QUINCY, Mass.,_Many Kenyans in USA are toiling hard because they are not utilizing widely available educational resources like short lucrative courses, minority and women scholarships, as well as summer programs offered at many colleges and universities.

Many are not even engaging their children seriously in the educational process that would unlock the vast American dream.
The concern was voiced by Dr. George Kiongera and several other scholars on Sunday while speaking to graduating youths at the All Saints Anglican Community church in Quincy during a special 'education Sunday service' to congratulate members who recently graduated in the 2013 graduating class.

"There is only one certificate that can catapult you straight from poverty right into the middle class in America.That certificate is the LPN (Licensed Practical Nursing)certificate",said Dr. Kiongera, a Kenyan who since coming to America 10 years ago has succeeded  at reinventing himself from a bed maker into an acclaimed  scholar and entrepreneur.

Kiongera recently made history for being one of the very first Kenyans and African Americans to graduate with a doctorate in Nursing Practice, the highest level one can attain in the nursing field.
The majority of Kenyans in USA work at various levels in both the healthcare and human resources industries.
He told Kenyans that it does not matter the age or circumstances that they find themselves in while in America, but it is important to enroll for college education or for higher education for those already graduated.

"Time does not care about your circumstances. A day will come and a day will go. I would rather go to college now and do one credit rather than keep postponing waiting for the best time,"he said.

He said that most Kenyans especially the youth immigrated to a "land of milk and honey" to escape dire circumstances back home but when they arrived here, they find themselves struggling in almost similar or worse circumstances than before.

All this pain, Kiongera said, exists among Kenyans despite the existence of vast opportunities wide open for those with some college education.

Kiongera attributed the problem to lack of time management skills among the youth leading them to spend all their time in counterproductive activities.

"You can't have 8 hours a day to do the things you love and still have a PhD.Give up late night partying, give up watching that late night TV, to get off your cell phones, give up bad attitude towards teachers and parents, adopt the power and attitude of positive thinking and the world will be like an osyster in your pocket."

He shocked many in attendance when he revealed that he was devastated when he arrived in America only to find that the only job he could get was that of a bed maker, yet he was a middle aged man with huge family responsibilities who had left his motherland in pursuit of the American dream.

"$7.15 per hour and the nature of the work i was doing was not my idea of the American dream when i embarked onto this journey to this country.It was actually a nightmare.However, i had made a commitment to myself and my family back in Kenya that i was going to stay in America and there was no turning back,"said the father of three.

Within a short period of time, Kiongera took courses that helped him work his way up to a nursing assistant (CNA) then to RN, BSN, Masters, and finally to a Doctorate from University of Massachusetts, Lowell.

Urging Kenyans to enroll in college, Kiongera said that Kenyans would find a lot of pride when they walk into a hospital or a drug store to find a Dr. Kamau, or a Dr. Ngige, or a person from their culture in charge of things.

"We need more graduates in healthcare who are culturally competent to provide healthcare services to our community."

Kiongera added that according to researchers, there is a correlation between longevity and good health to education.

"These days, the more educated you are, the longer you are likely to live. Good education will help you live among better social circles, eat healthier and increase your likelihood for longer, healthy life."

He said that due to education he has been able to start a unique Nursing Practice Business based in the city of Lawrence (Maestro- Connections Health Systems) that has created employment to several professionals including a medical doctor.

Speaking during the same event, Dr. Gilbert Nyaga, who is an associate professor of Supply Chain Management at the North Eastern University in Boston said that Kenyan parents in the Diaspora  should strive to expose their children more to the widely available learning resources in the USA in order to help them change their mindset.

He said that such resources are largely free to those interested in putting an effort.

Nyaga added that he has noted with dismay that the Chinese immigrant community in Quincy always bring their children to libraries in big numbers whereas he hardly sees any Kenyan or black children there.

"No wonder the Chinese are dominating all the academic fields of science, mathematics and engineering. They are investing more time in their children’s education than we are,"he lamented.

Dr. Nyaga cited summer programs offered by most major universities in the commonwealth as great opportunities for Kenyan children enroll and get exposure to the inner workings of the system in USA.

"If Kenyan parents sign up their children at these programs, they would change the mindset to become more high achievers," he said.

Nyaga faulted Kenyan parents for putting too much emphasis at working extra long hours in order to amass more money at the expense of discovering existing opportunities for their children.

"How much is it going to cost you to spend working too much instead of focusing on your children? No matter how long you work, you are not going to afford to pay all the cost for a good college for your children. If you engage in these programs for your children, they are more likely to get scholarships,"he said.

Dr. Nyaga also asked parents to acquire skills that will make them more likely to get better paying jobs that will allow them to enjoy quality life.

"If you move from an RN nurse to a master's program, your pay rate goes up. You can then call the shots as to what hours you will want to work."

Dr. Mercy Kamau, another Kenyan scholar and community activist who just graduated with a Phd in Global Health policy from  Umass Boston  urged Kenyans to seek scholarships in the USA that are widely available  for minorities, women  and  people of color. However, Dr. Kamau cautioned Kenyans to go for degrees that can help them get better jobs instead of graduating with degrees that will only be useful for "hanging on your wall".

During a Q&A session, several Kenyan parents lamented of the limitations of time and resources that make it hard to pursue further studies in USA while at the same time struggling to bring up their young families

Dr. Kiongera advised such parents to take one course at a time or utilize online courses.

"Don't overload yourself. You know your circumstances best. Take blended courses that mix classroom and online instructions," he said.

Over 10 members of the church were honored for graduating in the 2013 class, ranging from second grade to a Phd.

However, despite the pride in the new graduates, Patrick Karongo, an official of the church decried the low number of men in the 2013 graduating lineup.

"Thank you for graduating. It seems like men not graduating as much because there were very few male graduates here today. It seems like they are more focused on working long hours to buy plots back home,"he quipped.

Thanking Dr. Kiongera for his timely advice to the young and new graduates, Rev. Fredrick Thanji, the pastor of the All Saints Anglican Church said that everything has now been laid out in the open.

"It is now up to those who take this seriously to take action and go back to school,"said the pastor.

The pastor however cautioned that acquiring mere education was not enough if people do not have the God in their lives.

"Education without God is poisonous. It brings you a lot of problems and drags you through a lot of mud. But with Jesus and knowledge, you become a very useful person in the world community."

The event was organized and coordinated by Dr. Carol Karanja in conjunction with the church committee.Dr. Karanja graduated with a doctorate in Pharmacy from the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences (MCPHS) in 2006.

Among the new graduates honored at the event was Virginia Kamotho, a church member who now holds masters of nursing degree from North Eastern University. Rev. Thanji, the pastor of the church also holds a masters degree in Theology, serving as another role model for the church members.

The unique, trail blazing index is an easy tool that one can use to assess the amount of biases working together to limit their upward mobility. 
Written by Mahugu Nuthu, a Kenyan born risk management researcher based in Kansas City, Missouri, the bookis a personal finance non-fiction that reads like a thriller.  It integrates non-financial aspects of real life situations to the mainstream personal finance concepts in way it has never been done before.

Speaking to Ajabu Africa News via a telephone interview, Nuthu said that many people from virtually all parts and cultures of the world find themselves struggling at one time or the other with multiple biases in their lives that make it difficult or impossible to achieve financial success in life. 

According to excerpts from the book, the index is organized in a Potential Social Exclusion Risk (PSER) base containing 40 classes (categories) of various biases that were admitted into the index as having great potential of excluding people from succeeding in a certain given environment. 

Each bias class is then organized into a scale of 10 points which makes the total score 400, lending it the name extension of PSER 400.

Using many creative real life experiences, the exciting book makes it easy and convenient for a reader to jump around to the topics that may interest them, with every reader literally finding themselves in the book based on biases that they have experienced in the past or may be currently enduring. 

With the help of well defined and easy to read charts in the book, readers can easily calculate their individual scores against the PSER400 BIAS INDEX.

The book asserts  that a within each human being lies a “secret capsule of talent” that many times remains unexploited  due to many factors( biases)  that exclude a person from  displaying and using this talent for financial well being.

