Oketch, Moses O. (2004) “The mergence of private university education in Kenya: trends, prospects, and challenges” in International Journal of Educ

Oketch, Moses O. (2004) “The mergence of private university education in Kenya: trends, prospects, and challenges” in International Journal of Educational Development v. 24, page 119-136

1947 – the Asian community of Nairobi attempts to open the Gandhi Memorial Academy, but is denied. The Academy effort is eventually folded into the creation of Royal Technical College.

1969 – USIA enters Kenya.

p. 120: “The development of private higher education in Kenya is intractably linked to that of the public universities. First, the founding of the University of Nairobi has a history of private initiative, and second, the 1980s marked the unprecedented growth of public universities and the establishment of private colleges and universities.”

p. 120: “The 1980s . . . was the period during which Kenya’s second president, Daniel arap Moi began to consolidate his power. . . . Although Abagi (1996: p. 2) cites Moi’s desire for national pride and domestic politics as having influenced the expansion of state universities, it had also become clear to Moi’s government that even with the expansion of the University of Nairobi, the demand for university education would remain largely unmet. In 1981, a Presidential Working Party recommended the setting up of the second state university. In response to its recommendations, Moi University was established in 1984, with the academic mission of producing graduates specialized in technological and environmental fields. The establishment of Moi University broke from the tradition in Africa in which universities were an elevation of an existing institution such as a teachers college or a technical institute. Instead its establishment involved the clearing of a forest and erecting new buildings where none had existed before. In many ways, it was a university in the middle of nowhere.”

p. 120: “As Abagi . . . notes, the subsequent years saw the establishment of an additional three universities based partly on the social demand but moreso on the political expediency of the Moi government.”

FROM WHENCE DID KENYA’S UNIVERSITIES ARISE?

Kenyatta University -- had been the teacher training college

Egerton University -- had been the agricultural diploma college

Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology -– had been a constituent college of Kenyatta University

Maseno University -- had been a teacher training college, constituent of Moi University

Table 2 – see Excel spreadsheet – shows that government expenditure in inflation-adjusted prices, has decreased from the early 1990s to the start of the new millennium.

AUSTERITY MEASURES - Much of the decline in education spending has come from university-related efforts. Far fewer bursaries are on offer, for example. New building construction was also either slowed or stopped altogether. Results were lessened expense, but further overcrowding, dilapidated buildings, greatly increased deferred maintenance, etc.

p. 122: “While the austerity measures were a direct consequence of unplanned expansion of university education by the Moi government, [they] were also tailored along the recommendations of the World bank and IMF that advanced cost-sharing in higher education as one of the conditions for loan reimbursement under the unpopular Structural Adjustment Programs (SAPs). The resultant impact was the loss of the glory that was once associated with state universities, marking for the first time a growing interest in the private higher education institutions in the country, which in spite of having had a history of existence since 1969 were kept at the periphery by the perception of their ‘poor quality’ and because of subsidies and automatic loans to students in the state universities.”

Registered and Fully Chartered Private Universities

University of Eastern Africa, Baraton (Seventh Day Adventist) – affiliated to Andrews University (Texas)

Catholic University of Eastern Africa (owned by the Congregation for Catholic Education)

Daystar University – affiliated with Messiah College (Pennsylvania) for undergraduate programs, and Wheaton College (Illinois) for graduate programs.

Scott Theological College

United States International University (affiliated with the Alliant University system, specifically its San Diego USIU campus)

Registered, but Unchartered Private Universities

East African School of Theology

Kenya Highlands Bible College

Nairobi Evangelical Graduate School of Theology

Pan African Christian College

St. Paul’s United Theological College

Unregistered Institutions Using Letter of Authority, and Awaiting Approval

African Nazarene University

Kenya Methodist University

Aga Khan University

Kabarak University (Africa Inland Church; former president Moi serves as Chairman of the Board)

The public universities exist via Acts of Parliament, and are administered via the Commission for Higher Education. The Commission runs into occasional political difficulty because its chair is a former university VC, and the current VCs do not always appreciate the former VC’s ideas/interfering.

p. 124: “[The Commission for Higher Education] is the sole accrediting body in the country for private colleges and universities, the Commission has also insisted that private institutions affiliated with foreign institutions eventually become autonomous, although they may be established initially with affiliation to such institutions. In addition, it ensures that students admitted to private colleges and universities possess the minimum qualifications for admission to state universities and colleges in Kenya, or in the case of students from other countries, equivalent qualifications.”

