UNIVERSITY OF NAIROBI
CHAIRMAN DEMS’S SPEECH ON THE LAUNCH OF AFRICAN
JOURNAL OF PROJECT PLANNING AND MANAGEMENT
24TH JUNE, 2015












The Vice – Chancellor , UoN, Prof. Peter Mbithi;
The Deputy Vice – Chancellor – RPE, Prof. Lucy Irungu
The Deputy Vice – Chancellor – A&A, Prof. Henry Mutoro
The Principal – Cees, Prof. Isaac Jumba
The Deputy Principal – Cees, Prof. Horace Ochanda
The Dean – SCDE, Prof. Harriet Kidombo
The Dean – SOE, Prof. Winston Akala
The Associate Deans Present
Chairmen of Departments Present
Members of Academic and Administrative Staff Present
Students
Ladies and Gentlemen, Good morning
I am pleased to welcome all of you today in this function to launch
the Department Journal: African Journal of Project Planning and
Management. I want to thank the guest of honour for consenting to
our principal’s request and making time to come and launch the
journal.
Guest of honour sir, allow me to give a brief history of the
Department of Extra – Mural Studies. As you all know, the
Department of Extra-Mural Studies is one of the three Departments
that constitute the School of Continuing and Distance Education in
the College of Education and External Studies of the University of
Nairobi, it is one of the oldest departments in the history of this
University which can be traced back to have come from Makerere
University College in 1953.
From the year 1953 upto the year 1999, the Department offered
mostly non-academic programmes/ courses. It was until the year 2000
when the department started offering serious academic courses such
as Diploma in Business Management and Diploma in Sales and
Marketing when Prof. Christopher Gakuu and Prof. Joyce Mbwesa
were first hired as lecturers in the department.
Since, then guest of honour sir, the department has continued to grow
from six (6) regional centres to now twelve (12) regional centres
distributed all over the country. The department currently has 18
members of academic staff of whom two (2) are Associate professors,
four (4) are senior lecturers, eight (8) are lecturers and four (4) are
tutorial fellows. The Department also has very able members of
administrative staff supporting the main and sub-centres’
programmes.
Currently, the department offers several academic programmes which
include: 8 certificate courses, 8 Diplomas, Bachelors, Masters and
PhD. To confirm that the department has grown over the years, the
department graduates between 2000 – 2500 students annually.
Guest of honour sir, in the May – June 2015 intake, alone the
department admitted a total of 2,261 students of which 1719 were
diplomas, 239 were bachelors and 303 were masters’ degree students
respectively.
Guest of honour sir, the African Journal of Project Planning and
Management was conceived by the department due to the fact that the
department offers project management as a discipline from certificate,
diploma, bachelor’s degree, masters and PhD level. The African
Journal of project planning and management offers wide range and
comprehensive coverage of all facets of project management.
The Journal will be publishing four times per year; it provides a focus
for worldwide expertise in the required techniques, practices and
areas of research, it presents a forum for its readers and graduands to
share common experiences across the full range of industries and
technologies in which project management is used, covers all areas of
project management from systems to human aspects, links theory
with practice by publishing case studies and conveying the latest
important issues.
Application areas of publishing articles include: information systems,
research and developments, system design and implementation,
monitoring and evaluation, project financing, engineering and
construction projects, and agricultural projects.
The journal encourages submissions from researchers addressing the
art and science of project, programmes and portfolio management
according to inter-disciplinary perspectives.
Guest of honour sir, the audience of this publication includes: the
academics, executives, project practitioners, business leaders and
other individuals who seek to improve their project management
skills and practices.
Guest of honour sir, it is our genuine wish in launching this journal to
contribute to the further project management development and
implementation not only in Kenya, but in the world at large
Ladies and gentlemen, I now take the pleasure to invite our Dean –
SCDE, Professor Harriet Kidombo to address the congregation.
Thank you and God bless you all.
PROF. CHARLES M. RAMBO, PhD
CHAIRMAN,
DEPARTMENT OF EXTRA-MURAL STUDIES