Mythbuster: the modest professor

Her self-effacing demeanour belies the academic and professional achievements of Prof Dorcas Khasungu Isutsa.

For she is the deputy principal in charge of academic affairs at Chuka University College.

Rising from humble beginnings at Isulu Primary School in Kakamega, which she attended from 1974 to 1980, Prof Isutsa went on to Mukumu Girls’ High School, where she studied mathematics, biology and chemistry, shattering the myth that such subjects were the preserve of men.

Her outstanding performance eventually earned her a master’s degree and then a doctorate at Cornell University in the United States.

Now a world authority in horticulture, Prof Isutsa cut her teeth teaching at Egerton, before being offered her current post, where she the Deputy Principal’s post at Chuka University College, where she has become a happy member of Chuka’s growing cosmopolitan community.

During her stint at Egerton Prof Isutsa headed a research committee and helped disseminate research findings in different fields through the Egerton Journal of Science and Technology, which she edited. For three years she also edited the pioneering African Journal of Horticultural Science.

Among her many achievements are her contributions to the Horticultural Association of Kenya, which she founded in 2009 together with colleagues who had met at the Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology.