Margaret Kamar: Professor of Soil Science

Professor Margaret Kamar is a well-known household name in Kenya, mainly because of her political career. She is the current Member of Parliament for Eldoret East constituency, following her election in 2007 on an Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) ticket. She also served as a nominated member of the East African Legislative Assembly from 2001 to 2006.

Politics aside, Prof Kamar is an achiever too in the area of academia, in her chosen field of soil science. She earned her PhD in soil and water conservation from the University of Toronto in 1992.

Her university teaching career has been entirely in Moi University, Eldoret. After her Masters in Agriculture from McGill University in 1986, she joined Moi University as a tutorial fellow, and from 1989 to 1999, rose up the ranks of assistant lecturer, lecturer and senior lecturer. In December 1999, Prof Kamar was appointed associate professor of soil science.

From 1997 to 2002, Prof Kamar was the principal of Moi University's Chepkoilel Campus after which she was appointed the University's Deputy Vice Chancellor in charge of Research and Extension, a position she held between 2002 and 2006.

Info & photo courtesy of Kenya Parliament website
http://www.parliament.go.ke/parliament/MPs/tenth_parl/kamar_mj.php

Lucia Omondi: Professor of Linguistics

Lucia Omondi is a professor of Linguistics and African Languages at the University of Nairobi. She holds the distinction of being the first Kenyan to obtain a PhD in linguistics; this she achieved in 1975 from the University of London. Her doctorate dissertation was on the syntax of the Dholuo language.

Prof Lucia Omondi has a long-standing career in research and academia, starting out as a research assistant at the University of Nairobi in 1971, then as a research fellow and later head of department at the Institute of African Studies, University of Zambia from 1975 to 1978.

In 1978, she was appointed to the position of lecturer at the Department of Linguistics and African Studies, University of Nairobi and later rose through the ranks to become associate professor in 1986 and full professor in 1991.

Prof Omondi also served as head of department between 1989 and 1994. Later, from 1994 to 2004, she was appointed the principal of the College of Education and External Studies of the University of Nairobi.

Between 2004 and 2007, Prof Lucia Omondi was a member of the Commission for Higher Education, the body that is mandated to oversee the quality of higher education in the country.

Source: http://profiles.uonbi.ac.ke/lomondi/files/cv_prof_lucia_omondi.pdf