kibiwott Kurgat on campus would have called me a sell-out for being employed as an Assistant Secretary in government, and working as Personal Assistant to the Minister for Water and Regional Development, Hon. John Okwanyo. He understood that we had become adults and needed to earn a living.
After masters degree Kibiwott Kurgat proceeded to teach at Egerton University while after my masters I left Maji House and proceed to Moi University as a lecturer. He soon seemed to run into some career threatening issues at Egerton University due to his activities in UASU. We did not fare any different at Moi University just when UASU was starting and as members, we missed our salaries for some months but eventually reached some settlement and we were paid our salaries while those who had been sacked were reinstated. Kurgat always told me that we were UASU pioneers and those were some of the sacrifices we had to make. Kibiwott Kurgat was lucky to get a scholarship to go the UK for a PhD at the University of Warwick. He took only three years in the UK and earned his PhD degree in English Language Education from the University of Warwick, UK. When he returned to Kenya, he joined Moi University as a freshly minted doctorate at a young age, as lecturer. We were in the same faculty, the School of Human Resource Development where we taught common courses such as Communication Skills, Quantitative Skills and Development Concepts to the whole university.
Prof. Kibiwott Kurgat was friendly and encouraged many of us to go for our doctoral studies. I was lucky to get a Fulbright Scholarship to the University of Illinois in the US for my PhD. After my PhD I got employed at Central Washington University near Seattle and Prof. Kibiwott Kurgat departed Moi University for the United States International University (USIU) – Africa, as we remained in touch. His end of tour of duty at USIU-Africa coincided with my arrival back in Kenya at Kisii University as Deputy Vice Chancellor in charge of Academics, Research and Students Affairs. He applied to Kisii University where we hired him as Senior Lecturer, then Associate Professor. We also appointed him as Dean of the School of Information Sciences and Technology, a responsibility he performed with great dexterity and remarkable success. He created 5 masters degree programmes and 3 doctoral programmes within two years. He was the only Dean besides Dr. Eric Thomas Ogwora the Dean of Arts and Social Sciences to create more than 5 masters and 5 doctoral programmes in two years, going beyond expectations in the performance contracting. He successfully supervised over 20 PhDs.
Prof. Kibiwott Kurgat was a prolific writer and an avid reader. He forwarded many articles to me from journals and popular media. Each time I saw an article from him, I knew a phone call from him was not far away to discuss the article. He would call and the first thing you would hear was his mischievous laugher followed by questions on your impressions about the article or book or essay he had forwarded to you. He is among few scholars with whom I exchanged intellectual vulgarities of our generation and the unprintable things we were told by some of our naughty lecturers at the University of Nairobi during lectures.. His most famous contribution which was co-authored with Airo Akodhe was published in Society Magazine of January 24, 1994 and which was titled, “Dons who love wasteful opulence” which was a veiled take on top managers in Kenyan universities, for their wastefulness. The article pointed out areas that needed to be attended to in order to alleviate some of the issues affecting public universities in Kenya at the time. It was such radical view that made some people to fear Kurgat. When I whispered to him as member of University Management that we were contemplating making him faculty Dean, he looked at me in the eye and assured me that although I knew his past as a radical scholar, he was going to deliver and provide leadership to the Faculty of Information Sciences and Technology, and he lived to his promise and fears of University Management were allayed.
Prof. Kibiwott Kurgat was a great mentor and supervised so many doctoral and masters students to completion. He was popular and very approachable. He was among the colleagues I relied on when we put together the itinerary of Ngugi wa Thiong’o and it was me and him who proposed that we invite Prof. Peter Amuka and Prof. Chris Wanjala as discussants of the presentation of Ngugi wa Thiong’o. The event was a success largely due to working closely with Kibiwott Kurgat. Just last year, I was one of the editors of a book in which Kibiwott Kurgat penned a great chapter in the book titled The Palgrave Handbook of Kenyan History Edited by Wanjala S. Nasong’o Maurice N. Amutabi Toyin Falola.
Prof. Kibiwott Kurgat tried his hand in parliamentary politics when he ran for Member of Parliament for Emgwen Constituency, which is one of the six constituencies of Nandi County, and which was established in 1997. Although Prof. Kibiwott Kurgat was not successful, there were lessons he shared widely about his experience in participating in elective politics. He noted the strong hand of patronage in Kenyan politics. He also noticed a strong appeal for party loyalty rather than individual merit in local elections. He thought that some rules which barred people from running for office while still serving was not a good policy. It was the reason he opposed the idea that someone had to resign before running for elective position. He supported the American version where someone resigns from his post only after getting another one and one can be allowed to take leave of absence to run for such. He was not allowed back to Moi University when he resigned to contest and ended up at USIU-A. He always said that the people of Emgwen missed an opportunity to elect their best MP.
Even as the world mourns world marathon Champion Kelvin Kiptum who died via a road accident in Kaptagat area near Eldoret on 11 February 2024, the world should know that another giant has fallen in Kenya on 4 February 2024. Prof. Kibiwott Kurgat has taken his final bow but his ideas shall remain embedded in our minds and those of his students and will forever circulate through his many great books, journal articles, commentaries in media and other areas. Prof. Kibiwott Kurgat will be laid to rest at his Nandi home on Saturday February 17 2024. May God rest his soul in eternal peace.
Prof. Maurice Nyamanga Amutabi is a Fulbright Scholar and teaches International Relations, Governance and Leadership at the Technical University of Kenya where he serves as Director for the Centre for Science and Technology Studies. Email amu...@yahoo.com
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Prof. Maurice N. Amutabi, PhD
Director, Centre for Science and Technology Studies
The Technical University of Kenya
P.O Box 53422 - 00200
Nairobi, Kenya
https://csts.tukenya.ac.ke/?page_id=14048
https://staff.tukenya.ac.ke/?r=portal/profile/public&id=2171
E-mail: Amu...@yahoo.com or amu...@gmail.comTel: +254-(0)700-744545
1. The NGO Factor in Africa
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2. Regime Change and Succession Politics in Africa
http://www.amazon.com/Regime-Change-Succession-Politics-Africa/dp/0415534089
3. Lifelong Learning in Africa
http://www.amazon.com/Studies-Lifelong-Learning-Africa-Technological/dp/0773447571
6. Prof. Maurice Amutabi's Blog
Elias K. Bongmba
Dear Prof. Amutabi,
thank you such a rich and befitting tribute to Professor Kibiwoti Kurgat. You give us so many ways to think about his scholarship, service, and humanity. The Good Lord has called him home and we can only imagine from our vantage point, the great reunion Prof has had with his ancestors and those who departed before him. May his example be our guiding light.
Sincerely,
Elias
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