Good morning everyone.

Greetings to the class of 2022 and congratulations. Welcome to the members of the Board of Trustees, to our Chancellor, the Chairman of the University Council and members of the University Council, our honored speaker and all our honored guests.

Welcome and thank you to the faculty and staff of USIU-Africa for your hard work and your dedication to our mission: the education of the future leaders of this country, of Africa, and of the world.

Welcome to the families and sponsors of these fine new almost graduates, and thank you all for your support and for your enormous generosity which has made this day possible.

And please join me in giving our deepest thanks on behalf of all of USIU-Africa to someone who has had the vision, strength, commitment and resilience to guide this great institution for many decades. Of course, I am speaking of Professor Freida Brown-I ask you to please stand and join me in thanking her for all her devotion and vision and many accomplishments. She deserves so much more.
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Make no mistake about it class of 2022.

You are the future, our future, the continent and the world’s.

And to face, and to build that future… you students have been educated here at USIU-Africa with the knowledge, skills, leadership qualities and attitudes to solve problems and to help us all forge better societies and a better world.

It is becoming clearer every day that we are living in an unprecedented and challenging epoch in human history. The future will demand much of us all.
As students of Kenya’s premier university, you chose to come to a place where we sought to cultivate in you, and in ourselves, adaptability, flexibility, creativity, courage and resilience. And you epitomize that courage and resilience.

A place where we share a clear-eyed but a hopeful view of the future.

A place where cooperation, innovation and responsibility towards one another informs-- must inform-- all that we do.

This is difficult and challenging work…..

Hard work to understand the complex issues we all face, the obstacles that stand between us and a more just and peaceful society and world.

Hard work to come up with ways to create a more equitable and certainly a more sustainable world.

The challenges you will face as you leave us today—Climate change, global poverty, hunger and unemployment, lack of access to healthcare, conflict and a war, will be complex, demanding, sometimes exhausting.

But I believe the very future of our humanity is at stake.

The future will demand much of you, but I believe you can face that future with its challenges, face that future with confidence. For I believe in this university, that’s why I came here. I believe in you as its proud graduates, and I believe in you as the promising future of this continent and of the world.
Because it is for just such a future and its challenges that you have been preparing yourselves here at USIU-Africa. Here at one of the finest universities in Africa.

So I beg of you never to shirk. Never to give way to exhaustion, to an easy cynicism, or to despair. Never…Never give up hope. And always--always to work for the common good. Always.

The world needs you. It needs your creativity, your strength, your hearts, and your minds and your hard work.

USIU-Africa Class of 2022--Reach high. Work hard. Commit to the common good. Help to forge a future we can all take pride in.

We believe in you; we will miss you, but you will always be a member of USIU-Africa.

Congratulations!