Category: Campus News

Wangui Njau

njaucatherine3@gmail.com

The memorial of the late Carol Wayua Mueni, who passed away on 13 November 2021, was held yesterday 22 November 2021.

The service was held at the Daystar Auditorium from 12:00 pm – 2:10 pm was presided over by Nairobi Lighthouse Church and the Daystar University Chaplaincy.

Carol Wayua Mueni was among four other staff members working for Mvita MP Abdulswamad Nassir involved in a road accident on Saturday evening while heading to Lamu. She was just but beginning her life, being an Alumni of Daystar having graduated with a B.A in Communication on 13 November 2020. She had also just turned 24 on September 5 this year. A kindred spirit with everyone she crossed paths with Carol’s Memorial attested to just that.

The Service started with an opening prayer and at the entrance of the auditorium’s concourse, there was a condolence book for people to sign and say something small to the family. The M.C. was distinctive by nature compellingly upheld order and time. The sermon began immediately after the opening prayer with the minister reminding us that “sometimes the people we want to stay with us are the ones who are most needed by God, for we are not here to mourn but to celebrate a life that was lived in God and in good.”

We then proceeded to the speeches by the Main campus school governor Walter Nalwa and the head of the Daystar Alumni followed by the tributes by both her closest friends and the family respectively. Albeit engulfed with grief and heartache with some breaking down amid their speeches, the dolorous family and friends soldiered through in memory of Carol Wayua.

A candlelight moment of silence followed the eulogium. A video tribute was also played in honor of Carol’s memory and the service reached a culmination with a vote of thanks and a final prayer for the family.

Carol was actively involved in Daystar University as she served in DCCC from 2016 – 2018 and in the corporate affairs office from 2019 – 2020. Being a philanthropist at heart, she spearheaded a number of giving back to the community activities and charities particularly to the Lukenya Pillars children’s home around Daystar Athi-River Campus. Equally engaged in Shine FM as an anchor and presenter and a reporter for both The Involvement Newspaper and Shine FM she volunteered as a peer counselor which saw a number of students confide in her.

Her passion for journalism was greatly fostered by her time at Daystar and continued on while working for Mvita MP Abdulswamad Nassir saw her develop an ever vehement love for political journalism. She also enjoyed watching soccer and was a die-hard fan of the Chelsea football club. She loved her family even more and never missed staying in touch.

It was a good service that left most if not everyone in attendance a little devastated at the loss of an angelic soul for those we hold in our arms for a little while, we will always hold in our hearts forever.

By Evelyne Kioko  

Thumbnail Photo Courtesy of pinterest.com

The dean of students sent out an email on Monday on 8 November raising concerns on the Halloween Wednesday theme for Cultural Expo.

The Cultural-Expo kicked off on 8 November at Daystar Nairobi Campus with the Halloween as one of the themes to be worn on Wednesday 10 November. This raised concerns among students in the Daystar Communication Group on why the theme is there yet the institution is a Christian Institution.

‘’Well, I thought we are supposed to celebrate an event because we know its origin, history and significance. An African theme is not only the cloth you wear. It’s an identity and a culture as well. For Christians, Christmas is to celebrate the birth of Christ. If someone else celebrates it because it’s a period for free things and an excuse to go out partying, they’re wrong. That’s why as an African student studying at a Christian university, I don’t identify with an event which has “Halloween” as one of its themes,’’ stated Hilmelda Tenkeu a Communication student Public Relations major.

In the email, the dean stated that historically those who celebrated the festival believed that the souls of the dead returned to mingle with the living.

‘’Historically, celebrants of this festival believe that the souls of the dead – including ghosts, goblins, and witches – return to mingle with the living. In addition, they hold that in order to scare away the evil spirits, people should wear petrifying masks and light bonfires. Such teachings are contrary to not only what Daystar stands for, but also the Bible itself,’’ stated the email.

The email went on to state that the Nairobi Campus Governor Brian Achoka, had been advised on the matter by the University Chaplain and the Dean of the students.

