CORD Leader Raila Odinga will this weekend give the commencement address to the class of 2015 at United States International University in Nairobi.
Odinga, a prolific thought leader, has delivered lectures in distinguished universities across the globe except in Kenya where draconian university rules has made addressing Kenyan university students beyond reach to leaders outside the government.
Earlier this year, law students at the University of Nairobi invited Odinga to give a talk to the club on the progress of devolution but the event was cancelled by the university in what they claimed was sabotage from state house.
Several other top public universities remain a no go zone for Odinga and other leaders, especially those in the political opposition, regardless of their contribution to the democratization, growth and development of the country.
These exclusionist tendencies by Kenyan public varsities is a huge indictment to their roles as crucibles of divergent views, for it makes no sense to keep someone like Odinga who has addressed students of Yale and Princeton, Boston and the University of Pretoria, out of campus because of cheap politics of the today.
At the University of Pretoria, Odinga delivered his most effusive speech so far titled Sustaining Democracy’s Future in Africa: A Challenge to the Next Generation’.
In Yale, Odinga delivered yet another great lecture, asking whether the pendulum had swung too far for the continent. Watch the Video here.
Even in Kenya, Odinga has severally addressed students of Strathmore Business School at Strathmore University.
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