Lubao FM News 
The changing phase of Maseno University over the past five years has been infrastructurally and academically beneficial to both the internal and external public’s playing a huge role in the growth and development of Maseno area into a town that’s ever growing.
Due to this fact, it’s needful for them to be aware of the growth of Maseno University both inside and outside the university and the impact caused by the great leadership skills of the agricultural guru at the helm of Maseno University.
All this is even more impressive due to the fact that he worked as a lecturer and rose through the ranks to his current position from: lecturer, senior lecturer,chairman of department,dean deputy vice chancellor then finally vice chancellor.
According to the Vice Chancellor for Maseno University Prof Julius Nyabundi,the university has been in operation long before he took over as the Vice Chancellor however; it had little to show for its long-time existence especially in terms of infrastructural development, capacity to attract prospective students and technological capabilities. Furthermore, it wasn’t able to solicit more government funding like other newly formed public Universities such as Kibabii University hence the need for him to device great strategies to enhance the face of Maseno University especially infrastructurally.
He was able to initiate and champion for the tarmacking of the (0.65km) Siriba feeder road from the Kisumu Busia highway to ensure students, staff and the community could move conveniently. In addition to that, the quality of academic teaching and learning has also been improved since the issue of missing marks which resulted from many reasons one of them being students falsely claiming to have sat for examinations has been addressed.
Shortage of lecture rooms and laboratory space was the other issue that had to be overcome.
Concerning lack of laboratory halls, it was so serious to an extend that the School of Medicine was in danger of being closed because there were no labs for students to undertake their practicals.
Therefore, it was his responsibility to build the The Microbiology and Pathology Laboratory. On the issue of lecture space, the Library Block was almost complete and therefore he moved in to complete it so that part of it could be used as a library and the other part to cover lecture rooms.
The Ultra-Modern Tuition Block was started at about the same time, it has a total of 26 lecture rooms, 3 amphitheaters and 2 laboratories. The design and finish of the block is by all standards meeting the current contemporary university standards. It is a university policy to house all first years so that as they get to know the Maseno neighborhood they may be feeling safe, secure and well catered for, the other years may be housed or get their space outside the university.
Maseno University has a student capacity of about 4500 and last year they had an admission of about 7000 students, therefore the number could keep on growing and so as the university we decided to enhance the hostel capacity within the university and he says the Hostel has all that a student need.
During the interview he said, “We have gone to this extent so that students should start appreciating their social position in the university, I would want to develop students who get out of the university with ambitions to live better.
My vision is to automate Maseno University system to an extend that when a student is admitted all the information of that particular student including; examination registration, deferment, completed the four-year course, graduating, fee payment date, time and amount can be done automatically. “
Moreover, initiate a project on laboratories, a six-story laboratory complex for easier management and efficiency. Currently, the existing laboratories are the ones that we inherited from Siriba Campus and we have improvised a lot for example the 5 Chemistry labs.
It is also to make Maseno University a place where people come because of its fame for quality teaching and learning, also, I want it to be a university of choice by students who have come to appreciate Maseno as a premium institution of teaching and learning that includes research for post-graduate students. In the past few years, students report at the beginning of the semester and at the third week lectures have not yet began.
However,all that is quickly changing due to the different developments being made both within the institution and in the education sector as a whole.Right now, lectures start at the first week and I want to move to the extent that lectures begin on the first Monday of reporting so as we can achieve the 42 units. Indeed,he is a man on a mission,the force behind the exponential transformation of Maseno University and the regions around it as a whole. As it is often said, everything begins and ends with leadership.
By Edgar Akula