‘’Halloween is purely and absolutely evil and there is nothing we ever have, or will do, that would make it acceptable to the Daystar Himself. Any such practice will therefore be considered as a deliberate rebellion with consequent repercussions,’’ stated the email.

When asked for a comment the Nairobi Campus governor had none.

By Evelyne Kioko

The DUSA government 2021/2022 budget has been suspended effective immediately, following a meeting between student leaders and the University’s management on November 8.

The DUSA budget was declared unconstitutional for having no approval from the Congress and lacking the speaker’s signature.

“This is to let you know that the DUSA budget has been suspended after a fruitful meeting involving the congress and the Daystar University Management Board,” reads an email from the DUSA clerk Eunice Siameto.

The Dean of Students Reverend Mutinda Musyimi acknowledged the decision stating that it was the right thing to do although it comes a little late because the budget in place had already been used. “This means going back to the drawing board. It means that the DUSA council should not draw a budget and start actioning on it without it passing through the congress,” says the Dean.

Congress Speaker Noel Shimba says he is shocked to find out that a budget, which did not include the congress benefits, had been drawn by the DUSA Council and had been approved without his signature. There has been a push and pull between the congress and the management for a while concerning the submitted proposals of their benefits, with the two having had several meetings that culminated in today’s verdict.

“The DUSA budget should be one and it is supposed to be one and cover the two bodies. The budget drawn by DUSA lacked the Congress activities and benefits. However, the budget was still approved even with it lacking the speaker’s signature and was not approved by the congress,” states Shimba.

The congress speaker further assured that a new budget whose drafting will involve all constitutional procedures shall be put in place by the end of the week. “It was only right to suspend it until we draft another budget this week. The management has agreed the budget is null and void since it did not follow the right channels. The budget requires the president’s, treasurer’s and speaker’s signature for it to be released.”

The Secretary-General Caleb Paul alais refuted claims of the budget suspension claiming that Congress leaders are being led by their personal interests.

“The Congress are suspending the budget because they want a benefit that they feel they school is not giving them : a benefit that they wish to have…that’s not fair that is an injury to comrades and as a council we are not going to accept that and we are not going to move backwards,” commented Msando.

According to the speaker, this means that all events remained on hold until the issue is resolved.

By Lewis Njeri

(gichunjilewis2@gmail.com)

IEBC conducted a voter registration activity at the PAC in the main campus,Athi River,  from October 19th to 25th.

The  IEBC clerks – Caroline Mbinye and Milcah Nduku, were surprised to register 147 students out of a targeted 1000. This represented a total of 15% of the expected numbers which was a big disapointment to them. In addition, most of those who registered were from other counties.

According to the two clerks the reason for the low turnout includes students (especially first years) not having ID cards but only waiting cards, others willingly refusing  to conduct the process while others not being aware of it.”Most ID’s haven’t been released hence couldn’t be registered for lack of a serial number,” says Ms Mbinye

Most of the freshmen are still young hence there is no way they could get registered without an identification card. Surprisingly, some of them were not interested in the process with some of them claiming to be already registered as voters. Others who live off-campus were not aware of the ongoing process.

As of October 27th, the total number of voters that had been registered countrywide was 760,000 out of a target of 4.5 million. This represents 17% of the total targeted by IEBC.

The next destination of the two is Kinanie where they will continue with registering voters from Mavoko constituency.

By Ken Andrew

kenakikenyi@gmail.com

Thumbnail Photo Courtesy of Instagram (daystar_uni).

The Daystar University Student Association (DUSA) Council on the 14^th of October 2021 voted unanimously to remove Wambui Njoroge from her seat as the Treasurer of DUSA.

The vote was unanimous as six out of the seven Council members voted to have her dismissed citing dissatisfaction with her services. As per an email sent out by the Secretary General Caleb Paul, the DUSA Council will have one of their qualified members take the treasurer’s seat in acting capacity as they await official dates for a by election from the Electoral Commission of Daystar.

