Prof. Mutisya is in Kenya, founding the Diaspora University as the lead founder of the academic system. He met Diaspora Kenyans from the U.S and Europe visiting Nairobi. The professor began his teaching career at the University of Amherst in Massachusetts, USA, while pursuing his Doctorate of Education. He would thereafter relocate to North Carolina and teach in the universities in the cities of Raleigh and Durham before retiring from North Carolina Central University (NCCU) this year.
One of Prof. Mutisya's roles as the lead founder of Diaspora University is to engage Kenyans as he seeks other Diaspora scholars to join him in establishing schools, departments, and degree programs. One of the things that Kenya needs is the investment of Diaspora resources, including intellect, time, and money, in development plans that create jobs and grow Kenya's GDP.
Diaspora University development is progressing at Taita Taveta County. The university traces its roots to two professors from WPI University, the late Professors Raphael Njoroge and Arthur Gerstenfeld. The professors, when at WPI University in Worcester, MA, conceived the idea of founding a university in Africa that would apply the WPI project-based learning approach.
Diaspora Kenyans embraced the idea and became founders of the university by developing townhouses and investing in Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs). The Diaspora University Town development plan, currently in progress, aims to establish a university, a hospital, a town, and micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs).
The Diaspora University development plan also integrates MSMEs to education. The university education system and the MSMEs' operational systems will work in a synergistic approach that advances the goals of both the university and the MSMEs.
One of the MSMEs that Kenyan diaspora and local Kenyans are investing in is Daktari Biotechnology Ltd. This MSME is for producing medicines and vaccines. Led by Dr. Wilson Endege of Boston, MA, the MSME founders are already collaborating closely with the Diaspora University and are establishing the university's departments of Biology and Biotechnology, Chemistry and Biochemistry, and the health sciences.
This collaboration will also advance job creation and Kenya's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth. The MSMEs will, through advancing job creation, ensure that, upon graduation, graduates will have ready job opportunities available to them.
Diaspora Kenyans are also building townhouses that will provide housing for university workers, town residents, hospital staff, MSMEs, and various organizations. Prof. Mutisya, recalling the houses and environment he lived in during the last 37 years in different parts of the U.S., as part of his university's founding, is asking Diaspora Kenyans and Kenyans to invest and become DUT townhouse developers.
One becomes a DUT townhouse developer through signing a THIDA. The THIDA creates a system for providing housing while ensuring a clean and healthy environment is maintained.
