In another show of might, on Saturday December 18th, 2021, all roads led to Safari Park Hotel in Nairobi as The Kenya Airlift Program congregated to celebrate its students relocating to the US in January to attend different universities for their master’s degrees.It was all pomp and joy as the program celebrated its highest number of students going to the US ever recorded since its inception late 2018. Come January 2022, the program expects to airlift around 50 students to the US with almost 30 of them having their visas already confirmed. Such is an incredible feat!
Among those students with visas, 16 of them will be joining University of Alabama In Huntsville (UAH), 6 others are going to Grand Valley State University in Michigan (GVSU), 4 are going to South Dakota State University (SDSU) and 1 will join Illinois State University (ISU).
The number adds up to the growing list of students currently studying in the US, with the first cohort of the program expected to graduate in May 2022. Through its lending partners, the program supports students’ relocation expenses, University tuition and fees, and supports the students with cutting edge IT job skills training as they pursue their master’s so that they can be more marketable everywhere across the world once they graduate from school.
Nominated senator Isaac Ngugi graced the occasion as the chief guest and was joined by other dignitaries among them Dean of Students at The University of Nairobi, Mr Johnson Kinyua who both expressed optimism of the program as the Kenyan last hope in combating youth frustrations caused by unemployment and low-paying jobs by giving them a new lease of life to advance their technological skills in the United States that they can use to build our beloved country Kenya.
Bob Mwiti, who is the programs director of Appstec America and the co-founder of the initiative together with his program partner, Hon Dennis Kiogora, MCA Abogeta West, spoke passionately of the immense pride they exhibit seeing the lives of many brilliant young Kenyans tremendously transformed through the program.
Like the Tom Mboya’s airlift of 1960s, which saw the likes of Wangari Maathai, and Barack Obama Snr turn their lives around with an American education, the Kenya Airlift Program is in no doubt a modern-day trendsetter on the validity and possibility of our dreams whenever given the right opportunities.
