Professor Francis Aduol Odhiambo is one of the seven commissioners of the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC).
After a lengthy career in academia, prof Aduol was shortlisted for the IEBC job in a competitive process that attracted hundreds of applicants.
In his appearance before the IEBC selection panel, Aduol shared his impressive Curriculum Vitae (CV), which earned him praise as one of the qualified candidates for the job.
Before his appointment as an IEBC Commissioner, Prof. Aduol served as a Professor of Surveying and Geospatial Science at the Technical University of Kenya. He previously served as the Vice-Chancellor of the institution.
Prof. Francis Aduol holds a Bachelor of Science in Engineering in Surveying and Photogrammetry from the University of Nairobi, as well as a Master of Science in the same field from the UoN.
He further earned a Doctor of Engineering (Dr.-Ing.) degree in Geodesy from the University of Stuttgart in Germany.
Prof. Francis Aduol Impresses with His Decorated CV as He Eyes IEBC Job
Aduol also holds a Master of Arts degree in economic policy management from the University of Nairobi.
His professional career began at the Government Survey Department, commonly known as the Survey of Kenya, where he was employed immediately after graduating from the University of Nairobi with a first degree in Land Surveying.
After about thirteen months, Prof. Aduol returned to the University of Nairobi to take up a position as a Tutorial Fellow.
“My responsibility at that time was partly teaching and partly pursuing postgraduate studies, specifically, studying towards a master’s degree,” he told the panel.
After completing his master’s degree, Aduol was promoted to the position of lecturer.
Additionally, he was awarded a German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) scholarship to pursue his PhD at the University of Stuttgart. He studied in Germany from October 1983 to June 1988.
“In that period, I accomplished three things. Six months were spent at the German language school. I had to be fluent in German for me to graduate with my PhD. My PhD itself is written in the German language,” Aduol said.
“I took another twelve months to take further postgraduate study to prepare me for subsequent research towards the PhD work. The next thirty-six months were spent on the PhD, three months on examination. So, I was in Germany for four years and nine months.”
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Decorated Creer of former TUK VC
Upon completing his PhD, he returned to the University of Nairobi, where he was soon promoted to the position of Senior Lecturer. This was followed by a promotion to Associate Professor in 1994, and later to Full Professor in February,2001.
On the administration side, he was appointed to the position of head of department in January 1991.
He later served in various administrative positions at the University, including Principal of the College of Architecture and Engineering from 1999 to 2008, Dean of the Faculty of Engineering from 1995 to 1999, and Chairman of the Department of Surveying from 1991 to 1995.
In October 2008, Francis Aduol was appointed, on secondment from the University of Nairobi, as the founding Principal of the Kenya Polytechnic University College, now the Technical University of Kenya (TUK).
When the institution was upgraded to a university in January 2013, he was appointed Vice Chancellor.
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Membership and Boards
The former VC has served on numerous university and national committees on higher education and technology.
Between 2011 and 2012, Francis Aduol was a member of the National Task Force that prepared the Universities Act, 2012; TVET Act, 2013; and Science, Technology and Innovation Act, 2013.
Prof. Aduol also served on the Boards of the Kenya Universities and Colleges Central Placement Service (KUCCPS) and the Higher Education Loans Board (HELB).
In 2020, the surveyor was appointed by the Association of Commonwealth Universities to sit in its Regional Committee for East, Central, and Southern Africa.
He is a member of the Institution of Surveyors of Kenya and is a Licensed Professional Surveyor in Kenya.
Francis Aduol said he was attracted to the role of IEBC Commissioner due to his involvement in the limitation of constituency boundaries.
“The boundaries we have today in Kenya, the 290 constituencies, I was very actively involved in that exercise, particularly in 2011,” he noted.
