NAIROBI, Kenya, Dec 21 – Deputy President William Ruto is expected to lay a foundation stone for the William Ruto Institute of African and Leadership Studies, in Uganda’s Makerere University on Saturday.
The goals of the institute include developing innovative approaches to teaching and learning about Africa and enhancing and enriching intellectual and cultural life, a brief on the university’s website reads.
The institute will also be used to strengthen relationships between academic and indigenous intellectuals as the basis for reclaiming indigenous knowledge, and integrate this into local communities
Ruto joins a list of prominent persons and scholars to have institutes named after them.
Retired President Mwai Kibaki is also an honoree of the university, the institution having unveiled a US$ 5 million H.E. Mwai Kibaki Presidential Library in honour of the retired president who was described as her most illustrious and outstanding alumnus.
Kibaki schooled in Makerere from 1951 to 1955.
In 2012, Makerere University awarded an Honorary Doctor of Laws to Kibaki, to recognize his distinguished and outstanding contribution to public service at the national, regional and international levels – especially in the areas of Academic Excellence, Political, Social and Economic reforms.
Makerere is Uganda’s largest and oldest institution of higher learning, first established as a technical school in 1922.
The University is composed of nine colleges offering programmes for about 36,000 undergraduates and 4,000 postgraduates.