President Uhuru Kenyatta by the powers vested in him by the Constitution has the mandate to appoint chancellors to all public universities in the country.
Since taking over power in 2013, Uhuru has appointed a number of chancellors notably billionaire Narendra Raval (Egerton University) and Joseph Mathu (Jkuat) but reserved one for himself, the Kibabii University Chancellor.
He has held the position from the time he chartered the university on November 14, 2015, and never missed any but one graduation ceremony where he has always given hundreds of millions for the upgrade of the institution's facilities.
Kibabii University, was initiallyset up as Kibabii Teachers’ Training College but with recommendations from community leaders it was trabsformed into a university college with all trainee teachers being transferred to Eregi Teachers' Training College in Kakamega.
On September 19, 2007, President Mwai Kibaki presided over a groundbreaking ceremony at the proposed site of the long-awaited Kibabii Teachers Training College in Bungoma South District.
Due to a request by the leaders from Bungoma County, Kibaki declared that the newly constructed facilities for Kibabii Diploma Teachers’ College be converted to Kibabii University College, a constituent College of the Masinde Muliro University of Science and Technology.
The university was granted it's Charter by President Kenyatta in November 2015 where he also allocated Ksh 100 million for development of facilities.
In 2016 he presided over the university's first graduation ceremony where he conferred 742 graduates with various degrees.
During the same ceremony, he also announced an allocation of Ksh300 million to improve the university’s teaching facilities.
The only graduation ceremony that president Kenyatta missed war the institutions 3rd ceremony but he was represented by the then CS for Education Ambassador Amina Mohammed on November 23 2018.
In 2018 the president invited the university's management to a meeting at State House Nairobi and gave the institution Ksh100 million to equip laboratories and improve water supply to the university. The council chairman, Ernest Mwangi, and the vice-chancellor, Isaac Odeo, led the delegation.
By him taking up the position as the chancellor to the university, President Kenyatta revived the memory of former President Daniel Arap Moi who was the chancellor to all public universities, a position shunned by Mwai Kibaki.
