Kenyan-Finnish education partnership sees 51 Kenyan students join the Tampere University of Applied Sciences

Photo: Heini Pääkkönen

Step aside Nairobi County; there is a new player in the game!

When the international community and foreign media report about Kenya it’s normally either innovation in Nairobi or famine in Loiyangalani.

Hardly is there balance on development in the rural counties. That’s why this writer was very impressed to see a whole page dedicated to a development report brought about by a partnership between Finland and the county government of Uasin Gishu.

A deal between the Uasin Gishu County Government and the government of Finland has seen 51 students join the Tampere University of Applied Sciences (TAMK) in Finland.

The students will be pursuing medicine and other science-related courses. 25 will be pursuing degree courses while the other 26 will undertake diploma courses. In the deal with the Finish government, the students will be employed to meet the demand of graduates with technical skills. 

Before hearing about the program, the students didn’t know much about Finland, apart from the fact that it was a northern and cold country. After getting the initial news about the upcoming opportunity, the students started researching online. They were very impressed with the information they read about the country.

“It was the place that I had dreamed about: a place with good education and good healthcare systems,” Sharon Cheruiyot, one of the beneficiaries, says.

The Tampere University of Applied Sciences is one of the most multidisciplinary universities in Finland. Almost all internationally recognized fields of study are represented there. It brings together research and education in technology, health, and society. Its collaboration with its partners is built on their strengths, unique combinations of scientific disciplines, and applied expertise.

TAMK is a community of 21,000 students and close to 4,000 staff members. The university was created in 2019 through a merger between the University of Tampere and Tampere University of Technology.

This is not the first time the County Government of Uasin Gishu partners with a Nordic country.

Two years ago another deal was sealed with the Norrkoping Municipality Östergötland, Sweden to build a solid waste treatment plant in Kipkenyo on the outskirts of Eldoret town.

The plant will not only manage huge solid waste collected daily from Eldoret town (the fourth biggest city in Kenya) and its environs but also generate power to be injected into the national grid.

The Uasin Ngishu county administration is expected to fence the dumpsite to enable control of waste being received at the site besides purchasing other machinery including a dumper and a front loader to get the project to begin. Comprehensive training of personnel on techniques of waste management was done by Norrkoping Municipality.

Sweden has been cooperating with Kenya on the long-term goal of making Kenya a high-middle-income country through Vision 2030 based on the economic, social, and political pillars. Sweden also recognizes that Kenya plays a key role in regional peace and stability.

By Cate Mukei