“In simple terms you are answering three questions? What do you have going against you? What do you have going for you? What can you do to improve your odds of success? The Nuthology Bias index assists you to start answering these questions,” reads a promotional quote from the books website.

Unfortunately, Nuthu said, most of these biases are born out of stereotypes, but their effects are devastating to most people with scars of unnecessary struggles evident throughout life.

“Biases can be based on a wide range of factors including your geographical area, your social class, your race, your physical attributes, education level, accent , or even  the month of the year you were born, depending on your culture!.

“Some people are able to understand these biases and how to overcome them, either with the help of financial advisors or organically all by themselves,” he clarified.

 However, according to the researcher, majority people in the world remain oblivious to multiple biases stacking up against them at every stage of life. 

“They do not understand why they work so hard but don’t seem to make any significant progress in their financial well being.  Others spend a fortune chasing mismatched careers only to realize years later that it was the wrong path they took. This new book puts these biases into an index that people can easily track so at to put countermeasures for a path that improves their odds, saving them money, time and energy,” he said.

 However, Nuthu was quick to add that the biases are not static or permanent, and may change due to change of circumstances, whether increase in age, relocation to a different area or others.

“If you calculate your bias index and it adds up to 70 out of 400, it does not mean it will always remain there since backdrop circumstances many change in life. When you get older, you may lose your youth and attractiveness that made a certain employer hire you. Your score on the index also does not indicate severity of the problem, but rather the size of the mountain you are facing.” 

“The index helps you on how to clearly see the writing on the wall so that you can figure out how to pivot against the effects well ahead of time,” added the author who plans to visit various communities in the future as a motivational speaker to help folks achieve more in their lives.

Nuthu said that although there are many well known financial advisors who work towards educating folks on smart investing and decision making for possible financial success, very few, if any, are known to have explored the effect of biases on financial success.

A researcher at Nuthology LLC, a consulting company based in Kansas City, USA, Nuthu has many years of experience in the fields of education, retail, accounting and marketing which he has used to develop the Bias Index that dissects the elusive multiple bias phenomenons.

The Index can be utilized for career planning, risk management and decision making in a business environment among a dozen other uses.

"This book is dedicated to the "bias conglomerate" – the individual facing unique obstacles created when one form of social exclusion combines with others," Nuthu told Ajabu Africa.  

Asked what inspired this research, Nuthu said that the existence of multiple bias statuses on one individual is sometimes too complex for the stakeholders to understand, let alone design any meaningful policy to address it, so he decided to delve into the matter as a pioneer in the unique field in financial services.

“It is safe to conclude that this convergence of social exclusion factors is the biggest obstacle facing the fight against inequality worldwide. It makes it very difficult for most societal programs that are designed to address access to resources, opportunities, and rights to work effectively,” he added.

The new bookis available on Amazon.com in both paperback and kindle edition. 

The book will also be available at most book outlets.  For further information about the NUTHOLOGYPSER400 BIAS INDEX and how it works, visit: http://www.nuthology.com/.
 

LOWELL, MASS.,--Miah Menyongai, daughter of pastor Jerry Menyongai of the Christ Jubilee International Ministries brought home two degrees, a Bachelors of Criminal Justice and a Bachelors of Psychology with a minor in Conflict Resolution.

She was one of the privileged graduates to walk in a colorful graduation ceremony on May 16, 2015, to partake in the Umass Lowell Core as hundreds of thousands of college students continue to graduate across the US during this peak graduation season.

Miah, a member of the Liberian community in Lowell received the two Diplomas at the colorful event that also marked the exit of Umass Lowell Chancellor, Marty Meehan who will now move on to serve as President of the largerUniversity of Massachusetts.

Interestingly, Miah's younger brother, Jeremiah Menyongai III also graduated two weeks ago with honors from the Lowell High School.

According to the young graduate, she hopes to utilize her degrees to become a lawyer in the future and help her African immigrant community along the way.

"It was not easy but I kept pushing on. I thank my family for supporting me so much and that's why I was able to graduate in the two fields at the same time," she told Ajabu Africa News at the ceremony.

The remarkable achievement by the Liberian graduate sets a new record for others to aim for in the African community in Boston where education is highly valued.

"We are very proud of our daughter. She has really worked hard for this and has set a good example to younger students out there," said Faimata Menyonghai, Maya's mother while accompanied by the father, Rev. Menyongai, together with a battery of relatives and friends.

A mini celebration ceremony was held where the graduate was welcomed home by wildly dancing Liberian women at the family's home in Lowell pending a larger duo- ceremony to celebrate the achievements of the brother and sister.

The event will be held on Saturday June 6 at the Christ Jubilee International Ministries hall located at 101 Smith Street starting at 7pm.

During the ceremony at Tsonga's arena, LeVar Burton, an actor and educational entrepreneur of the African American decent who helped develop the flip cell phone, and who at 19 years acted as Kunta Kinte in the landmark TV series "Roots", as well as the Chief Engineer Geordi La Forge in the iconic "Star Trek: The Next Generation "TV series and feature films served as the keynote speaker and an Honorary degree recepient.

He told the graduating students to appreciate those in their families or friends who had played any role towards helping them achieve the education that had just attained from the prestigious and rapidly growing University.

"Do not ever let a moment pass without  thanking them and telling them you highly appreciate their contribution to your education," Burton who said he was raised and educated by a single mother of 3 told graduates and guests alike.

He urged them to focus all their energies on performing any task in front of them to their best ability without worrying about the future if they wanted to successes in life.

"The secret to success in life is to focus on the task right in front of you at any particular moment in time. Put all your energy in it, and the rest will reveal themselves."

Bidding farewell to Umass Lowell fraternity, outgoing Chancellor Marty Mehan congratulated the graduates in various fields and levels, ranging from Doctoral to Bachelors for their achievements and urged them to utilize the education to improve the lives not just of themselves and their families, but also of the larger humanity.

He said that he enjoyed the four years he worked as the head of Umass Lowell and was proud of the many improvements that he together with the entire college leadership, students and staff were able to bring to the University.

He cited various projects the expansion of the University halls of residence around the city of Lowell and many new educational ventures as some of the highlights of his tenure.

"This is my last graduation ceremony at Umass Lowell, where I also graduated many years ago. I love this University and wish you all the best," Meehan told several thousand students, relatives and guests packed at the Tsonga's Arena to witness the unique ceremony.

During the graduation, dozens of other African students including Kenyans, Liberians, Ghanaians, Nigerians Ugandans and more received degrees in various fields.

In total, 3,700 students graduated from Umass Lowell at the ceremony last Saturday, joining a strong 84,000 living alumni scattered across the globe.

Four individuals also received honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degrees, the highest degree offered by the University for their Significant Contributions to the business, cultural, educational, industrial, moral, social, intellectual or physical welfare of society.

Others attending the graduation included Honorable Rodney Elliot, Mayor of Lowell, State Senator, Honorable Eileen Donoghue,and Hon.Peter Kountoujian,Sheriff of Middlesex County.

To view Miah Menyongai graduate,go to the 2:10:10 mark in the video below.

Renowned writer Ngugi wa Thiong'o arrived in Nairobi on Monday night for two weeks of celebrations to mark 50 years since his first novel was published.

KIKUYU, Kenya---Renowned author Ngugi wa Thiong'o, 77, returned to Alliance High School this week with a bright red shuka draped over his shoulder-having been freshly enthroned as an elder-clutching a memoir documenting his time there.

Animated, energised and occasionally, downright humorous, the distinguished academic, provided anecdotes from his student life at the colonial school nearly 60 years ago, providing insights that deepen and extend our understanding of the ideological underpinnings of his writing.

While his talk centred around passing on the baton to the next generation, a theme amplified by the presence of his family of writing children, that futuristic outlook was forcefully swung back to the past when the ding-dong bell, which regulated Ngugi's student more than half century ago, chimed exactly at 4pm as the revered author and his children displayed copies of their novels in a symbolic launch.