By 2000, chartered private institutions held 16.3% (one-sixth) of the total university enrollment.

Daystar held a female enrollment percentage of 62.2% by the 1999/2000 academic year. Female enrollment at the chartered private institutions was 54%, versus 46% male enrollment.

Public universities – 28.8% female at university of Nairobi in the 1999/2000 academic year. JKUAT had only 625 women, out of 3137 total students (19.9%) that year.

Oketch, in discussing the numbers found in his various tables, makes repeated mention of the fact that the Commission for Higher Education data sets do not include those students in parallel degree programs. He makes mention of the fact that this population of students is particularly big at the University of Nairobi – when will he define what this group is?

Page 127 – Oketch shows fees at Baraton – describes Baraton as typical – indicates students paid KSh 213,900 total (tuition, housing, fees) in 2000/2001 – roughly $3,000 for the academic year. This is somewhat more than what the University of Nairobi charges for its “parallel degree” programs, but isn’t as high as I would have figured.

p. 128: “Although the expansion of higher education is one of the visible legacies of the 24 years of Moi’s presidency, the unplanned expansion did not provide a lasting solution. Instead, it created a different set of problems for state sponsored higher education, a problem that has perhaps benefited the private institutions by moving them from the periphery to the forefront. State institutions were elevated to either university status or constituent colleges of universities without matching facilities to cater for expectant students and faculty. Double-intakes at the existing state universities over-stretched the physical capacity of classrooms and dormitories.”

Page 129 – via Phillip Altbach’s notion of the “global trend” in privatizing of higher education – “If parents can afford hundreds of thousands of Kenyan shillings to send their children to private academics at the primary and secondary level, then that is a compelling reason to expect them to invest heavily in their children’s higher education. Equally important is the push towards universal basic education to which Kenya is a member.”

p. 129; “The rapid growth in primary and secondary enrollments in Kenya has meant that more access is necessary at the tertiary level. . . In 2002, for example, only 10,966 of the 42,158 high school graduates who qualified for university education [26%] were admitted to the state universities.”

Parallel degree programs admit an additional 4,000 students to the number above (so, from 10,966 to 14,966) – but this only increases enrollment of qualified students in state universities from 26% to 35.5%

It is not until page 134 that Oketch gets around to the beginning of a description of parallel degree courses – these are enrollment opportunities offered to students who can pay the fees associated, but who had otherwise failed to meet the academic (school-leaving results) entrance requirements that the regular university enrolled students had to meet. This program can be seen – Oketch paints it – as a means for public institutions to recop some lost revenue, and somewhat cripple the smaller of the prvate institutions.

p. 130: “As enrollments and completion of secondary education have increased, it is the successful participation and completion of higher education that now determines life chances in Kenya. . . . With increasing unemployment among university graduates, a high school diploma is no longer a vehicle to even the most clerical positions in the country. The idea of an academic degree as a “private good” that benefits the individual in terms of increased earnings and competitive advantage in the labor market rather than a “public good” is perhaps widely accepted in Kenya today.”

Five Factors Explaining the Rise of Private Institutions of Higher Learning in Kenya

(1) Private institutions as a response to “market forces”;

(2) “differentiated demand” for educational services now exists in sufficient size – esp. re: religious affiliation and desire for ongoing spiritual, academic study;

(3) “Elite Demand” – following on elite primary and secondary academies, wealthy parents will seek all additional advantages for their children – including private colleges and universities;

(4) Government lost its belief that the State should be the provider of higher education exclusively; and,

(5) Foreign providers (purveyors?) of higher education have a cachet that may not always be merited, but can’t be denied. “American” education sells in Kenya.

p. 132: “All in all, private universities may be perceived as being autonomous and independent from manipulation by political authorities, but as they gain prominence, political interests are likely to emerge and grow. Interference can also come from weak institutional leaders and actors who feel especially vulnerable to competition and whose appointments are directly pegged to the whims of the country’s president.”

p. 133: “Leading public universities such as Nairobi, count among its weapons: hallowed symbols of national identity, articulate advocates with access to media, monopolies on professional training and tight ties with influential professions; alumni and former professors in top policy positions; student masses ready to march; or more privileged constituencies ready to defend their degrees. Such opposition can leave a stinging legacy even where private sectors are nevertheless launched. That is because the creation of these sectors in higher education often involves considerable bargaining. Thus the creation of private universities amid opposition often involves severe handicaps. Among these may be subtle prohibitions against state financial support. The government of Kenya has admitted its inability to extend any type of funding to the private universities.”

