Vice Chancellor Prof. Fredrick Otieno on 13th March 2018 met MMUST technical staff on the theme “Enhancing technical capacity in training, research and innovation”.

MMUST Social Work students marked the International Women’s Day on 8th March 2018 at the Busia Agricultural Training Centre (ATC). In an activity organized by the Red Cross, the students participated in creating awareness on blood donation to boost blood banks. Kenya often faces desperate situations that require blood transfusion. Led by Halima Abdi, the students shared experiences with the community on various cases where blood donations have been necessary, and mostly as emergencies.

MMUST Social Work students marked the International Women’s Day on 8th March 2018 at the Busia Agricultural Training Centre (ATC). In an activity organized by the Red Cross, the students participated in creating awareness on blood donation to boost blood banks. Kenya often faces desperate situations that require blood transfusion. Led by Halima Abdi, the students shared experiences with the community on various cases where blood donations have been necessary, and mostly as emergencies.
 “Many women in Busia have suffered overbleeding during child birth, while some have been experiencing acute anaemia during pregnancy” said Halima. In concurrence to this, Leah Okumu indicated that “Many girls within Matayos Sub-county of Busia lose excessive blood every month making them suffer anaemia, and hence they have been put on iron supplements”.
Apart from that, road accidents and other disasters have been occurring in different parts of Kenya. In such cases, blood is usually a desperate need. Rosemary Wangeci a Social Work student who is also a security practitioner raised concerns over past experiences where sufficient blood was difficult to find. “We had terrorist attacks during the 1998 bombing of the US Embassy, the Westgate Mall Attack in 2013, Mpeketoni-Lamu attacks of 2014 plus other multiple deadly aggressions inside and outside the country”. 
MMUST runs programs on matters of gender equality, children’s rights, HIV/AIDS, Criminology, Disaster Management among others. Such programs address the relevance of blood. The students were enthusiastic that the International Women’s Day could be used to promote the roles that women play in ensuring a better world.

Researchers from Kibabii University paid a benchmarking visit to MMUST Science & Technology Park and Industrial Linkages (STPIL) on 12th March 2018. Kibabii University intends to model its science, technology and innovation activities based on MMUST-STPIL. Kibabii University is in the process of acquiring modern equipment that will boost capacity in science, technology and innovation.

The team of researchers from Kibabii University who met Dr. John Muoma, Director MMUST-STPIL, included Dr. Lucy Chikamai (Dean Faculty of Sciences), Prof. Donald Siamba (Director TVET), Dr. Jared Oloo (Chairman Department of Science, Technology & Engineering), and Kennedy Munyole (Renewable Energy). The Kibabii researchers were exploring best ways of utilizing their incoming equipment based on MMUST experience.

Dr. Muoma indicated that ‘Science, technology and innovation are evolving at a high speed in fields such as Information Technology, Engineering, Agriculture, Medicine and Modern Biotechnology; therefore, Kibabii University needs to join MMUST in adapting to the current trends’. The Kibabii University team mooted the idea of developing their TVET programs in collaboration with MMUST.