A Nobel laureate came home, but what did we learn from him?

Nobel Laureate, academic and former World Bank chief economist Prof Joseph Stiglitz. He was a research fellow at the University of Nairobi between 1969 and 1971.

Scholars are rarely celebrated. It could be they are too many or too familiar. We all went through teachers till we got old enough either to ignore what they taught us or learnt to get competing ideas. Few scholars ever go to court to see what lawyers do. Rarely do they go to witness operations in hospital theatres.

Some people argue academics rarely spawn new ideas that capture the imagination of the public; like comedians, musicians or movie makers.