Speech By The Vice Chancellor Prof. Isaac O. Kibwage During The Cultural Day Venue: Main Campus, Njoro

Venue: Main Campus, Njoro

Date: Thursday, 11^th December, 2025

Good afternoon, everyone, students, staff and friends of Egerton University

Welcome to our Cultural Day celebration! Today we gather not just as individuals from different departments or countries, but as one community united by curiosity, creativity and respect. Egerton has always been a place where many cultures meet from local Kenyan communities to students and staff from across Africa and beyond.

Cultural Day is about more than music or food, though I hope you enjoy those! It is about giving each culture its space to shine, sharing stories, traditions and experiences that make us who we are. It’s about pride in our roots and openness to learning from one another. Whether through dance, song, traditional dress, art, language or even food, we get a chance to connect, appreciate, and celebrate the rich diversity among us.I encourage each of you to take part: visit exhibition stalls, join a dance or a conversation, try a dish you’ve never tasted, or simply listen to stories from classmates whose background is different from yours. This is where understanding grows.

Our Cultural Day, a part of the larger Culture Week, is also a statement: we value unity in diversity. Egerton’s past Cultural Weeks have shown how powerful this can be, with traditional dances, cultural parades, exhibitions of traditional crafts, music performances, and more. But beyond the celebrations, I hope today reminds us all: culture isn’t only something we display on one day. Culture lives in everyday respect, in how we treat peers from different backgrounds, how we learn from each other, how we grow together.

Let Cultural Day be a day of fun but also a day of connection, discovery and renewed appreciation for what we bring to this community.Thank you all for being here. Let’s enjoy this day, celebrate who we are, and build friendships that go beyond today.