His sons-Tee Ngugi, Nducu wa Ngugi, Mukoma wa Ngugi and daughter Wanjiku wa Ngugi -who are all published authors, a rare distinction in Africa, and a rarity in the world, provided warm on-stage banter that suggested theirs was one big happy family.

All have reported sharing their writings with their siblings and famous father for comments, but the patriarch reminded the audience that writing is an arduous task, often in solitude, and he cannot help even his children develop their works. That has to come from them.

But Ngugi also hailed the power of imagination since the fruits would be there for all to see. Ngugi's own output is self-evident, some several dozen of fiction, non-fiction, plays and criticism, for which he has been a favourite to win the Nobel Prize for Literature, the latest being his second instalment of his memoir, In The House of the Interpreter based on his life at Alliance.

Ngugi read snippets from his seminal novel, Weep Not, Child. Recalling his maiden journey to the school in 1955, with the country engulfed in war as British colonialists and Mau Mau fighters locked horns, Ngugi explained how he had to be smuggled into the school by railway workers hiding in a store without ventilation, as he did not have a Passbook required of all native Kikuyus.

"People ask me if I'm a Marxist," he chuckled, "But here I was, in this store in the train without any window, at the mercy of workers tools and their sweaty clothes, smuggled to school."

This agency of ordinary workers' to subvert an oppressive social order is a hallmark of Ngugi's work, most significantly in Petals of Blood, preceded by his detention without trial in December 1977.

Of that painful interlude, Ngugi said on Thursday, his hopes were kept with the birth of his daughter, Njoki, who was also present at the lecture, and who is immortalised in his prison memoir, Detained, as the "post-office" baby because he first encountered her in a picture that came in through the prison mail.

But it was the question of "shrubbing," as students call those whose linguistic pronunciations are handicapped by accents of their indigenous languages that got him evidently animated.

Motioning to a student to explain the term, Ngugi declared the idea of African languages "interfering" with the purity of European languages as an extension of self-hate that must end.

"Let me tell you what's wrong with Africa," Ngugi said as he paced up and down, addressing students as "my friends."

"Europe gave Africa the resources of its accents; Africa gave Europe access to the resources of the continent." Recalling the British efforts in India to create a middle-class that would think like the English, Ngugi said linguistic enslavement produces a social class that denigrates its own, for the foreign.

Giving the example of Nyeri mechanic Morris Gachamba, who attempted with some degree of success to produce an aircraft, Ngugi said his efforts were sneered at, and ultimately clipped by then Attorney General Charles Njonjo, who led Parliament in crafting a law that prohibited unregulated flights like the ones Gachamba was making, instead of facilitating his endeavour.

Ngugi said his own writing effort, was first met with scorn: "I was sneered at," he revealed, "How can an African write a book!" but added editors at Heinemann, the precursor to East African Educational Publishers (EAEP), gave him the benefit of the doubt.

But it was a speaker at Alliance who best provided a metaphor of Ngugi's efforts in extending his writing prowess to his children and others: a candle does not lose its brightness by sharing light with other candles.

Ngugi introduced his eldest son, Tee, as an avid reader and accomplished musician. Tee had his share of experiences to narrate about growing up in the shadow of his famous father, although he skipped the bit truncating his first name, Thiong'o, to discourage the attention that came with being Ngugi's son. It's the father who provided that explanation.

Still some teasing was inevitable: "Growing up," Tee said, "A friend would tap me on the shoulder and say, 'Weep not child.' Another one would add; 'Give him a grain of wheat,'" he said during a media briefing at the Panafric Hotel earlier in the week.

Ngugi hailed Tee's collection of short stories, Seasons of Love and Tears as having received critical acclaim in Kenya.

Mukoma wa Ngugi has several titles to his name including The Black Star Nairobi, The Nairobi Heat and the upcoming, Mrs Shaw.

An assistant professor in the English Department at the Cornell University in the United States, Mukoma co-founded the Mabati-Cornell Kiswahili Prize.The Prize was started in recognition that there is no literary award celebrating African languages.

During the briefing, it was apparent some of the Ngugis share their passion for African languages, although none of them writes in Gikuyu, with Mukoma expressing his dismay that books like Chinua Achebe's foundational novel, Things Fall Apart has been translated into 70 languages but Ibo, the author's mother tongue.

The other of Ngugi's writing sons is Nducu, whose crime thriller, City Murders, about a serial killer targeting popular personalities, was recently published by EAEP.

Their sister, Wanjiku's The Fall of Saints, explores the theme of child trafficking and was published in America last year by Simon and Schuster.

What's remarkable about Wanjiku's The Fall of Saints, Mukoma's Nairobi Heat and Nducu's City Murders is that they are all crime novels, with a detective on the prowl trying to crack the mysteries.

So did Ngugi "impose" writing on his children?

"Oh no," says Mukoma, "There was a deliberate policy for people to find their own way." Mukoma adds that not all of his siblings are writers.There is Kimunya, an economist and Ngina Kiarie, an accountant. Mumbi who is finishing her undergraduate wants to be a lawyer.

But there was something about their growing in Limuru that somewhat prepared them for a life in writing: there was no television set at home. "We learnt through observation as father had a library and he reads a lot," Tee said.

Nducu remembered their childhood where in the evenings they would share stories. "The problem is they all think they are funny, but I am funnier than all of them," he gloated.

Ngugi conceded no one can impose writing on his children. "You can support and encourage them to be the best in that which they are talented in," he said, adding "I was more curious about their musical talents."

Indeed, Ngugi said, Weep Not, Child proved that nothing is impossible, which is the message that he repeated to Alliance students, urging them to embark on their careers with confidence, and letting their imagination flow. Three students were reported to have completed novel manuscripts that Ngugi's publisher, Henry Chakava, promised to look at.

Yet, what comes through most poignantly from the memoir is the irony of Alliance, a colonial construct, offering refuge for the famous author, away from the social turmoil that the British occupation had instigated in the country.

This contradiction sowed the seeds of a problematic relationship between the author and the Empire. He has been trying to make sense of those contradictions for 50 years, in the process producing great literature that has elevated him to a world-class intellectual, author, activist, and now, father of many writers.

BOSTON---Middle school students from the African immigrant community in Boston now have a chance to join other students in the region for an amazing opportunity of a lifetime in a 5 week Summer Robotics program that will culminate in a live competition aboard the real International Space Station (ISS). 

Known as the SPHERES Zero Robotics Competition, the learning opportunity is conducted by the Massachusetts Afterschool Partnership (MAP) in conjunction with world renowned Rocket science developers, among them the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the Northrop Grumman Foundation and Aurora Flight Sciences.

It is an innovative and inspiring summer learning opportunity for middle school students (10 to 14 years) where program educators will teach about computer programming, coding, robotics and space engineering.

Students will also gain hands-on experience working with and programming SPHERES (Synchronized, Position, Hold, Engage, Reorient, and Experiment Satellites).

The program connects students with prominent scientists and encourages them to pursue careers in the fields of science, technology, engineering and or math.

It will be conducted by invitation only from July to mid August in selected centers in Massachusetts and several other selected states including Alabama, California, Colorado, D.C. Metro/ Maryland, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Ohio, Oregon, SEMAA, Texas, and West Virginia.

A field day for competing teams is planned take place at MIT in Boston where competitors will meet and tour the Space Systems Laboratory.

And in a breakthrough for the African community children, Read with Us, a day care provider run by a Kenyan immigrant in Dracut has been selected as one of the centers to host this year's Zero Robotics program that brings the REAL rocket science literally to our door step.

"I am so humbled to have been selected as one of the few centers chosen to host this awesome summer program. It will be a great opportunity for our kids to experience and engage in such a high technology program provided by well known science and technology developers,” said Karen Ngugi, director and proprietor of Read With Us during an interview with Ajabu Africa News.

Karen said that the Robotics training program is totally free of charge for interested students. However, students are only required to pay the usual summer program fee of $100 a week.

