I worked in the farm and dug pit latrines - Director, Vision 2030 Delivery Secretariat, Hezekiah Okeyo

I was conscripted into the National Youth Service (NYS) to learn uzalendo before joining the University of Nairobi in 1986 for a bachelor’s degree in Industrial Chemistry and Computer Services.

I had wished to do Medicine which I missed by a single cut-off point. My favourite units were Industrial Chemistry and Environment.

 My most adored lecturer was Prof Jacob Midiwo — he took us through Organic Chemistry— for his unique flair for philosophy and ability to figuratively translate a concept into practice like no other lecturer.

We were only 25 in the class and were regarded as top-cream outside campus. University was good and accommodation crisis was unheard of. We dined like kings in campus.

Apart from books, I was a footballer — a talent I carried all the way from Maseno School. I was really good and can only equate myself to Manchester United’s Wayne Rooney! I also did part-time boxing.

I occasionally drunk in  Eastleigh pubs where booze was cheap, but I quit to concentrate on football.

Back at home in Migori, I worked in the farm and dug pit latrines, leaving the villagers wondering: “You mean people in university also soil their hands?” Yes, the 1980s generation of comrades was arguably organised and humble.

On issues dating, I would say that most of us made sure we settled down immediately after graduation.

Setting priorities were the in-thing on our minds then — ­ getting a job and marrying.

I, for instance, built a mabati semi-permanent house for my mum, upgrading her from the grass-thatched house. I did it with my boom money.

Hezekiah Okeyo graduated with a Bsc, Industrial Chemistry and Computer Services from the University of Nairobi in 1989.