Kenya Higher Education Loans Board – established by Act of Parliament in 1995 – but only helps regular students at state universities. Some private institutions are listed as coming under the aegis of the HELB, but the government continues to claim financial duress, and opts out of such support. And any private school that DOES come under the aegis of HELB is under constant surveillance re: meeting enrollment requirements, facilities quality, and other factors, lest they get de-listed.

p. 134: “A government that admits being “broke” but aspires to maintain control over universities is definitely treading a thin line.”

Ogot, Bethwell A. (1999) Building on the indigenous: Selected essays, 1981-1998

Ogot, Bethwell A. (1999) Building on the indigenous: Selected essays, 1981-1998 Kisumu (Kenya): Anyange Press Ltd.

Chapter Three - University development in Kenya – What Options? – pages 25-30

Keynote address at The Maseno University College Workshop o Development Options, 5-7 December, 1991 held in Kisumu

Ogot was Vice-Chair of the 1988 Presidential Working Party that produced the Kamunge Report.

Ogot makes the direct statement that: page 25: “Fro the early 1950s to late 1970s, university education in Kenya played a dynamic role in nation-building, especially by producing professional elites in the various walks of life. By 1980, university education in Kenya was beginning to pass over into mass education”

p. 26: “Turning to university education planning, there are two approaches which appear to be in conflict: the manpower requirement approach and the social demand approach. The former emphasizes the possible oversupply of graduates and high expenditures of university education. The latter emphasizes the right of all qualified individuals to university education. There is therefore a ‘mismatch’ between university education and the employment system.”

p. 29: :When we turn to the important area of cultural identity, it is evident that the very basis of the cultural life of people is being threatened. The worldwide influence of a certain number of cultural models, the effects of advertising and the media, the standardization of tastes and lifestyles induced by standardized production methods, the erosion of certain traditional values and the difficulty of identifying new ones, all these phenomena help to explain the concern of very many societies, to preserve, defend and promote their cultural identities. Society expects education, especially university education, to help solve this problem.

In order to play this new role, education systems must fight against the tendency to accord value only to the utilitarian aspects of their action which in some cases leads to reducing the importance attached to the humanistic and cultural dimension and content of education.”

Chapter Eleven – Social Sciences in the 21^st Century: From Rhetoric to Reality – pp. 147-158

Presented at the 3^rd Historical Association of Kenya’s Symposium, Egerton University, 5-6 August, 1995

Looking specifically at pages 152-153 – “social sciences in Kenya: the need for explanation”

p. 152: “The political context in which the positivist social sciences were transferred from the West to the Third World was not conducive to debate or questioning of their epistemological basis. Doubters and dissenters remained minority voices, until positivist social sciences were seriously challenged in the West itself during the 1970s.

Simultaneously, the traditional political context of colonialism and to an extent neo-colonialism changed, providing a new context conducive both to political and intellectual self-assertion by some African social scientists.

This expanded consciousness led to a critique of Western positivist social sciences for their ethnocentrism, their exaggerated claim to universality, their focus on causes of under-development through factors internal to these societies without adequate weight given to the role of colonialism. They were accused of serving the political and economic interest of the West and thus perpetuating intellectual colonialism and dependence. There were calls for intellectual decolonization, liberation and self-reliance, adaptation rather than wholesale thoughtless adoption of Western social sciences; and finally there were loud calls for indigenization.

But much of such outpourings were mere rhetoric. With few exceptions, most of the social scientific literature in Kenya is not oriented to cumulative growth of knowledge in nay specific field or in social sciences as a whole. Generally, it lacks theoretical orientation and theoretical framework. And wherever a theoretical framework is used, it is not itself subjected to critical assessment. Most African social scientists are wanting in methodological rigor and conceptual insight. Most of them are preoccupied with the social, economic, and political situation in their countries. True, their empirical studies and conceptual insights make us more aware of social life and problems in African societies, but their theoretical and methodological contributions to social science, as an international academic discipline, is limited.”

