In Kenya, youth unemployment is a major national problem. With thousands of fresh graduates from many Kenyan campuses and colleges, the age of people who are appointed to hold posts in public offices is very important.
President Uhuru Kenyatta and his Deputy President William Ruto included “youthfulness” as a brand strategy during their last year’s campaigns. Despite this, they are still employing old people to serve in public offices.
Dr Manu Chandaria, the “Elder of the Burning Spear” is the oldest Kenyan to be serving in a public office. Dr Chandaria is a Kenyan businessman with an Indian descent who serves as the Chancellor of the Technical University of Kenya (TUK). He is the first Chancellor of The Technical University of Kenya.
Dr Manu Chandaria has many things on his name. He is the senior member of the Comcraft Group of Companies (an enterprise worth billions of dollars in over 40 countries) and a board member in several East African Companies. Mr. Chandaria has several honors from Kenya and outside Kenya.
In 1997, he was awarded honorary degree of Doctor of Science by the UoN in recognition of outstanding achievements in the industrial manufacturing and business sector.
Queen Elizabeth awarded him the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 2003, while former President Mwai Kibaki awarded him the Elder of the Burning Spear in December of the same year. Many people consider the businessman as one of Kenya’s leading industrialists.