Kibabii University hosted the Kenya-USA Global Launchpad Initiative (KUGLi) Innovation Summit on Friday 16th August 2024. The summit brought together partners and young entrepreneurs from different institutions across the country under the theme “culturing joint multi-national ventures among STEAM students to address global issues and create opportunities.”
The delegation was received by the Vice Chancellor, Prof. Isaac Ipara Odeo. The VC thanked KUGLi for considering Kibabii University as one of their partners and host of the 2024 Summit. He was impressed by the progress made in training young entrepreneurs and giving them a platform to nurture and grow their entrepreneurial ideas and skills. Prof. Ipara noted that, Kibabii University, being one of the youngest Universities in the country, was ready to seize any opportunity and compete with established institutions.
“An institution is never too young to achieve great things. We recently celebrated one of our own, Faith Ogallo, who was inducted among the Olympic greats during the just concluded Paris Olympic, after representing Kenya in the last edition of the Olympic Games in Taekwondo while she was still a student,” said Prof. Ipara.
While delivering the Governor’s speech, the Deputy Governor of Bungoma County, Her Excellency Pastor Jennifer Mbatiani informed the delegates that it was humbling for the selection of Kibabii University as a host of this year’s summit.
“Bungoma County has been supporting youths and entrepreneurial minds through collaboration with institutions and organisations and has a vision for the empowerment of youths since they are the agents of change and that education is a focal point in achieving this. The youths are the ones who will bring change to the County and this can only be done through equipping them with skills, training and capacity building,” said the Deputy Governor.
Mr. Drew Giblin, the Cultural Attaché at the U.S. Embassy expressed his joy at being to Kibabii University and an opportunity accorded to him to visit the Western Kenya. He encouraged the youths in the program to ensure they have a transformative mindset and that he was impressed by the youth communities for participating in the initiative. He added that the U.S. and Kenya are valuable partners and that Kenya brings on the table revolutionary abilities and resources to do things in special ways. “The US government in partnership with Kenya is coming up with a 65 million plan in tech innovation and job creation” said Mr. Giblin.
According to Dr. Owino Anthoney Oloo, the leader of the Kibabii University group, KUGLi is an initiative aimed at nurturing students’ initiatives and entrepreneurship ideas to solve global gaps and current issues. The epicenter of this initiative was started in Syracuse University in the U.S.A. The program has had a lifelong students exchange programmes over the years of existence, the building of Alumni collaborations between the Kenyan Alumni networks and those of the U.S and most importantly has been exposure of students for opportunities of pitching and mentorship of entrepreneurial ideas. Over the years one of the Kenyan University; St. Paul University has won the grand price of the HULT Prize of 1 Million U.S Dollars which has been a big milestone.
During the Summit, Kibabii University was elated to have one of its students Gideon Yeri from Journalism & Mass Communication elected as the HULT Prize Campus Coordinator of Kibabii University joining the National Council of Coordinators. Other institutions that participated in the summit included Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture & Technology (JKUAT), Great Lakes University of Kenya (GLUK), University of Nairobi (UON), Mt. Kenya University (MKU) and Rongo University. Other partners included the US Embassy, Vambo AI and Africa Heart.
