Notable universities across Kenya have been established for different reasons, some due to the equitable distribution of resources, others due to executive decision, and we have others like Chuka University, whose foundation was inevitable, as almost a century ago a prophetess had decreed the rise of the great institution of higher learning.
Jerusha Kanyua is the prophetess, evangelist, philanthropist, and community leader whose vision of an “academic mountain” rising in Ndagani decades before the establishment of Chuka University
She is regarded as the face behind the Vision of Chuka University, the only Prophetic University in the World.
Jerusha Kanyua’s Life and Dedicated Service
Jerusha Kanyua was born in early 1872 in Karaa village, Mwimbi Division, in the current Tharaka-Nithi County, Kenya.
She was brought up in a traditional family, where she underwent the Ameru rites of passage.
In 1894, Jerusha got married to Paul Njeru. The couple relocated from Mwimbi to Chuka, near Chuka General Hospital. The two were blessed with children who all of them later died during childhood from what was suspected to be pneumonia, measles, or malaria.
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Her husband remarried Martha Umotho, and they had several children.
Njeru began mistreating Jerusha, and she relocated to Ndagani, where she settled. She adopted her younger sister’s children, Alfred Mburia and Caroline, who are regarded to the day as her children.
She emerged as one of the earliest Christian converts and evangelists in the Chuka region after embracing Christianity through the Presbyterian mission in the early twentieth century.
Beyond her spiritual leadership, Kanyua devoted much of her life to serving communities through healthcare and education. She trained as a midwife at Tumutumu Mission Hospital College in Nyeri and became widely known for providing medical assistance and maternal care across the Chuka, Embu, and Meru regions without seeking payment.
Her dedication to humanitarian service earned her the nickname “Dagitari,” meaning doctor.
She used her influence to spread Christianity and encourage communities to embrace formal education to overcome poverty, disease, and social inequality.
The 1951 Prophecy at Ndagani
on June 3, 1951, during a church gathering at PCEA Ndagani, Kanyua made a remarkable prediction concerning the future of Ndagani.
She prophesied that a great mountain would arise in the area, with large trees growing upon it and birds arriving from all corners of the world to rest and feed there.
At the time, many members of the congregation struggled to understand the meaning of her message.
During the Mau Mau period, the prophecy was referred to the colonial detention facilities established in the area.
However, Kanyua rejected this interpretation, maintaining that her vision symbolized prosperity, knowledge, and the gathering of people through education.
In the late 1960, Jerusha became ill and died in 1974 at the age of 102 years.
PCEA proclaimed her a saint In 1997, and a church building at Ndagani was dedicated to her and was named Jerusha Kanyua Memorial Church.
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Establishment of Chuka University in Ndagani
Fifty years after Kanyua’s prophecy, the foundations of what would become Chuka University began to take shape.
Professor Erastus Njoka, Egerton University, who was the former Vice Chancellor of Chuka University, was elected to chair a technical committee, and among the discussions was establishing an institution in the eastern part of Kenya.
On September 17, 2004, after consultative meetings, approval was granted the establish an eastern campus of Egerton University at Ndagani.
The campus was officially established on September 27, 2004, by the Egerton University Council before opening its doors to students on August 1, 2005.
The institution later attained constituent college status as Chuka University College in August 2007 before receiving a charter as a fully-fledged public university on January 8, 2013.
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