Local university graduation ceremonies resemble village funeral events

Shambolic, chaotic, disappointing, miserable, disorganized best describe the planning and execution of the Maseno University graduation ceremonies that occured on the 11th December 2015 at the main campus grounds last Friday.

That the occasion failed the basic tests of event management is an understatement and flies on the face of the current administration and staff. The situation is complicated by the fact that this is a higher learning institution supposedly with event management as part of the course or units offered in the university program.

The occasion was a comedy of errors and beat the logic of education as a means to improvement. It is worse that the mistakes that occurred during the said event were a repetition of similar blunders the year before.

Motorists were the most disadvantaged during this occasion. A grid lock traffic jam spanning between Luanda and Otonglo Market centres occurred for eight long hours largely because of failure to absence of traffic marshals, utilization of the administrative arms of the government and organization of proper packing for an estimated 1,000 vehicles that the institution expected to ferry the celebrants to and from this auspicious occasion.

Although some of these motorists partly take blame for unauthorized overlapping thereby creating the traffic gridlock, any planning exercise to host such a crowd is expected to redirect vehicles, close specific roads and elaborately put signage to guide motorists before, during and after such a graduation ceremony.

That the Governor of Kisumu walked tens of kilometers to the venue thereby arriving late is testimony of planning gone awry. It is unimaginable the costs of time and fuel lost in the event of such disorganized activity. Vehicles idling for hours on end, human traffic competing for space with motorists and trailers stuck for so long were unsightly to say the lost, very annoying in fact.

The administration and students of Maseno University must take a few steps to curb such disorganization in the future. I suggest that the university staggers their graduation ceremonies to twice yearly to avoid cramming there deficient space with over 3,000 graduates every once a year.

The traffic snarl up was largely attributed to that. Evidently, the administration may also want to consider moving their graduation ceremonies to a venue with more elaborate space that would sufficiently accommodate hundreds of people while availing parking space too.

To suggest a caveat on the number of visitors allowable for every graduate sounds extreme but desperate times require desperate measures. Ultimately, the two hour graduation ceremony is too short a time to transport a whole bus of family members and clansmen to witness.

Why not organize 'mbuzi choma' back at home if a graduation remains a big deal for one. Improved signage and redirection of vehicles by closing specific routes at specific hours and opening others systematically is another measure of strategy.

Recruitment of traffic marshals working with neighboring county governments and engagement of National Government policing arms is basic but fundamental moving forward. The local 'manambas' took over the process and roughed up very important dignitaries attending this auspicious occasion including Michael Joseph, former Safaricom CEO, now Chancellor, Maseno University.

Above all, that failure to plan is planning to fail is as real today as when the sages first suggested it. Adequate planning must go into any exercise of this magnitude and should include drills to better prepare the celebrants of such an auspicious occasion.

Otherwise, people then begin to shy away from future events and this has the net effect of portraying the university in bad light, at worst scaring potential students from joining such an enigmatic institution of higher learning. Maseno University must conduct a postmortem and improve on how it organizes future graduation ceremonies.