The lead up to this decision involved Wambui Njoroge, at one point, being ejected from her seat as per an Email sent by the Secretary General Caleb Paul on 1 September, 2021. On resuming her duties on 13 September 2021, the other members of the Council and Congress were still unimpressed by how she went about her duties which led to her removal.

Congress Speaker Noel Shimba, welcomed the decision from the Council as he explained to Involvement the frustrations involved with her in office. She did not honor the summon from congress who were seeking answers on why the budget was taking too long to be dropped.

Her accounting skills were also brought into question by Congress. “We gave the ECD fourteen days to give us her accounting skills which were not provided and after fourteen days, she had to step aside [Sic],” explained Shimba, “there is no budget presented by Wambui, she has been missing in action for far too long and she has been absent for some important events requiring her signature for funds to be released.”

Ms Wambui Njoroge when asked said she will appeal the decision since she feels this is not in line with the constitution.

As Wambui leaves office, she leaves behind a questionable legacy as treasurer.  Once again prove that holding office is about delivering to students, owning up to the oath of office, and not enjoying the ride in the park.

By Caren Chelangat

chelangatcaren756@gmail.com

Thumbnail Photo Courtesy of doersempire.com

Daystar School of Business and Economics held an entrepreneurial discussion on Wednesday 6 October in Athi River Campus, aimed to motivate students to have an entrepreneurial mindset. The event was organized by the Congressman School of Business and Economics Joshua Ngomeli.

The guest speakers were Noah Karuri the Founder and CEO of Noah distributors and Gideon Maingi a Business and Market Consultant Dealing in Real Estate and Logistics.

Noah talked of his entrepreneurial journey, how he meets his student needs through his business and applies what he was taught in class to the actual world. He also talked of how he is able to balance school work and his business.

Gideon Maingi shared to the audience how to get capital in forming a partnership, identifying a problem, and generating multiple ideas on how to benefit from it business-wise. He also shared the process of registering a business.

He went ahead and encouraged the audience to use their youthful minds to come up with business ideas as early as now to prepare for the future.

The Dean commended the event and conquered with a number of ideas they had discussed and thanked all those who attended the event. He also encouraged the audience to practice those humble ideas.

Dr. Ochomba a Business lecturer thanked the audience for showing up and congratulated the two speakers who are his former students for such a wonderful discussion.

At the end of the discussion, Congressman Joshua Ngomeli, thanked everyone who showed up and promised to organize more entrepreneurial discussions to keep on motivating the students to have business-wise ideas.

By Evelyne Syombua

(issyombua@gmail.com)

The University is set to temporarily move back to the UMS system on Monday 27 September.

The UMS system is scheduled to be opened for re-registration on Monday 27 midnight (1200hrs).

According to the internal memo sent to the students today 25 September, it has been a struggle for the university to settle in the new system.

“Before the new semester began, we rolled out a new ERP system as communicated. However, the new system has taken longer than expected to stabilize our operations, “stated the internal memo.

Students are required to re-register their units for the August semester once more in the old system. The time give for re-registration is one week that is till October 4.

This will ensure the school sorts out a few issues with the new system. “In a progress review meeting yesterday, the University management has taken a decision to temporarily revert to the old system (UMS) until we resolve a few outstanding issues with the new system,” states the internal memo.

The new system is scheduled to be blocked by the registrar on 27 September to give time for students to re-register on the old system.

Students are urged not to registered for new units but only re-register for the ones they had registered for. Those boarding in Athi River Campus will be required to re-register for their hostels and indicate if they swill be serving from the Cafeteria or not.

It has been a struggle to settle to this new system even four weeks into the semester.

The new students for August Semester will have to redo the processes required in order to have a portal in the UMS portal.

The elearning, classes and semester timetable will remain uninterrupted.

As the university prepares to revert to the UMS system, they ask for cooperation, patience and grace from students.