Achievers

Professor Joseph M Nyasani

Details

Published on Tuesday, 11 March 2008 19:31

CURRICULUM VITAE (Abridged)

Joseph M. Nyasani

Personal

Date of Birth: May, 1936

Place of Birth: Kitutu Chache, Kisii Central

Marital Status: Married with children

Nationality: Kenyan

Education: Primary

1945 – 51 St. Peter’s Claver, Nairobi

Education: Secondary

1951 – 57 St. Peter”s Seminary, Kakamega

Sat the Cambridge School Certificate passed in

Second Division

1958 Attended Philosophy college at Ggaba, Major

Seminary, Kampala

University

1958 – 63 Undergraduate studies in Philosophy at Urbanian

University, Rome culminating in a BA (B.Phil)

1963 Awarded Diploma in ETHICS from Catholic

Social Guild, Woodstock, Oxford.

1964 – 65 Graduate Studies in Philosophy at Fribourg University,

Switzerland.

1965 – 69 Graduate Studies in Philosophy at Cologne University,

Germany culminating in a Ph.D award.

1969 – 71 J.D Undergraduate Law Studies at Bochum University, Germany

1970 – 71 Joined University of Nairobi Dept. of Philosophy as

Tutorial Fellow

1971 – 74 Joined UN Headquarters in New York as Political Affairs Officer II

1971 – 74 Law Studies at New York University, School of Law

Culminating in LL.M. degree

1974 Admitted to J.S.D. (LL.D) programme

1974 – 75 Associate Professor at CUNY, NY.

1975 to Present University of Nairobi Lecturer

1980 Made Senior Lecturer in Philosophy

1986 Became Associate Professor

1989 – 92 Dean, Faculty of Arts

1992 – 97 Principal, College of Humanities and Social

Sciences

Former member of the American Society for International Law

Vice-President in all-Africa UNESCO-sponsored organization on Philosophy and Democracy in Africa. Presented several papers on the concept of democracy and its practice in international conferences in Abidjan, Cotonu and the forthcoming one next month here in Nairobi.

Member of the International Union o f Journalists

Member of the German Union of Journalists and holding a Grman Press Card.

Member of the Editorial Board of the Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences at the Catholic University of Eastern Africa and also member of the Editorial Board of the Journal of Humanities at the University of Swaziland.

External Examiner at the Universities of Egerton, MOi Kenyatta, Catholic University of Eastern Africa, University of Lesotho, University of Botswana, University of Dar-es-Salaam, University of Makerere. Subjects examined included Philosophy of Law (jurisprudence) and systematic philosophy.

Teaching Responsibilities

I t each Legal Philosophy and Metaphysics at the University of Nairobi and taught one time Legal Philosophy, Cosmology and Hermeneutics at the Catholic University of Eastern Africa.

Graduate Programme Supervision

I have supervised many students at Nairobi University, Catholic University of Eastern Africa, Kenyatta and Moi who have had an inclination towards researching in the area of systematic and Legal Philosophy. Currently, I am supervising two PH.D candidates at Kenyatta both of whom are researching into the area of logic and legal reasoning from different perspectives. The candidates are Hassan Kulundu and Jacob Magero and they are both lectures at Kenyatta. I have also supervised several Ph.D candidates in my department mainly in the area of African Philosophy and social philosophy including lecturer Mary Wahome of Moi University. In the current academic year, I am supervising four PhD candidates from my Department. Other students successfully supervised, come from The Catholic University of Eastern Africa.

Consultancies

In 2002, I was identified and requested by the Constitution of Kenya Review Commission (CKRC) to submit a comprehensive paper on the “Ethical and Ideological Basis for writing a constitution”. This paper was presented to the Commission members at their Naivasha retreat and I believe it was well received.

In 2003, I was again approached by CKRC to undertake a critical intellectual audit of the draft bill of the constitution of Kenya Review Commission and Specifically to critique chapters one on the sovereignty of the people and supremacy of the constitution, chapter two on the Republic and its declaration, chapter three on National Goals, Values and Principles, chapter four General Principles concerning citizenship and chapter five. The Bill of Rights (fundamental rights and freedoms). This paper was also presented at the Pre-national conference session at the Bomas of Kenya and was the lead paper.

Throughout the year 2001 and most of the year 2002, I was honoured and privileged to officiate at the Kenya Broadcasting Corporation’s talk programme and to interview the commissioners on their vision of the constitution and possible problems they might encounter as they conduct the constituency forums and collect and collate the people’s views. This was an important undertaking as far as I was concerned since it gave me a tremendous opportunity to have some critical insight into this momentous national exercise. I also believe that, as a lawyer, I could have made some critical impact in he elaboration of hazy issues that came up during these interviews. And since this was a ring-us-up programme, I was able to sample the views of the listeners and to appreciate their concerns about the exercise to be undertaken by the Commission.

Another important consultancy I have had to undertake was that commissioned by the Teachers Service Commission, I was entrusted with the responsibility of writing a learned paper on the aspects of accountability, efficiency, transparency and discipline on a proactive basis. The paper was presented at the Mombasa Beach Hotel at the gathering of senior managers of TSC and other stakeholders influencing a significant shift in TSC and other stakeholders influencing a significant shift in TSC management policy and treatment of teachers and their prompt monthly payments.

I was also called upon last year to officiate at a United Nations sponsored conference on HIV/Aids in Tunis in the capacity of an oracle (expert consultant). The conference was attended by a large cross-section of intellectuals from Africa, Asia and Europe and a voluminous publication of the proceedings has since come out. My role at this conference was to advise on the legal measures that need to be put in place in order to curb the wanton spread of the Aids pandemic. I believe I was approached via the mediation of the United Nations Headquarters in New York where I once worked as an international civil servant in the 1970s in the Department of the Security Council and Political Affairs.