"We are trying to provide our children with a different kind of a learning opportunity during their usual summer vacation. This is a unique summer program from the rest where parents bring their children during the school vacation. This program will open big doors to children who want to explore and develop their computer and robotics skills," she added.

The program is part of the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) programs that take place in Massachusetts during summer vacations to promote learning within the middle school student population.

It will culminate in a tournament where SPHERES developed by winning teams will battle aboard the International Space Station (ISS) with participants watching via a live feed while NASA astronauts provide a real-time commentary.

According to the program providers, Zero Robotics seeks to inspire our next generation of great minds by allowing them unprecedented access to space at the middle school level.

"By making the benefits and resources of the International Space Station tangible to students, Zero Robotics hopes to cultivate an appreciation of science, technology, engineering and math through healthy, immersive and collaborative competition," read a statement on the program website.

The program aims at leading young minds "toward considering the concept of working in space to be "normal", allowing imagination to go beyond the boundaries of rocket science. Each year's game is motivated by a problem of interest to NASA and MIT," adds the statement.

However, according to organizers, "Zero Robotics provides educators assigned to each selected center with the necessary training and ongoing technical support needed to provide middle school students with an experiential learning opportunity in computer programming."

African immigrant parents who would like to get their children to try out unique program brought to their backyard are urged to contact the Read with Us Day Program located at 1470 Lakeview Ave in Dracut for more information or to sign up.

The program will run for 5 hours a day from 8am to 1pm Monday through Thursday.

However, parents are required to sign up their kids online or in person with the entire $500 Day Program fee paid up front as space is limited.

For more info on how to sign up, contact Read with US at: 978-376-1904.
1470 Lakeview Ave in Dracut, MA.

With little or no learning going on in  public schools across Kenya as a result of the teacher's strike, the government has ordered that all public and private schools be closed starting Monday.

BOSTON--In a bid to recover overdue loans and close the gap in financing education for new college students in Kenya, the Higher Education Loans Board, (HELB), is offering a deal to Kenyans in the USA through an amnesty to repay the loans by October 31, 2015, and benefit from an 80% penalty waiver of penalties which have been accumulating on a monthly basis since January 2010.

According to HELB officials visiting the USA for bilateral discussions with various institutions and Kenyans, the penalties, authorized by the HELB Act of 1995, Section 15 (1) and Chapter Six of the constitution of Kenya onLeadership and Integrity have been adding up rapidly for those students who are not repaying the loan.

According to the Constitution, all Kenyans are expected to get a compliance certificate in order to get clearance to hold a public office in Kenya. A beneficiary is expected to be actively repaying the loan or has completed repayments.

In addition, the officials said, two credit bureaus and three debt collection agencies have been engaged and are profiling all loan defaulters. Further, all beneficiaries who have completed repayments are positively listed by Credit Reference Bureaus to enable them get favourable repayment terms with financial institutions. The credit sharing initiative has seen HELB and all financial institutions share credit information.

Speaking to Ajabu Africa News during a visit to Boston on Tuesday, the two HELB officials, CEO Charles Ringera and Board Chairman, Charles Wachira, said that Kenyans living in USA can repay their overdue balances, through several means including: anonline payment portal on the HELB website (www.helb.co.ke), MPesa, Credit/Debit Card, or direct bank deposits. There are several banks that are working with the educational financier to receive payments on their behalf, among them KCB, Co-operative Bank, Barclays and Equity Bank.

The officials added that a Kenyan Embassy HELB account will soon be opened for those Kenyans who would prefer to remit the funds through our Embassy in Washington D.C. (They did not specify whether the account will be working before the deadline).

HELB officials, Charles Ringera, 3rd left, and David Wachira, 2nd right, meet Kenyan Ambassador to the US, H. E Robinson Njeru Githae, 3rd right, together with other embassy officials during a courtesy call at the Embassy in D.C. PHOTO BY COURTESY

According to the officials, the Government of Kenya through the Higher Education Loans Board has spent Kshs 53 billion to fund the education of 482,000 students since the scheme was established in 1975.

However, only 102,000 students have completed repaying their loans worth 9.9 billion to date, while another 111,630 are currently servicing their loans worth KES 16.7 billion.

"This leaves about 74,500 students in complete default of their loan obligations to the tune of Kshs 8.6 billion.Some of these loans are more than 30 years old and have been outstanding since 1974."

Mr. Ringera said that due to the increased demand for higher education in Kenya, the Board requires Kshs. 10 billion to fund 209,000 students currently enrolled in 68 Public and private Universities. He added that faced with the increased shortage in funding, HELB has stepped up measures to recover unpaid loans by offering a penalty amnesty to past beneficiaries who have not commenced repayments.

He said that the first amnesty that waived 100% of the penalty took place for 60 days between Marchto July 2013, when more than Kshs. 1.2 billion was repaid.

Following the success of the initial amnesty, HELB ran another 40 day amnesty in 2014 where another Kshs. 485 million was repaid, hence the need for the Board to extend the offer to Kenyans living in the Diaspora especially in the USA.

A successful amnesty for Kenyans living in the UK was instituted in 2014, prompting the Board to now embark on recovering huge sums owed by beneficiaries residing in the USA.

The HELB officials said that most defaulters owe HELB an average Principal Loan of Kshs. 70,900 excluding interest of 2%, ledger fees and penalties for those who graduated between 1974 and 1995, and between Kshs.110, 000 to156,000 excluding interest, ledger fees and penalties those who graduated from 1997 to 2014.

The loans, popularly known as "boom" had been very popular with University students witha big chunk directed towards books, clothing, entertainment and other uses.

However, the officials stressed that the main problem is not the money owed or the interest charged, but the penalty charged under the HELB Act which the Board has generously waived.

"The Section 15 (a) of the HELB Act authorizes HELB to charge a penalty of Kshs. 5,000 ($50) per month from January 2010 to date for all inactive loan accounts."

According to HELB data, the average penalty amount per graduate is around Kshs. 305,000 ($3,050) which, when added to the principal and interest, makes the total amounts owed range from 305,000 for those who graduated in 1974 to 461,000 shillings for 2014 graduates.

"What we are proposing is to give Kenyans an opportunity to repay the funds by 31^st October 2015and in return we will waive 80% of the accumulated penalties due. By doing so, you will enable us to have more money to advance loans to needy students back home who are right now waiting for college funding in order to get an education like you got," he urged.

Ringera added that HELB is also willing to accept repayment plans where a defaulter can pay by instalments as long as a plan is put in place before the expiration of the amnesty period.

He said that the Board was ready and willing to listen to Kenyans in USA willing to repay their debt as the patriotic and responsible thing to do. However, as a measure of last resort, HELB is also working to recover the funds through USA debt collectors to the extent allowed by the US law for those not willing to take the new amnesty offer.

Ringera also revealed that HELB has just held talks with the US Secretary of education,Arne Duncan in Washington D.C during their current visit, in an effort to have the US government assist the Kenya government in ways to recover the loans.

HELB Officials during a meeting at the US Secretary of Education offices In Washington D.C. PHOTO BY COURTESY

"The US government is willing to help us find ways to recover the funds as a condition for them to continue assisting Kenya with education funding through USAID. USAID provides us some funds to educate students in many of our higher learning institutions especially technical institutes and nursing colleges. They are very keen on assisting students attain such education as a means of helping them get skills that can gain them employment immediately after graduation," said the CEO.

He added that according to readily available data, over 90 % of students who graduate with technical certificates are more likely to get jobs within the first year of graduation as compared to degree graduates at 65% over the same period. The CEO also said that such technical certificate holders are the ones who create the most employment opportunities through many small businesses they start.

"This is why our President is very keen on having many Kenyan youths attain certificates in various technical fields like nursing, carpentry, masonry, plumbing etc. It is the mission of the Jubilee Government to have at least one technical college in all the 47 counties in Kenya in the next few years."

"Repaying the loans owed will also save you from the need to keep sending a lot of money to educate your relatives back home. The best and most prudent thing to do is to repay the funds so that we have money to give more loans to more students and relieve you the need to send money. This also clears the way for you to be in good standing with the law in case you might want to come back home to transact any investment business or run for public office," said David Wachira, HELB chairman and former Chairman of Dedan Kimathi University in Nyeri.

