Veronicah Auma and George Best beat a stiff competition to become the Mr and Miss Turkana University 2022.
The two were overcome with emotion after they emerged victorious in the inaugural cultural festival held at the varsity over the weekend.
They will have the privilege of being the face of the varsity in its website for one year in addition to other privileges like accompanying the varsity staff to graduation ceremonies in other campuses.
The beauty pageant was the climax of a three days’ festival that attracted several performances among them traditional dances, karaoke, spoken word, rap, news casting, DJ competition, sampling of African cuisine among others.
The theme of the event was fostering cohesion and unity through diverse cultural heritage.
TUC Principal Prof George Chemining’wa said the varsity provides a good opportunity for students to learn and appreciate other cultures which would enhance national cohesion in line with Chapter 11 of the constitution.
He said the university represents the face of Kenya with students from diverse cultures including foreign students from South Sudan.
“Universities in the world over want students from different parts of the world because they learnt one thing that when diverse cultures come together, there is innovation, success and there is growth,” he said.
He said that the constitution also acknowledges culture as a foundation of a nation and accumulation of civilization. He at the same time challenged Turkana university students to respect the culture of the community where the varsity is located.
Turkana Central Deputy County Commissioner, David Juma, urged the youth to be open and speak out their issues to their friends to avoid cases of suicides. He said it was unfortunate that youth are dying in silence instead of sharing their issues with friends.
“We want you to embrace a culture of teamwork as displayed today, we do not want to have a situation where we lose our youth because of the crises in life,” he said.
He noted that those who graduate from university may not secure employment immediately and challenged them to gain life skills that will enable them to cope when they leave school.
By Peter Gitonga
