County-Based Rural Universities: The DAEA Proposal

If your rural village or location or ward has similar characteristics to co-authors of this book, then it is not very different from the way it was (in terms of development) when Kenya’s first President was in office. Names and some roads and bridges may have changed somewhat. Nairobi, Mombasa, Kisumu and some other urban areas may have changed in one way or another. But most villages in our rural areas have seen little or no change at all. Because of this lack of actual rural development, we have decided to suggest a different model for both education (curricular content) and its delivery system to our rural communities, villages, wards and counties in Kenya. We wholly agree with one Professor John Keller’s admonition that “No society or societal sector in the global world can afford to concentrate its educational and development resources solely in metropolitan areas”. We have therefore decided to make a case for not only reviewing or rethinking the role of our current universities in the context of rural development of our country but also to make a case for establishing new rural-based and rural focused universities. The purpose of this book is, therefore, to lay the ground work for developing our rural areas.