How a KU CRM student can navigate and be an outstanding young professional

a beautiful alumni pose that comprised the panel discussion

I happily attended the 2nd CRM Alumni workshop on 2nd April 2025 as a panel discussant. It is ten years since I graduated (class of 2015) and proud that I took Community Resource Management (CRM) & Extension course. Though time was brief, I enjoyed the keynote speech from Mwangi Stephen, a fellow alumni (class of 2013) on how he believed in self, volunteered and is proud of his achievements including being the present National Programme Cordinator for International Labour Organisation. 

I would briefly tell the listening students that what would set anyone apart from another is how one utilizes their free time. Little happens and is gained in groups and social interactions. But when one recedes to private space to read, reflect, imagine, plan, act and more then one is surely on an upward trajectory that would sooner set him or her at a competitive advantage. 

an invite poster, courtesy CRM department.

Two, in the larger world of opportunities, there is no reason for a CRM student to guess on what way forward. We have the digital jobs and virtual assistance opportunities. There is the green economy involving climate action, smart farming and green energy. There are community resilience and humanitarian related programs to join. The upcome of TVETs and growing need for essential services are all opportunities. 

A rich and hardly optimized sector of economic growth is the Culture and Heritage where indigenous knowledge awaits for our own identification, documentation, protection, value addition, industry creation, marketing and income generation. 

And if the above is not clear, the sample case below should assist the present student in understanding the related nature of different fields/programs that one can get active in. 

A simple sample case process of problem identification and role assumption in the community

A Community Resource Management (CRM) student is advantaged in the view that their work entails working for a wholistic bettered people and environment. Unlike other professions that solve specific tasks (professions), a CRM graduate has a bird view of what one area of development affects or needs another (others) for sustainability. 

To solve only one problem – and for a long period of time – is not what is expected of the Resource Management profession. But to sustain a resource, improving its standards and benefits without compromising anything, is. However, as our rural communities are starting to develop, CRM graduates find themselves initiating the resources (projects) development themselves than managing them. 

Take a case of health center as an identified need in your community. You are responsible of championing the initiative. You start by raising attention to the Government. You do not do it once or twice – you keep on, attending all public participation forums that collect views from the community. 

Receiving a certificate of participation from Dr. Ndayala Phoebe. She remains a committed patron of the CRM club.

With a health center set to be built and funds secured, there are several preventive health programs to champion in the community. Two of the programs, you identify, are promotion of indigenous preventive medicine and hygiene and sanitation. 

To best achieve it, you think water. Clean water, piped water, water source and all. You now have a wider area of concern. Rain, springs, rivulets and rivers come to mind. They have a story, people in the past have even drawn their identity there.

You join an environmental advocacy group with a purpose of reclaiming a wetland that has now been dilapidated or at risk of it probably due to insensitive human activities. They have made the succulent valley bottoms a farm – they plant maize and beans where marsh and reeds grew. 

Attending students listening to DVC Academics Prof. James Kung'u

But you are not going to fight them to immediately stop cultivation on river bank or valley bottoms. A thought on how best to utilize upper parcels of land is running in your mind. And the lower parts, if planted indigenous medicinal trees, would be of greater benefit. How can you ensure that there is enough food produce, cheaply accessed, nutritious and produced in farms that do little harm to the environment?

It goes on. All with a mind of making your program/project people-owned, using available resources like communities’ own labour and very minimal dependency on external providences (grants). It happens that sometimes an external donor would support the initiation of a project and due to the high cost of maintenance, the community may find it difficult to maintain. 

Mwangi Stephen presents his keynote address, proud of what he is and aspires to be courtesy of CRM background

Take a case of a borehole. The total budget, depending on underground water table, storage tank and connectivity may come to a tune of Ksh. 10million for 100 households. To make it energy efficient, you install solar panels. The connected households if poor, they may not pay the little monthly dues. In case of a fault on the water pipes or the borehole pump, the project may crumble. 

But had the community thought of this and from the now available indigenous medicines being sourced from the valley bottoms bringing in an income, their own customer membership is able to service the borehole and ensure continued supply of water. In the cooperative, all water connected households are encouraged to practice micro, small and medium scale enterprises (SME’s) in their areas of interest and opportunities.

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An admonition is that the process may not be flowing as in the case above. You will sometimes enter the group/project at formative, performing or adjourning stage (breaking). Be quick to realize.

There will be no starter capital to put much in place. People may not be as cooperative as they may agree one day. You will be both encouraged and discouraged in many ways. And you will think to give up, it all being vanity. You will only come back stronger if you can persevere, break mega activities into little achievables, play as a team member and hardly being an ideas (a mere dreamer) person, dropping the “I am a graduate and so I deserve better” attitude and more.

A picture of some of the lead students who worked with the department  to make the day a success. In blue suit is the current Students Rep, Congress person of the school. 

For soon, if you surge on, you will sooner be a resource person, a pride of your people. You visit the health centre, now adjacent to a community borehole, it is a vibrant source of healthy living info. The doctor is in and the indigenous preventive medicines available on the shelves for a manageable cost – only few cases are referred but more clinical days are done there. A census is done and families incomes have increased.