Ogot goes on to trouble the study of anthropology – “can we have ‘home anthropologists? And what is the implication [of any positive answer to the foregoing question] for the actual framework of anthropology as the study or non-Western societies by Western scholars?” (p. 153), as well as sociology.

Chapter Twelve - National Identity and Nationalism: concepts and ideologies – pages 159-170

Keynote address presented at the Commonwealth Association of Museums seminar on “Museums and National Identity – Broad Perspectives” held September 17-28, 1995, South Africa and Botswana.

p. 159: “In the anti-colonial struggles of the Third World, for example, nationalist ideologies proved to be powerful weapons. In countries such as India, Nigeria, Uganda, Ghana and Kenya, among many others, the early nationalist ideologies attempted to unite diverse peoples under the banner of a single national idea without raising the question whether the concept of nationhood which had evolved in Europe and the Americas was suitable for the ethnically pluralistic societies that were soon to become independent within the boundaries of former colonial territories. To the majority of Africans, for example, nationalism meant the removal of colonialism, it meant Uhuru, freedom, with the hope that other things would be added later.”

p. 160; “. . . the initial cohesiveness that sustained national identity in Western Europe was absent in many African countries at the moment of independence. Hence, most African countries, like others in the Third World, are still trying to cope with the opposing tendencies of a unifying secular nationalism that was dear to the “Founding Fathers” of these nations, and the centrifugal tendencies of regional, ethnic, linguistic, religious, and communal identities that command the loyalties of many hundred of millions of citizens of those nations.”

Nationalism in the post-colonial State as being a reflection of an Ideology of the State, rather than any kind of notions of people coming together in ways organic to their lives. In this view, in order to BE Kenyan, one must forego BEING Kikuyu (for example), or Muslim, or, etc.

European states absorbed cultural/ethnic minorities into a much larger ethnic “core group”. In the USA, that was and remains WASP, northern European identity.

p. 161: “Cohesion was the fruit of a deliberate, centralized, and at times harsh political effort, whether undertaken by centralized state bureaucracies, cultural elites, or others. Thus arose the “nationality principle” which identified state and nation and which led to the current world system of so-called nation-states.”

THEORIES OF NATIONALISM AND NATIONS

(1) nationalism as a primordial phenomenon based on rational or objectively valid criteria on the basis of which the world can be divided up into different national communities – nations exist as objective reality in history whether all its people are conscious of this national existence/identity or not – page 163: “Thus the nation, according to this theory is seen as a non-historical entity directly rooted in some transcendent or natural order.”;

(2) nationalism as a subjective consciousness of the members of the community – nation as the expression of a common consciousness. From Gellner – page 163 – “it is nationalism that engenders nations, and not the other way around. Benedict Anderson is also cited – from Imagined Communities. p. 164: “To the works of Ernest Gellner, Benedict Anderson and A.D. Smith, should be added those of Eric Hobsbawn and Terence Ranger. All these studies demonstrate close links between ethnicity and nationalism and national identity. In their writings, both Ernest Gellner and Eric Hobsbawn emphasized the idea that nationalism was a relatively recent creation, specifically a response to the upheavals of the industrial revolution and the evolution of modern bureaucratic states.”;

(3) nationalism as a functional requirement of the modern state – especially around the growth of communications, which lifted people away from local parochial identities and forged broader identity formations, and larger-scale economic and political connection.;

(4) nationalism as a specific form of politics that groups use under certain historical circumstances in opposition to the State – something that happens with States, by groups wishing to secede, introduce political reforms the State would not support, or expand the State to include similarly minded groups – think ‘Arab nationalism’ here;

(5) the Marxist interpretation of nationalism – nationalism = a false identity, a bourgeois concept that obfuscates the proletarian focus on the class struggle.

Chapter Thirteen - The role of the university in development pages 171-178

Keynote address presented at the Postgraduate Student Seminars – Kenyatta University – 16-18 October 1995

Ogot points out – page 173, that over 30,000 African PhD holders are industrialized countries – i.e. not in their countries of origin. Brain drain.

Poverty is the problem. Development is the issue. Education is the solution.

p. 175: “If African universities are to play a positive role in development, they must first radically recast themselves instead of reproducing archaic patterns which are completely unsuited to the needs of independence and the objectives of the contemporary world. In other words, the idea of a university must be rethought and the plant restructured.”