Mr. Ndegwa Wachira also a former Managing Director at Consolidated Bank and a seasoned banker revealed that a memorandum of understanding is currently in the works between the Ministry of Foreign affairs and the Ministry of Education to enable HELB to fully engage defaulters in the USA in an effort to recover the billions owed.

The two officials have been meeting Kenyans indifferent US cities and states including Alabama, Arkansas, Boston, New York, and Washington D.C.

They urged Kenyans who would like to know their actual loan balances for the purpose of planning how to repay to contact HELB through email indicating their full names, National ID number, Institution and the year they graduated to:recovery:recovery@helb.co.ke

"We will respond within 24 hours with what you owe, the interest accrued and the penalty charged. But we would prefer you to take advantage of the new US amnesty to repay before October 31, 2015 in order to avoid the penalty," assured Ringera, the CEO.

The concerted efforts by HELB to recover unpaid loans owed by Kenyans in USA comes in the heels of strikes by University students in Kenya two days ago complaining of delay in disbursement of the much needed funds, which the students claimed was hurting their education while others languished at home for lack of tuition.(Read Here:Students protest over funds delay).

While in the USA, the HELB officials can be reached at:(540) 630-1761.

In Kenya, HEB can be reached at:+254 0711052000

For more information, visit,www.Helb.co.ke

NAIROBI: Kenyan students studying in Russia and Commonwealth Independent States (CIS) wants the government to reinstate partial scholarship bursary program to be reinstated that was stopped in 2011.

The more than 500 students seeking higher education in Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and Kazakhstan that are under the jurisdiction of the Kenyan Embassy in Moscow, said that the high cost of living in those countries are unaffordable without government's intervention.

Under the banner of Kenya Students Union in Russia and CIS, the students are now demanding that the government should restore the kitty to enable them complete their studies just like other African countries.

The students are mainly from Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and Kazakhstan that are under the jurisdiction of the Kenyan Embassy in Moscow.

The Union's President Eugene Museve in a letter to the Ministry of Education stated that if the government fails to reinstate the program more students will continue to drop out and return back to Kenya.

"It's illegal for us to do jobs in Russia which makes it hard for students to survive and compete favorably. A number of Kenyan students have dropped out of the universities due to financial problems," said Museve.

Museve said that the Ministry of Education had earlier promised to reinstate the bursary but unfortunately the funds have not been availed to date.

A fable by the major Kenyan author Ngugi wa Thiong'o has been translated into over 30 languages, making it "the single most translated short story in the history of African writing", according to its publisher.

Pan-African writers' collective Jalada Africa released its latest issue, focusing on translation, last week. It includes Ngugi's story Ituika Ria Murungaru: Kana Kiria Gitumaga Andu Mathii Marungii, which the award-winning author originally wrote in Kikuyu, a Kenyan language, and then translated himself into English asThe Upright Revolution: Or Why Humans Walk Upright.The fable tells the story of how "a long time ago humans used to walk on legs and arms, just like all the other four limbed creatures", but how "their rhythm and seamless coordination made the other parts [of the body] green with envy", and "they started plotting against the two pairs".

Jalada says it worked with translators of "all levels of experience, from a recent high school graduate to distinguished professors", to pull togetherits huge range of translations of Ngugi's story,which is available in Amharic, Dholuo, Kamba, Lwisukha (Luhya), Kipsigis, Kinyarwanda, French, Arabic, Luganda, Kiswahili, Afrikaans, Hausa, Meru, Lingala, IsiZulu, Igbo, Ibibio, isiNdebele, XiTsonga, Nandi (Kalenjin), Rukiga, Bamanankan, Lugbara, Lubukusu, Kimaragoli, Giriama, Sheng, Ewe, and Naija Langwej. It is now looking for writers and volunteers to volunteer translations in further languages.

Ngugi said the project would "empower Africa by making Africans own their resources from languages -- making dreams with our languages --to other natural resources -- making things with them, consuming some, exchanging some."

"The moment we lost our languages was also the moment we lost our bodies, our gold, diamonds, copper, coffee, tea. The moment we accepted (or being made to accept) that we could not do things with our languages was the moment we accepted that we could not make things with our vast resources," said the novelist and playwright.

Jalada is now planning to periodically publish a Translation Issue featuring a previously unpublished story, which it will ask writers and translators to translate into their own African language. Its ultimate goal is to translate each story into 2,000 African languages.

"Despite long-running conversations on the need for publishing in indigenous languages on the African continent over the past five decades, writing and translations remain minimal and the little that exists continues to rapidly decline," said the writers' collective. "There are millions of speakers in African languages and not many writers in African languages. Why? Can this be changed?"

"She would have been sitting her examinations now and I would be anticipating good results," a distraught Mrs Sally Chepngetich Bett says of her daughter, who died in school of an illness that could have been treated had immediate action been taken.

Her daughter, Emily Chelang'at, a Form Three student, died a year after being infected with meningitis at Our Lady of Mercy Secondary School in South B, Nairobi.

And though her daughter has long been buried, Mrs Bett's pain has not gone away as her quest for justice has hit a brick wall.

NEGLECTED

What pains Mrs Bett most is that Emily was neglected for over two weeks after she complained of severe head and back aches.

Mrs Bett says she only learnt of her illness on the closing day of the first term in April last year.

"When I got at the school on closing day, Emily's friends told me she was very sick and could not stand on her own. When I saw her, she could not walk," said Mrs Bett.

She said on asking why she had not received medical attention and why her parents had not been notified, Emily said she had notified the matron who dismissed her, saying she was trying to avoid school.

"Asked to explain why my daughter was denied medical attention, the matron said the school did not have an equipped dispensary and that I was just in time to take her to hospital," Mrs Bett said.

She said the matron walked away when she demanded to know why she was not contacted to take her daughter to hospital.

PHOTO | WILLIAM OERI

Mrs Bett said Emily told her she had shared a bed with a Form Two student who had similar symptoms.This student had not returned to school after the mid--term break.

SEMI--COMA

Emily was taken to a hospital in Namanga but her condition worsened and she was moved to Nairobi West Hospital in a semi--coma.

"She was diagnosed with meningitis and was rushed to the ICU where she stayed for five weeks," she said.

Doctors said had she been brought earlier, the disease would have been detected and treated.

"In ICU, my daughter went blind and part of her body became paralysed. She was taken for home care and was attended to by medical personnel who included a physiotherapist, but they stopped due to the huge unpaid bill," she said.

She said it was during this time that she learned that the student Emily had shared a bed with had died during the mid--term recess.

At around the same time, Mrs Bett's employer, the Ministry of Lands and Housing, suspended her salary following a dispute with a senior official, so she could not use her medical insurance. She was also transferred, despite appeals that her daughter was ill.

After eight months of home care, Emily died on March 4, 2016 and Mrs Bett and her husband informed the school.

BURIAL

"No one came to visit or bothered to call back. The school contributed Sh40,000 towards the burial but her friends were not allowed to attend the burial," said Mrs Bett.

Emily's parents visited the school on several occasions to seek answers and to collect her belongings but the watchman said he had been instructed to keep them away.

"The head, a Mrs T. K. Kiruja, was very rude. On one occasion, she called police to come and arrest us but after hearing our story, they left," said Mrs Bett.

The school wrote a letter to the County Director of Education claiming Emily left the school in April 2015. It said the student died after falling ill at home.

"The administration lied to the government," she said.

Emily's parents still owe Sh1.8 million in medical bills from the Sh3.6 million they incurred.

When the Daily Nation visited the school, the deputy headteacher, who only identified herself as Mrs Chomba, first denied knowledge of Emily or the matter but on further questioning, she said she had heard the issue being mentioned but had no details. She denied knowing anything about Emily's belongings.

Emily's parents have written to Education CS Fred Matiang'i, Deputy President William Ruto and several other offices on the matter.

