News

Members of the Family of Professor Omar Egesah,
Members of the African Cluster Centre at Moi University,
Leaders and Members of Moi University:

It was with deep shock and profound sadness that we received the devastating news of the unexpected and untimely passing of Professor Omar Egesah on Thursday, March 18, 2021.

As spokespersons of the Africa Multiple Cluster of Excellence at the University of Bayreuth, Germany, we would like to convey to you that we, and the entire Cluster community, are mourning the loss of a highly esteemed colleague who had become a dear friend to many of us.

Professor Egesah was instrumental in taking the long-standing collaboration between the University of Bayreuth and Moi University to new levels. Be it through his important contribution to the successful application for and the subsequent running of the EU-funded AMAS project (Academic Mobility for African Sustainable Development) in 2016, his close involvement with the Bayreuth International Graduate School of African Studies during his stint as a visiting professor in 2018 and beyond, or his instrumental role in establishing and expanding the African Cluster Centre at Moi University from 2019 onwards: Professor Egesah has made tremendous and lasting contributions to our joint academic endeavors.

Apart from his unwavering commitment to enhancing intra-African academic mobility and building institutional bridges with the University of Bayreuth, Professor Egesah also had exceptional passion for research. In the 18 months since the inception of the ACC at Moi University in October 2019, he became one of the most active researchers in the Cluster, forging close ties with the “Mobilities” Research Section, connecting with scholars at the other ACCs, leading a project on mobility on the Kenya-Uganda highway, and participating in many others.

If we have lost a veritable pillar of our Cluster, we can only imagine how huge and painful the loss must be for Moi University, let alone his family. As spokespersons of the Africa Multiple Cluster of Excellence, and on behalf of all Cluster members at all locations, we would like to convey our heartfelt and sincere condolences to the family members and the leadership and members of Moi University as well as the ACC. We will miss his intellectual astuteness, his incisive analytical skills, his unwavering commitment to collaborative research and academic cooperation, and, last but not least, his fine sense of humor.

May he repose in peace and tranquility in the Garden of Eternity.