Universities must get specific in identifying the problems they seek to address, and then corral the resources (scientific, technical, and human) needed to deal with the problems.

Universities must begin to see their students as social change agents, knowledgeable in the scientific, technical and human resource elements that will assist in problem solving.

Universities must again see, as a practical aim of their efforts, the shaping of a “cultural and national identity, the creation of an African awareness of belonging to a sub-region, a region, a continent.” (p. 175)

p. 176: “. . . much of the university-based research is rarely utilized. There is therefore and urgent need for national policies aimed at making university basic research productive.

One way is to devise ways and means in which universities can collaborate with local industries and the government to promote national and regional development. The universities, the public and private sectors should jointly determine research priority areas. Having done this, the government could establish joint industry–university research centers throughout the country to carry out research in those priority research areas.

Ogot warns against too reductive a view of higher education as being simply a conduit to practical application, and not more:

Page 177: “We are more than the mere sum of our current economic needs; we are participants in a social and political enterprise which vindicated itself in terms of the values which it has progressively generated during our history. And the purpose of education – particularly university education – is to equip us to confront those values from time to time, to question their contemporary manifestations and to modify their application without destroying their relevance to our capacity for self-development as human beings.”

Chapter Eighteen - Lessons of experience: Higher education policy of the World Bank in Africa – pages 251-276

Public lecture given at Maseno University, April 27, 1998

You can’t review higher education in Africa in the last decades without looking at the financial constraints, and economic activity of major multinational forces like the World bank and the IMF, and the impact these bodies had, especially through SAPs, on local economic activity – specifically government support for education.

Lack of building space for offices, lecture halls, laboratories, etc.;

Lack of books and other academic resources;

Insufficient investment in latest technologies;

Lack of adequate remuneration to university staff and faculty;

Insufficient financial support to students (through loans – HELB in Kenya - and grants) – especially after cost-sharing was introduced;

Lack of direct time spent between instructor and student – too many students, too few instructors;

Etc.

1981 – World Bank – Education in sub-Saharan Africa: Policies for Adjustment, Revitalization, and Expansion – focus on cost containment, even while restoring quality – meaning students pay, meaning the elite continue to benefit, and other economic strata struggle.

1994 – World Bank – Higher Education: the Lessons of Experience – looked at ‘good practice’ in multiple countries.

(1) Encourage private institutions and private sector involvement in all universities. Differentiate institutions to avoid duplication of offerings (see rationalizing of tertiary institutions in South Africa in the 1990s).

(2) Diversify funding – shift burden from government to ‘direct beneficiaries’.

(3) Change role of government from one of direct control to one of autonomous institutions regulated by market mechanisms and only nominally supervised by the State.

(4) Finally, and somewhat contra-indicated by the other aspects, pursue policies that would assure quality and equity (socio-economic and gender) objectives.

Ogot questions Bank policy of mandating full adherence to the bank’s ideas of what good practice is as a measure of whether a government will qualify for Bank assistance. Contrast this with the reality that higher education needs may well differ from country to country, that socio-economic, economic, and political circumstances may not be identical from country to country – how then to deal with the prescriptive nature of Bank policies? While the Bank report acknowledges the specific nature of country circumstances, it nevertheless privileges convergence and commonality (i.e. prescriptive practices) rather than the acknowledged specificity.

Ogot moves to World Bank preferences for seeing multiple kinds of tertiary institution – technical colleges, teacher training colleges, etc. But he criticizes Bank policy and statements that engage in “academic drift” – that is, that expand into a larger conception – example – technical colleges becoming universities.

p. 256-257: “The process, known as “academic drift” is strongly criticized by the Bank, which regards the development of universities out of colleges and polytechnics as an aberration and an unnatural evolution. But is this argument true in a historical perspective? Was the creation of Moi University, for instance, a more ‘natural’ development than that of other Kenyan universities which reached university status through the upgrading of more vocationally oriented pre-existing colleges? The World Bank, moreover, has argued that University development is expensive. Rather than create new institutions, many countries especially in Africa, have upgraded existing institutions using the strength of well-established universities in their countries as a shield and support for fledgling colleges. It is interesting to note that the World Bank prescription notwithstanding, the Kenya government has stated in the National Development Plan 1997-2001, that during the plan period, the Commission for Higher Education will explore the possibilities of middle-level colleges starting degree programmes.”