Barely a week after President Uhuru Kenyatta claimed that external powers are seeking to influence the 2017 polls, the government has suspended a civic education program worth Sh2 billion run by the USAID.

The American NGO, International Foundation for Electoral System was implementing a program dubbed the "Kenya Electoral Assistance program, KEAP 2017".

In a letter copied to CBK governor Patrick Njoroge, Interior Principal Secretary Karanja Kibicho, the USAID management, the NGO board noted that IFES does not exist in the their list of companies operating in Kenya.

"Records held by the NGO board shows that IFES, is not a registered body in Kenya and therefore lacks the legal status to operate in the country. In addition the section 22 (1) of cap 134 laws Kenya clearly outlaws and prescribes penalties and jail term for the operation of an NGO in Kenya without registration," executive director of the board Fazul Mahamed said.

"We have also noted that the workers of IFES neither applied nor obtained a letter of recommendation from the board to the principal immigration officer for issuance of work permit.This means that all foreigners working for IFES including the chief of Party, Michael Yard, are working in Kenya illegally," Fazul added.

The board has advised CBK to immediately freeze all bank accounts and any other funds held under the name of the company until further notice.

The director of immigration has also been requested to review the immigration status of all foreign employees and take appropriate legal action as stipulated under the Citizenship and Immigration Act.

Last week US Ambassador to Kenya Robert Godec said the US will not support any particular political party next year but will help oversee a free, fair and credible poll.

Godec said that his country was determined to see Kenya hold a peaceful election and will give Sh2.5 billion for the exercise.

"The US had also promised to help strengthen the IEBC's institutional capacity, champion voter registration and advocate for peace before, during and after elections", he said.

LOWELL__A high school can often get caught up in the day-to-day challenges without seeing the bigger-picture victories worth celebrating.

With its new batch of top scholarship recipients, Lowell High School didn't want to miss the chance to celebrate.

Four seniors have received four-year, full-tuition scholarships from the Posse Foundation, which groups together "posses" of 10 students from diverse backgrounds at the same college. Those Lowell High students are going to Centre College, Bucknell University and Hamilton College.

Another student, given a QuestBridge scholarship, will attend Brown University. Another has been accepted to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

All six were highlighted at a program last week, putting the students front and center at the school's Little Theater, taking in applause from their teachers and guidance counselors.

Lowell High typically might get only one or so Posse scholarships. The foundation's Boston chapter, one of 10 nationally, receives thousands of student nominations each year to compete for 10 spots, according to the school. This year, Lowell got four.

Aside from paying for school for four years, the scholarship is also popular with students because it puts them in groups for support and diversity.

"I wouldn't want to go to college alone, and I don't have to," said Konama Pokuaa, who plans to study biology at Hamilton College in New York, with plans to later go to medical school to become an emergency room doctor.

Lourenco Martins and Sheila Mwangi will each go to Bucknell University in Pennsylvania. Martins, a flight commander in the school's Junior ROTC program, plans to study neuroscience. Mwangi, who moved to Lowell from Kenya six years ago, will major in biomedical engineering.

Martins said many entering college won't have the support system he'll be able to enjoy thanks to the scholarship program. "I'm not going in alone," he said.

Lowell High Head of School Brian Martin congratulates, front from left, Posse scholarship winners Sheila Mwangi, Lourenco Martins, Yaa Konama Pokuaa, and Cole Conlon, Charity Midenyo, who has been admitted Early Action to MIT, and QuestBridge scholarship winner George Kubai. SUN / JULIA MALAKIE

Cole Conlon, who is going to Centre College in Kentucky, said upon meeting other students in his "posse" that "everyone there was different" in terms of their backgrounds.

"We're all very similar on the inside," he said.

George Kubai will study biomedical engineering and business at Brown thanks to a full scholarship from QuestBridge, given to students who qualify based on academic and financial factors. He's the first Lowell High student to receive it. He said he looked forward to being able to pick his own classes and get an Ivy League education without a financial burden.

Charity Midenyo will study computer science at MIT and hopes to become a software developer. She never even considered applying until being urged to do so, she said, and even the act of applying gave her a boost.

"Taking that step has been really huge for me and really reshaped my life," she said.

The event was a chance for teachers, guidance counselors, Head of School Brian Martin and others to celebrate the success of some of their brightest students.

Guidance counselor Rhonda Devost called Pokuaa "a big personality," someone "who's always been one step ahead of me." Midenyo is the opposite, she said.

"Charity is all business. She comes in asks a question, gets and the answer and moves on," Devost said. "Her plan is to rule the world," she added, the crowd laughing.

David Robinson, the school's coordinator of student services, said Posse scholars are rare for the school, so getting four in one year was a pleasant surprise.

The high school plans to celebrate other notable scholarship recipients when other college admissions come in later in the winter.

Follow Grant Welker on Twitter and Tout @SunGrantWelker.

Read more:http://www.lowellsun.com/news/ci_30698790/college-dreams-never-more-special#ixzz4UjO71TfO

A US-based Kenyan researcher has made history as the first African to be granted more than 100 patents by the US Patent and Trade Office.

Dr George Njoroge, senior research fellow at Eli Lilly and Company and a director of research at Merck Research Laboratories, attained the hallmark with a new discovery of novel molecules used in treating viral infections.

Njoroge says Africa has the brain power to lead global research in communicable and non-communicable diseases. "It is ironic that our continent lags behind in drug research, yet it is the most in need and is endowed with the necessary raw materials," he said.

In 2015, Chinese researcher Tu Youyou won the Nobel Prize for medicine. It was for her work in discovery of anti-malaria medicine called Artemisinin, derived from Wormwood.

The tree is widely found in Tanzania and parts of North Africa. “We have the natural resources and the scientific know-how, yet Africa is nowhere on the map of drug discovery. The remaining piece of the puzzle is to enhance our commitment to local research.”

(AJABU AFRICA NEWS APRIL 1, 2017), BOSTON__A toxic mix of tribal, religious and business rivalry that haunts the Kenyan community in Boston marred attendance to a town hall meeting by the popular and high performing Kenyan education Secretary, Dr. Fred Matiang'i, when a total of 32 Kenyans and 10 guests turned up for the event held at the PCEA Neema church last Wednesday in Lowell, MA, reliable sources at the event told Ajabu Africa News.

Dr. Matiang'i, a member of the Kisii community from Western Kenya was in Boston last week to attend an education seminar at Harvard University when one Kenyan with "privy" information about the visit decided to host the team to a townhall meeting in Lowell.

Lowell, located about 40 miles north of Boston, is a popular city to host Kenyan community events as it hosts several thousand Kenyan nationals, who form part of the over 20,000 Kenyans in Boston. Majority of Kenyans in Lowell and the entire Boston region are from the Kikuyu tribe, the largest of the 42 tribes making up the east African nation with a population of more than 6 million out of a total of close to 40 million.

Thus, accompanied by a large delegation of about 10 members from the Kenyan education sector among them Prof. Chacha Nyaigoti Chacha, the current Chairman of the Kenyan Commission for University Education (CUE) and the Kenya Institute of Mass Communication (KIMC), Dr. Matiang'i was slated to address an expected large group of Kenyans in the region and take questions regarding the recent developments and reforms he is instituting in the Kenyan educational sector that had seen an uptick of cheating in national exams and strikes by teachers before Matiang’i started turning the tide around.

Dr. Fred Matian'gi. PIC BY COURTESY.

However, according to Kenyans attending the event, Matiang'i and his team seemed totally baffled as they addressed only a handful of few Kenyans who showed up, barely filling up one row in the large Kenyan community church that serves over 400 members from the Kikuyu tribe.

According to most Kenyans in Boston interviewed by Ajabu Africa News, most were not aware of the scheduled event until news broke Thursday morning after the fact; hence part of the reason many who would have wanted to attend did not get to do so resulting to the embarrassing situation.

Many felt they were denied a chance to ask serious questions they would have liked the minister to answer regarding the good and bad education sector trends reported in the media from back in the motherland that are of concern to the Diaspora residents.

