Mang’eni challenges universities to put entrepreneurship at the heart of learning
The Mt Kenya Times 
Principal Secretary for MSME Development Susan Auma Mang'eni
The PS for MSME Development told more than 7,000 fresh students at Masinde Muliro that graduation is only the beginning — what Kenya needs is graduates who create jobs, not just seek them
By John Kariuki
Principal Secretary for MSME Development Susan Auma Mang’eni yesterday challenged universities and colleges to embed entrepreneurship, innovation and industry linkages at the core of higher education, as Kenya works to build a skilled workforce capable of driving genuine economic transformation.
Speaking at the matriculation ceremony at Masinde Muliro University of Science and Technology in Kakamega, where she joined more than 7,000 first-year students marking their formal entry into university life, Mang’eni urged the new intake to look well beyond the certificate that awaits them at graduation and ask a harder question — what contribution will they make to their communities, their economy and their country?
Her answer was direct. Kenya does not need more graduates hunting for jobs that do not exist in sufficient numbers. It needs graduates who can create them.
“Entrepreneurship must be embedded as a core component of university education — including in technical disciplines,” she said, arguing that institutions of higher learning must ensure students leave not merely with qualifications but with an entrepreneurial mindset and the practical capacity to build opportunities from the ground up.
Mang’eni challenged Masinde Muliro specifically to establish and strengthen innovation and enterprise hubs where students can move from idea to prototype, from concept to viable business, and from local solution to scalable enterprise. Drawing on South Korea’s experience with incubation hubs as a model for translating university talent into economic output, she said the State Department for MSME Development was ready to partner with the university to build stronger platforms connecting students to mentorship, markets, practical skills and enterprise networks.
It was a message that went beyond the ceremonial. The PS was making the case, plainly and publicly, that the relationship between government, industry and universities in Kenya needs to be fundamentally rewired — and that institutions like Masinde Muliro have a central role to play in that rewiring.
Vice Chancellor Prof. Solomon Shibairo echoed the call with equal conviction. He urged the incoming students to pursue lives defined not by examination results alone, but by purpose, integrity, innovation and impact. Knowledge, he told them, is only as valuable as the use to which it is put — and the measure of a Masinde Muliro graduate should ultimately be the difference they make in the world beyond the campus gates.
Together, the two addresses painted a picture of what Kenya’s universities are being asked to become: not simply degree factories, but engines of enterprise, incubators of solutions and partners in the country’s broader development agenda. For the 7,000 students who sat in that hall yesterday, the message was both an invitation and a challenge — their education is not a destination. It is a starting point.
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