Prof Juma: Renowned Kenyan scholar with links to Arusha

Prof Calestous Juma displays a laptop. The celebrated science professor died in the US on Friday.

What you need to know:

Scientific experts from an array of research and training institutions around the city would converge to hear the man behind spirited drive for science, technology and innovation in Africa.

        Arusha. His coming to the Arusha-based Nelson Mandela African Institution on Science and Technology (NM-AIST) would draw researchers from beyond the campus.

Scientific experts from an array of research and training institutions around the city would converge to hear the man behind spirited drive for science, technology and innovation in Africa.

Upon entering the meeting hall, the Kenyan-born Prof Calestous Juma, who died in the US on Friday, would not waste time on the need for Africa to use science and technology resources for development.

Specifically, he challenged the universities and other institutions of higher learning, such as NM-AIST, to embark on training programmes that are more practical oriented.

“New generation universities must emphasize more practicals and know what the industry wants”, he said, noting that the alliance between the academia and the industry was one of the missing links in Africa, at least until very recently. Prof Juma, the Kenyan-born science and technology icon was working at Harvard Kennedy School and was also Chair of Innovation for Economic Development. His death sent shock waves in the science, technology and innovation fraternity in the continent and the entire world.

He has been teaching at the prestigious university without losing touch with his roots in Africa.

His Arusha connection

He was a frequent visitor to Arusha, often coming to attend conferences but also giving his immense knowledge to the research teams on the ground and young scientists.

At one of the East African Community (EAC) Heads of State Summit held here, he implored on the regional leaders on how to tackle the food crisis through the application of the research findings. To prove his determination in pushing for the eradication of hunger in Africa, he launched his book titled ‘New Harvest Agricultural Innovation in Africa’ at the Ngurdoto Mountain Lodge.

Prof Juma, who died at the age of 64 and who was in the list of ‘2017 Most Reputable People on Earth,’ had a career spanning four decades in science, technology and allied matters.

He started his career as a science teacher in the mid-1970s, but it was his stint at the Daily Nation that catapulted him to limelight.

Accounts had it that he was the first science and environment editor of the leading daily in the region. That was around 1978 to 1979.

That was the time environmental issues, in particular, started to draw the attention of the policy makers and the media in the region and Africa in general. But it was through his Ecoforum, a publication he started and edited in Nairobi and later as an editor and researcher at the Environment Liason Centre - also in the Kenyan capital - that put him into international fame.

The Centre was supported by the United Nations Environment Programme (Unep) and other UN agencies based there and was used as a platform to advocate for the environment agenda. That was between 1979 to 1982. From 1982 onwards the editing of the publication was taken over by James Mpinga, probably the first dedicated Tanzanian environmental writer as the Kenyan writer pursued further studies abroad.

Prof Juma has often been described as an intellectual giant given his contribution to science, technology and innovation in both the developing and developed countries.

He would often share his writing on Twitter. In 2012, 2013 and 2014 he was listed among the most influential 100 Africans by the New African magazine.

When the African Union (AU) has established a high level advisory panel on science, technology and innovation in 2013, Prof Juma was the natural choice to co-chair the eight person panel.

The panel was tasked to address the growing need for the continent to emphasise science and technology in its development agenda. The panel would also advise the AU on reviewing Africa’s Science and Technology Consolidated Plan of Action (CPA) which was adopted by the ministers responsible for science and technology in 2005.

The plan was in 2006 endorsed by Heads of State and Government in order to move the continent from resource-economies into innovation-led, knowledge-based economies.

Apparently establishment of the panel was a response a long time cry by scientific experts in African continent to convince policy makers to allocate more resources for science and technology sector to boost economic growth in the continent.