President's Address

REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT

Your Excellency, the President of the Republic of Kenya, honourable ministers, your honour, the Lieutenant-Governor of New Brunswick, Mr. Vice-Chancellor of the University of Nairobi, Mr. Canadian High Commissioner, Mr. Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Kenya Technical Teachers College and its principal and staff, other distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen:

I am pleased to welcome you to this convocation. There is one important group for whom I have reserved, as I always do on occasions such as this, a particularly warm and cordial welcome .... the graduating students in whose honour these ceremonies are being held. I am pleased to bring to you all warmest greetings from the Senate and Board of Governors of the University of New Brunswick, and from our Chancellor, Sir Max Aitken, who regrets very much that his current ill health prevents him from being here today.

The University of New Brunswick is particularly pleased to be able to count among its graduates President Moi. You do us great honour, Sir. And I am sure that your fellow graduates here today must also feel honoured and not a little proud. It surely seldom happens that university students anywhere in the world can graduate along with their country's head of state. For UNB, and for the students graduating today in course, you have, Mr. President, made this a very special convocation indeed for us all.

It is a special ceremony for other reasons as well. It is the first time since UNB was established in 1785 that we have ever taken a graduation ceremony to the students; and being, as we are today, more than 8,000 miles from where the students conducted their studies, we are probably establishing some kind of world's record.

And it is special, too, because it allows the University to play a role in helping to celebrate the official opening of this magnificent new campus, I should say that we at UNB can take no special credit for the campus itself. The credit must go to the Kenyan Government, the architects, and the Canadian International Development Agency. However, we are proud to take some credit for helping to ensure that the magnificent physical facilities of the Kenya Technical Teachers College will successfully serve the purpose for which they were intended.

Our role, in accordance with a contractual agreement with the Canadian International Development Agency, has been twofold: firstly, to be responsible for providing the teaching staff at the College during its formative years; and secondly, and most importantly, to work our way out of this respo9nsibility by training Kenyans at the University of New Brunswick who can return home to replace the Canadian Expatriates. This graduation ceremony today represents tangible proof that the second aspect of the project is working .... and working well.

I should point out that not all of the students graduating today were originally part of the KTTC Project. Some represent the Kenyanization of the now well-established sister institution of the KTTC, the Kenya Science Teachers College, located here in Nairobi. These students, twelve in number, came to us at the request of the Principal of the KSTC, Mr. A. Mbogho, at the time the KTTC Project was just beginning. We are most grateful to the Government of Sweden, whose Swedish International Development Agency funded these scholarship students at UNB. Also, we very much appreciate the cooperation and assistance Mr. Mbogho and his then Assistant Principal, Mr. J.D. Kimura, who we were very pleased to see appointed as the Principal of the KTTC.

I referred a few minutes ago to our role in the KTTC Project. If we are discharging our responsibilities with some degree of success, as I believe we are, it is because of several reasons. One of them is the close cooperation, assistance and guidance we have received from Kenyan officials in our efforts throughout the project to date. From our standpoint this has been absolutely critical, because we realize that we are not helping to establish a Canadian college in Kenya, but a Kenyan college in Kenya .... for the people of Kenya.

That we at UNB are helping the Kenyan Government to achieve some of its national goals and objectives is self-evident. But I think it is often overlooked that the reverse is also true. As always, good cooperative ventures are two-way streets: both parties benefit. There is no question that we at UNB are benefiting directly from this program: our horizons are broadened; our Division of Vocational Education in our Faculty of Education is being strengthened by its lead-mission role in the program; and our students and faculty as a whole benefit from the intellectual interchanges which are occurring between Canadians and Kenyans. As a consequence, we at UNB are, therefore, better able to assist our governments, both at the provincial and national level, in achieving some of their goals and objectives.

But, ladies and gentlemen, I would have to say that the main reason why I am confident we are succeeding in our task is sitting before me .... the graduating students. I am proud of them. They have worked hard to earn the right to be here today. In every sense of the word, they have truly earned their degrees. And let me say that I have no doubt that their horizons have been broadened by their few years at UNB in Canada's eastern maritime province of New Brunswick. Every time they look at the snow-capped peak of Mount Kenya, I suspect they will be reminded of those long, cold and snowy winter months at UNB .... and be glad that they are back in Kenya.

But there is a more fundamental reason why I am sure they are glad to be home again. The Republic of Kenya is a country with great potential for development. In Kenya, as in Canada, the future belongs to young men and women such as today's graduates. And I know that these young people before me are anxious to put their skills, talents, and love of country to work for the betterment of their fellow man and the Republic of Kenya.

It remains for me to wish each and every one of the graduates today much success and happiness in their future careers .... and to welcome them to the UNB family on a permanent, life-long basis as alumni of their University.