Tourism Training at the Degree Level in Kenya

I visited the website of Kenya's Ministry of tourism. This is the far-from-complete information that the site continues to tell the world about tourism training in Kenya: Click here to see. One might be excused to think that that part of the website is administered by someone who is neither interested in, nor embarrased in not telling, the whole truth about tourism training in this country. So I decided to use the "contact us" link at the website to send the email which I reproduce below. The email will probably be read tomorrow, Monday, at the earliest, so consider this an advance copy for the time-being:

Dear Sir,

Your website has information about tourism-related training in Kenya, and I congratulate you for that. You do mention the pioneer institution in this field, Utalii College; and that’s fine. One glaring omission continues at the website, however, given that Utalii College does not, let me add YET, train any students at the degree level.

The fact that the University of Nairobi has been offering a degree in B.A. Tourism since 2001 continues to escape the attention of all who manage the website, and indeed of the entire ministry’s official attention. Or is this deliberate neglect and “ignorance”?

Several cohorts of tourism students have in fact already graduated from the University of Nairobi. In the September-December 2008 semester, I may add, the University of Nairobi admitted over 70 tourism students. Only yesterday, December 20, we were invigilating 73 students taking their end-of-semester examination in CTO 101: Introduction to Tourism. By the time this semester’s final examination period ends on December 24th, tourism students from Level I to Level IV (the graduating level) will have been examined in a combined total of over sixteen courses.

We are striving to train high-level HR for the tourism sector here. It would help if the website, and those at the Ministry’s headquarters, acknowledged the simple truth and reality. You are giving the world the wrong impression of the depth of tourism training in Kenya.

And kindly remember that the University of Nairobi is not the only [Kenyan] institution offering tourism courses at the degree level. I just happen to be at the big U of N, to have been central to the launch of the tourism programme, and to be proud of what we are trying to accomplish here, with much enthusiasm despite your looking the other way!