Referring to H.E.L.B. loan programs to help Kenyan students pay for University, Ogot writes,

p. 260: “The grandiose strategy stated in the national Development Plan 1997-2001 on how to improve the education sector in Kenya is a good example of the dilemma higher education in Africa faces. According to the plan, the Higher Education Loans Board is to be restructured and capitalized so that it can give loans to all qualifying students. Virtually all university students, the Plan notes, will require the loans, which cover food, accommodation, book, and personal allowances. No wonder the Kenyan government has had to go to the World Bank to borrow money to capitalize the loan scheme!”

In the immediate preceding paragraph, Ogot had written that since 1975, 70% of the Kenyan students who had received HELB loans for university expenses had failed to repay the loan. So, it seems the World Bank has entered into a scheme to give money to the Kenyan government so that the Kenyan government can give money to students, where there exists 23 years of evidence that the funds may well not be repaid, all so the cost of higher education can be shared.

Ogot gets at World Bank economistic perspectives on page 265, specifically around the matter of what the purpose of higher education is. Is it to be utilitarian, vocational, connected to future jobs and earnings? Or are there other purposes to keep in mind?

p. 265: “To begin with, the World Bank report starts from an economic premise about the scarcity of resources rather than an educational one about the issue of quality. This is the big difference in approach to higher education between UNESCO and the World Bank. The former stresses quality, relevance, inter-African and international cooperation and management. Financing of higher education, for UNESCO, is part of management (20). The World Bank’s thesis, on the other hand, is that Africa’s universities will only be revitalized by reducing their dependence on state funding by charging full cost, non-subsidized fees. . . . Quality, according to the Bank, is an adjunct to budgetary issues (what else can one expect from a Bank?). The Bank therefore presents the problem of higher education as one of budgetary crises. But this is only half the picture.”

Nyerere, Julius K. (1973) “Relevance and Dar es Salaam University” in Freedom and Development: A Selection of writings and speeches, 1968-1973

Nyerere, Julius K. (1973) “Relevance and Dar es Salaam University” in Freedom and Development: A Selection of writings and speeches, 1968-1973 Oxford: Oxford University Press.

The speech at the Inauguration of UDASA as an independent national university, no longer formally a part of any university of East Africa.

p. 192: “. . . we should be clear in our own minds about the function of a university in the modern world, and about the particular tasks of the first University in Tanzania. Only when we have done this can we avoid the twin dangers, on the one hand, of considering our University in the light of some mythical ‘international standard’, or, on the other hand of forcing our University to look inwards and isolate itself from the world in which we live.”

Three functions of a University:
(1) transmits advanced knowledge from generation to generation, to serve as a basis of action or springboard to further research and investigation;
(2) provides a center for the advancement of frontiers of knowledge, by concentrating in one place, best intellects and abilities without begin preoccupied with day-to-day administrative/bureaucratic minutiae.
(3) Provides, through its teaching, for high-level manpower skills development.

p. 195: “The peasants and workers of a nation feed, clothe, and house both the students and the teachers; they also provide all the educational facilities used – the books, test-tubes, machines, and so on. The community provides these things because it expects to benefit – it is making an investment in people. It believes that after their educational opportunity the students will be able to make a much greater contribution to the society; they will be able to help in the implementation of the plans and policies of the people.”

p. 195: “Knowledge which remains isolated from the people, or which is used by a few to exploit others, is therefore a betrayal. It is a particularly vicious kind of theft by false pretences.”

p. 198: “The truth is that it is Tanzanian society, and African society, which this University must understand. It is Tanzania, and the Tanzanian people, who must be able to comprehend this University. Only when these facts are firmly grasped will the University of Dar es Salaam be able to give full and proper service to this society. The University of Dar es Salaam has not been founded to turn out intellectual apes whether of the Right [USA, Britain, as mentioned in previous sentences] or of the Left [Russia, Eastern Europe, China as mentioned in previous sentences]. We are training for a socialist, self-respecting and self-reliant Tanzania.”

p. 199: “Knowledge is international and inter-related. We need to know and understand as much as we possibly can; we need to learn from the past and present of all parts of the globe. All knowledge is relevant to us, even if we consider ourselves only as Tanzania citizens and ignore our existence as human beings.”