According to event organizer, Daniel Kamau from Worcester and publisher of a local Kenyan Jamhuri Magazine, Dr. Matiang'i was in Boston to attend an educational seminar at Harvard University.

"They were in Boston to attend a conference on education at Harvard so I invited them to meet Kenyans here for a town hall meeting. We passed the invitation to all the pastors in all Kenyan churches to announce last Sunday. We also sent the information and it was advertised in Samrack, ThuoThuo and many Whatsapp groups around," said Kamau while responding to inquiries from Ajabu Africa News via a telephone interview.

However, a spot check with several Kenyan pastors in Boston indicated that no one informed them about the event not request for announcements.

"No. We did not receive any request to announce this event through all the churches affiliated with us as central organization representing various churches. Unless the organizers invited pastors individually, I don’t know, but we did not get any request," said Rev. Joseph Waiyaki, Secretary of the Kenyan American Pastor's Fellowship Association.

"We did not announce about the event as no one requested to. We can't announce everything so see on social media in church since you don't know who has organized and the purpose unless the organizer asks you to announce. Too many Kenyans here have been cheated and lost billions of funds through some unscrupulous businessmen and politicians who come through church so we are now very carefully what we announce in our church," said Rev. Samuel Kimohu, pastor of the St. Stephen's church in Lowell.

Similar sentiments were expressed by Rev. Dorcas Albreltch of the new Faith Anglican church in Bridgewater, father Samuel Mathenge of the Boston Kenyan Catholic and Friends Community and Raphael Mungai, chairman of the St. Peter's Catholic Community in Worcester and several other church leaders, all who said they had no idea the event was even happening.

Ajabu Media also was one of the networks kept in the dark about the townhall event until complaints from concerned Kenyans started pilling in when news broke.

"This is very embarrassing to all of us to have such a government minister who has done so much for Kenya come all the way and be embarrased by lack of quorum. I only came to know about this event around 6pm on the day it was happening when a friend at the event sent me a text to inquire whey we are not there to listen to Dr. Matiang'i who comes from our village in Western Kenya, said Vincent Magasi, a Kenyan insurance agent from Leominster, MA.

Magasi added that even if the event was announced at most Kenyan community churches as purposed by the organizers, it is important for Kenyans to realize that not all Kenyans in the region attend those churches as people are scattered all over New England hence impossible to reach most of them through churches.

He lamented that there was a notable trend where a small group of Kenyans in the Lowell area are always hosting high profile public figures with selfish motives and end up alienating other Kenyans that they don't agree with on community issues by withholding crucial information.

"I don't have anything against Kenyan community churches. If they want to serve their tribal groups, that is ok with me. But anyone inviting a public figure to the Kenyan community in Boston needs to realize that we have a lot of Kenyans attending the SDA and other international multicultural churches in Leominster, Fitchburg, North Reading, Revere and other areas. If you fail to publicized this kind of an event in all known Kenyan media and social media networks, then some of these Kenyans will never know about it as you can not announce Kenyan community events in these international churches," he added.

Magasi a member of the Kenyan Kisii tribe said it would have been very nice to meet up with Dr. Matiang'i and give him some ideas from the Diaspora that Kenyans would like to see instituted in the Kenyan education system.

Other Kenyans who spoke to Ajabu Africa news said that they were concerned with such high profile guests visiting the region on tax payer funded missions were being organized in church settings especially due to the well known infighting among many Kenyan churches that has caused bitter divisions among members of the relatively small community and their rapidly increasing children living far from home.

"Holding business or political events in Kenyan community churches is not a good idea because this leaves the door wide open to the leaders of those churches to use the events to try and alienate those they don't agree with or settle personal scores. It's also smells of corruption and greed since some Kenyans are using churches as venues to try and make their investment solicitations look holy and genuine as long as they were advanced through a certain church with the blessings of that pastor," said another Kenyan who requested anonymity to avoid usual retribution from church leaders uncomfortable with certain discussions affecting the social dynamics of the community.

Prof. Chacha Nyaigoti Chaca. PIC BY COURTESY.

Some clergymen in the Kenyan community have been accused of offering free of charge church facilities for political or business events as a dangling carrot to attract new members, get financial favors and control the direction of the community while tacitly resisting any efforts by the community to unite under a civic group with rotational leadership that would host such events at rented halls.

The clergymen have also resisted to join efforts to help the Kenyan community put up their own Kenyan community center that would serve as a neutral venue to disseminate public community information and host civic leaders, both from Kenya and locally in USA.

In the process, other Kenyans who operate small social media blogs have colluded with some pastors to host such events in churches with the goal of attracting readership and business solicitations, while doing everything possible to keep the information from rival media outlets.

Other Kenyans questioned why even hundreds of members of the Neema church themselves did not bother to attend the event, yet it was clearly announced in the church the Sunday before.

"This is the big elephant in the room. If Dr. Matiang'i was from the Kikuyu tribe, the church would have been almost full even if it happened on a weed day. We have seen Kenyan in Lowell attending weddings and burials in their hundreds even on week days. There is clearly an undeniable tribal angle to this embarrassing situation. It's also worth to note even other tribes hardly come out to attend events hosted for Kikuyu leaders or community events, so the problem cuts both ways,"” said another concerned Kenyan mother.

Most Kenyans said that there is an urgent need to change the dynamic and divisions currently at work happening in the Kenyan community in Boston.

Reached for comments on why the townhall was allowed to take place at the PCEA Neema church and not inform all Kenyans in the region about it, Dr. Karimi Mumbui, the pastor of the church to Ajabu Africa News that he was not involved in organizing and thus had no role to play in the sub standard advertising of the Dr. Matiang'i townhall.

"I was just approached to provide a venue for the event and I agreed to provide the venue for free. I did not know anything else related to the event. In fact, I also did not attend the event as I was at work."

The pastor remained non committal when asked on the veracity of hosting political or community-wide civic events in churches in light of the massive divisions among Kenyan churches in the area.

"No comments," he said emphatically.

However, Kamau, the event organizer, turned irate and hanged up the phone when asked if there was any relation between hosting the Cabinet Secretary to the disappointing town hall as a way to promote the private Kenya University Project he has been promoting and soliciting investment funds for.

Kamau, who two years ago run a campaign to try and prevent Kenyans from attending the Boston Kenyan Festival taking place in Lowell by falsely accusing the Kenyan embassy in D.C of charging Kenyan nationals in Boston $25 in order to be issued with Kenyan ID cards during the Boston Kenyan Festival attended by the Kenyan Ambassador in USA hanged up the phone when pressed for answers.

However, the $25 fee was charged by the event host, the New England Kenyan Association as the cover fee to help pay for the venue rental food, and goat meat.

The Kenya embassy had only paid for a small room adjacent to the main event venue where Kenyans entered free of charge to apply for their new generation Kenyan ID cards.

Dan Kamau (center), the event organizer during a past event. PIC BY COURTESY/ FACEBOOK

However, according to Kenyans who attended the townhall on Wednesday, Dr. Matiang'i and other officials provided great information of the recent trends in the Kenyan education sector.

Among the highlights included the elimination of cheating during national exams and issuance of fake certificates, expansion of private universities and colleges, the wings to fly program that has currently sponsored over 300 Kenyan students studying abroad, the 90% rate of electrification of public school which is expected to hit 100 % in 2017. He also said there was a lot of innovation in technology by young Kenyans which saw the Catholic University won a research project sponsored by the IBM tech and computer manufacturer.

However, Dr. Matiang'i also said there were still a lot of challenges facing Kenyan education system including rising rates of HIV infection among students, over 3,000 unwanted pregnancies per year, parents abandoning their parenting duties to schools, rigidity of exam time tables, bullying of new students, and a myriad of fake satellite universities for profit, some of which have been set up on top of butcheries to minimize expenses and detection as they fleece unsuspecting parents and students.

David Mambo, a.k.a Jomo, serves as the moderator for the event.

The Matiang'i fiasco in Boston presents a prime manifestation of the dysfunction and disintegration that has rocked the growing Kenyan community in Boston as churches, tribes, business owners and individuals engage in a maddening rivalry for control and dominance.

