Voi and TTU: Verisimilitude for Valour, Vicissitudes, Vividness and Vision

Voi is a short name. Fact. Voi is not that bad. True. Taita Taveta University (Voi) is not the best-known university locally, but its international networking presence and scholarship opportunities are matchless in Kenya. Fact. After all, there is a difference between being the best known and being simply the best.

The mention of Voi, in Taita Taveta, may not ring a bell to many, but this town has shaped many lives and young minds to become global citizens and borderless thought leaders. The V-shaped Voi SGR Train Station is an eponymous architectural masterpiece that immortalises the unaltered message: Voi’s short name, made up of only three letters, carries more ambition and promise than its length can bear. Voi is the only station between Nairobi and Mombasa, Kenya’s leading cities, at which both the Express 3 pm train and 8 am Intercounty train stop.

Voi’s disproportionate stature cannot be divorced from the axis around which this success revolves — Taita Taveta University (TTU), whose slogan is “Home of Ideas”. This young and progressive university, located 8 km from Voi town centre, is Kenya’s university of mining…