The University of Nairobi is set to announce the appointment of a new Vice-Chancellor on Monday, December 6, 2020.
According to Daily Nation, Professor Kiama Gitahi was furnished with the letter of appointment, trumping the two other candidates whose names had been forwarded namely; Deputy Vice-Chancellor Prof Madara Ogot and Prof Patricia G. Kameri Mbote.
Prof. Kiama Gitahi was serving as the substantive DVC for Human Resources and Administration as well as the acting as DVC Finance.
He boasts of a 78-page CV complete with a table of contents, just two pages shy of Education CS George Magoha's 80-page version that caused quite a stir across the country in 2019.
Born in Nyeri back in 1964, the accomplished professor has a cumulative 29 years of research and teaching experience at various institutions of higher learning including University of Nairobi, St. Andrews University in Scotland, Free University of Berlin, Germany, University of Bern, Switzerland, University of Witwatersrand, South Africa and University of Ghana, Ghana.
He also has 15 years of administrative experience at a senior level in the basic and higher education management in Kenya having served as a member of the UoN Senate and University Executive Board since 2003.
Prof. Kiama is a holder of Bachelor of Veterinary Medicine (1990) and Master of Veterinary Anatomy (1995) degrees from UoN, Kenya and Doctor of Philosophy in Structural Biology (2001) from University of Bern, Switzerland.
Several leaders have come out to congratulate the veteran professor following his latest appointment.
"Congratulations Prof Kiama Gitahi on your well-deserved appointment as the UoN Vice-Chancellor," Nairobi Women Rep Esther Passaris posted on Twitter.
Interestingly, his previous appointment to serve as the Acting Deputy Vice-Chancellor in charge of Human Resource and Administration was opposed by the then Education CS Amina Mohamed, who was pushing for the appointment of Prof William Ogara.
UoN is set to announce the appointment of its new VC after his predecessor's (Peter Mulwa Felix Mbithi) term comes to an end on January 5, 2019.