In the process, the unfortunate scenario has left many in the community divided into a myriad of small cocoons that cater mainly for profit interests of most leaders.

Unfortunately, to establish dominance, the small groups often disparage rival groups, shun any event organized by others with anyone calling for unity of all Kenyans under one roof getting criticized to oblivion, replicating the vicious cycle with no solution in sight as yet as the groups dig in their heels.

BOSTON__The 2017 US college graduation season is on in full gear where thousands of African immigrants are among over 2 million students gaining degrees and certificates in various fields, including highly skilled ones.

College graduates, eager to cap years of hard work and dedication have taken to social media which is awash with images of graduation ceremonies as families bask in the limelight.

According to the National Center for Education Statistics, colleges and universities are expected to award 1,018,000 associate's degrees; 1.9 million bachelor's degrees; 798,000 master's degrees; and 181,000 doctor's degrees during the 2016-2017 school year.

In 2013-14, postsecondary institutions awarded 96,900 certificates below the associate's degree level, 1.0 million associate's degrees, 1.9 million bachelor's degrees, 754,000 master's degrees, and 178,000 doctor's degrees(source).

David Kubai, Bachelors of Mechanical Engineering, Umass Amherst. AJABU MEDIA PIC/AJABU AFRICA NEWS PIC

In Massachusetts, more than 17,000 students graduated from the University of Massachusetts system, the largest public education system in the Northeast.

Among them were Janet Kiongera and David Kubai, two Kenyan immigrants from Lowell who graduated from the UMASS Amherst last Saturday.

Kiongera, daughter of Dr. George Kiongera, who recently graduated with a PhD in Nursing Practice and consequently founded the Maestro Connections Health Systems, graduated with an accounting degree while Kubai graduated with bachelors in Mechanical Engineering.

"It feels good to be able to reach this point. I thank God for everything and my family for the support they gave me," said Kiongera , adding that she is planning to go back to school for a master's degree this Fall.

Marion Kiiru, right, Bachelors of Electrical Enginerring, Umass Lowell together with her mother, Cecilia Kuria who will be graduating with a BSN degree this Wednesday from the Elm College in Chicopee. The family's son will also graduate from high school in a month's time. PIC BY COURTESY

"Its great to be able to graduate after so much hard work. I feel very blessed and I thank God for being there for me," said Kubai during an interview with Ajabu Africa News at UMASS Amherst while flanked by jubilant family and friends.

At the same time, another Kenyan, Marion Kiiru, a Kenyan girl from the University of Massachusetts Lowell impressed many when she graduated with a bachelor's of Electrical Engineering at a time when her won single mother graduated with a Bachelors of Nursing degree from Elms College in Chicopee.

"I thank God for my daughter's achievement as the first female engineer in our family. We have come from very far especially when you see so many kids fall out of school due to various issues," said Kiiru's mother, Cecilia Kiiru during an interview with Ajabu Africa News.

More African students are expected to continue graduating in the next few weeks as the graduation season rolls on.
 

Dr. George Kiongera, and his wife, Elizabeth Kiongera celebrate the graduation of their daughter Janet together in the company of a grandughter at Umass Amherst.

Dr. Kiongera family

Janet Kiongera and elder sister, Margaret Kiongera.

Ndungu, a.ka. Brown and his wife celebrate the graduation of their cousin, David Kubai at Umass Amherst.

Young Kenyans celebrate the graduation of their cousin, David Kubai at Umass Lowell.

David Kubai family in full celebration mode.

Marion Kiiru's family join her to celebrate during a graduation ceremony held last week at Umass Lowell.

Kenya has produced yet another star, but this time it shines in the scientific field. George Njoroge is a United States-based Kenyan with the Pioneer Award for Impact in Science and Medicine under his belt. He received the award on Sunday, July 14 at the FACE List in New York, an event organized by Face2Face Africa.

George is also a senior researcher at Eli Lilly and Merck Research Laboratories former Director of Research. Njoroge received the honor after discovering molecules that could be used in treating a variety of viral infections. "Over the years, I've received lots of accolades both here in the USA and other parts of the world. However, I find it quite remarkable to get recognition by an afro-centric organization."

"This makes me dance joyfully and with exhilaration," he said.

Who is George Njoroge?

George Njoroge is a native of Kiambu with over 100 patents for his work in immunology and cancer. He attended Kiawairia and Kamuchege Primary schools before advancing to Thika High School for his secondary education.

He received his first-class honors undergraduate degree from the University of Nairobi before joining CASE Western Reserve University in Cleveland Ohio for a Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry. The 64-year-old says he's not done despite holding a prestigious position at a global pharmaceutical company. He wants to move to Naivasha in the next year to be in close proximity with his upcoming biotechnology institute.

Njoroge hopes to attract well over 100 doctoral degree holders from all over the world to work in the institute to find a cure for cancer, diabetes, AIDS, and Malaria..

After accepting the Face2Face Africa Award, Njoroge said, "Africa has to step up the plate and get involved by participating in the global scientific platform, we cannot afford to be left behind. The African content has great brains and an abundance of resources. We only need to embrace the power that comes with biotechnology."

Other Awards
However, this was not the first time the scientist was on a podium receiving an honorary award, in 2017, he became the first African scientist to earn 100 patents from the American Patent and Trade Office. This honor also came after the scientist found a treatment capable of curing some viral diseases.

Mount Kenya University also saw Njoroge's ability through his research and awarded him an honorary Doctor of Pharmacy degree back in 2014. At Merck Research Laboratories, George conducted the research that paved the way for the discovery of Victrelis.

Victrelis is the first ever oral drug for Hepatitis C. A US media outlet was quoted saying, "Victrelis was approved by the FDA in 2011 and is currently on sale in more than 45 countries worldwide, with over $1 billion in sales. The discovery earned the scientist a coveted 2012 Hero of Chemistry honor, which was awarded to him by the American Chemical Society, which is the largest scientific society in the world."

With chronic hepatitis currently affecting over 3 million Americans and between 130 and 170 million others around the globe, Dr. Njoroge's findings are immense. The drug has already been approved in 43 countries and is currently on sale in 23 of said countries.

Credits
Dr. Njoroge says all the credit for his undying devotion to science and finding new cures should go to his late mother, Alice Nyaucha. She was a practitioner of herbal medicine and inspired his love for science since he was a little boy. The researcher is married to Esther Nyambura, and the couple has two children both pursuing medical degrees.

An Egyptian-Dominican archaeological mission working near Alexandria has discovered mummies from around 2,000 years ago bearing golden-tongued amulets, the Egyptian authorities said on Wednesday.

"The mission discovered 16 tombs cut into the rock...in the temple of Taposiris Magna, west of Alexandria" in northern Egypt, the antiquities ministry said in a statement, adding that the burial technique was widespread in the Greek and Roman periods.

The tombs contained several mummies that were "poorly preserved" but bore "gold-leafed amulets in the shape of a tongue".

The amulets were placed in the mouths of the dead "to ensure they could speak in the afterlife", according to the ministry.

Two of the mummies were of particular interest to the researchers, mission chief Kathleen Martinez was quoted as saying in the statement.

One had "bandages and parts of cardboard--layers of glued, stuccoed and painted linen fabric that enveloped the mummy--decorated with gilding with the effigy of Osiris", the Egyptian god of death and the underworld.

The second bore a "crown decorated with horns and a cobra... as well as a necklace with a pendent in the form of a falcon's head", representing the god Horus, the son of Isis and Osiris, according to the statement.

The team also found a female burial mask, a golden diadem and eight sculpted marble masks, according to Khaled Abu al-Hamd, head of Alexandria Antiquities.

The mission has been working to the west of Alexandria for several years, searching for the tomb of the legendary Ptolemaic Queen Cleopatra--though doubts remain among archaeological circles about the likelihood of finding it in the area.

The Ptolemaic dynasty was of Greek origin and ruled Egypt between 323 and 30 BC.

It was the last pharaonic dynasty before Egypt came under Roman rule, and Cleopatra was its last sovereign.