Scholars, especially those interested in understanding how leadership
has inhibited academic freedom and hindered effectiveness of
institutions of higher learning have for long been engaged by the very
important manner in which governance and leadership of higher education
institutions in Africa is constituted and managed. The fact that there
has been a dearth of work based on the experiences of those who have
served as university leaders has created a major gap. Questions remain
on how leaders of higher education institutions are identified, how they
are prepared, the personal predispositions that individuals bring to the
exercise of such positions and their personal experiences regarding what
energizes or inhibits the performance of their work. Until recently,
presidents in most African countries served as chancellors of public
universities, identification of those who served as university leaders
was largely a political process. But much has changed, with most
countries establishing oversight bodies and the overall governance of
higher education institutions divorced from the day-to-day political
processes.
Trails in Academic and Administrative Leadership in Kenya provides a
personal account of the experiences in higher education leadership from
an individual whose tenure in leadership straddled the two eras. In this
book, Prof. Michieka provides an account of how his early education
prepared him for roles in academic and institutional leadership in
Kenya. The author shares his experiences on the trails he had to
navigate as an academic, a vice-chancellor and a chairperson of
university council at a time when universities in Kenya were transiting
from extreme government administrative control to a greater degree of
operational autonomy. Readers will find in this work thought-provoking
insights on how leaders of higher education institutions in Kenya have
had to balance between demands of the political system and the need to
safeguard academic traditions in the everyday management of the
institutions.
