The Kenyan Ambassador to the United Nations, Erastus Ekitela Lokaale, visited SUNY Oswego in December to explore opportunities for the university and his country to develop research and educational connections.

During the visit, Lokaale spoke with SUNY Oswego President Peter O. Nwosu administrators and faculty members about a range of opportunities, attended the “Primate Diversity and Conservation” class taught by his longtime connection Patricia Princehouse of the anthropology faculty and generally learned more about SUNY Oswego.

“We hope to host some of your students in Kenya so that they can see the work that's happening there, and also get some of the Kenyan students to come over and interact with our counterparts here,” Lokaale said. “They would get to learn from one another.”

Lokaale and Princehouse first connected through Princehouse’s work as a paleoanthropologist with a fossil site in Turkana County in Northwest Kenya.

This location is “perhaps the most important area in the world for discovering fossils of human ancestors,” Princehouse explained. In addition to this key research, Lokaale has been impressed by Princehouse’s willingness to improve the lives of those near the dig site and the development of programs with Turkana University College.

“She started a master's program in one of the university colleges in Kenya and which has produced some very good students, some of them have gone on to do that Ph.D. in Harvard and the rest of them to top schools in the U.S.,” Lokaale said of Princehouse.

That led to an interest in reaching out to learn and collaborate more when Lokaale took the UN post in New York City. “She invited me to come to Oswego,” Lokaale said. “And so I'm here, I want to learn about the university programs that you have, areas where Kenyan students are able to come and learn.”

Lokaale created a very positive impression with those he met.

“We are so honored that Ambassador Lokaale dedicated so much time to learn about our university and discuss increased partnerships with Kenyan institutions, research and students,” President Nwosu said. “We look forward to more conversations and opportunities that will benefit everyone, especially our current and future students. We will learn a lot from each other.”

Interviewed in the middle of his itinerary, Lokaale already saw a lot of parallels in terms of the warmth of the people and commitment to sustainability.

“I love your beautiful campus,” Lokaale said. “I've met a lot of fantastic people. We mirror a lot of what you're doing here. I've seen the sustainability program at Oswego which is underway that speaks to what we are trying to achieve in Africa in moving to renewable energy.” 

In Kenya, 93 percent of the national grid runs on renewable energy.

“It's at the heart of what we do, all the things that we try to do, the sustainable use of resources, whether you're talking about land, natural resources and sustainable use of energy,” he said.

Efforts with the UN and other partners to promote peace and improve lives – including investing in the futures of women and children –- dovetail with these goals.

“When you have conflicts all over, it undermines the ability of countries or the global community to achieve goals,” Lokaale said. “So we have to work to bring peace when there is conflict, and we have to make sure we build the capacity of young people.”

Journey to public service

Lokaale attended the University of Nairobi for his law degree and after passing his law school exams, became an advocate, or barrister, practicing corporate law on the High Court of Kenya.

“There's a requirement by the Law Society that you have to do some pro-bono work, take up cases for people who cannot afford to hire a lawyer,” Lokaale recalled. “So I took up some of those, initially as a requirement for me to get my license renewed. But the more I took up those cases, I found that more interesting than the corporate law I was practicing. So I found myself moving away from corporate law practice into more public interest, litigation cases and working with communities.”

He then pursued his master’s degree in international development law and human rights from the University of Warwick in the United Kingdom, knowing his interest was now in public service and the public sector. 

Lokaale’s first posting was in the neighboring country of Somalia, working for a British nongovernmental organization as a human rights officer, particularly for women and children, around a time of conflict. He subsequently joined the United Nations Development Program, working on programs in human rights, governance, civic education and supporting community groups.

Lokaale then had a homecoming of sorts, working as Speaker of the County Assembly of Turkana (counties in Kenya, Princehouse explained, are more like our equivalent of states). He takes great pride in being a member of the Turkana ethnic group and representing their values.

“The Turkana people are nomadic pastoralists,” Lokaale explained. “They occupy the most western part of Kenya, a region that borders Ethiopia, South Sudan and Uganda mainly. Over time, they have gone on to evolve in other activities. However, unlike many other cultural groups, they have retained the cultural practices.”

This background, coming from a community that often exists in the margins of national life and that has faced difficulties, further informs his dedication. 

After an ongoing focus on climate change, governance and human rights, followed by heading the Presidential Secretariat on the South Sudan Peace Process, he was appointed to his UN post in August 2024.

The experience of working with 192 other states and nations has been rewarding, including “just walking up and down the corridors of the UN, interacting with the other ambassadors, talking about the global issues that are happening, whether they are conflicts in the Middle East, in Africa, in Russia and Ukraine, but also more positive developments,” he said. “As an ambassador also representing my country, it's part of my work to be a connection between the Kenyan people and the people of the host country and in his case, the United States.”

Educational opportunities

Princehouse’s work in one of the world’s most important fossil sites will present great opportunities for students from Oswego and the rest of the world, he said.

“As I speak here, representing Kenya, I'm also very proud to be from that kind of community, which prides itself as being the origin of humankind until it is proven otherwise,” Lokaale explained. “I think science up to now shows that all of us originally traced our origin to Turkana. It's a good opportunity to invite you and the students and the community to come and visit and see where all of us came from originally. You might just bump into some of your relatives over there.”

The desire among Kenya’s overwhelmingly young population to learn has resulted in increased interest in higher education. According to a recent Open Doors report from the Institute for International Education, Kenya is the fastest-growing African country for F1 student visas, increasing 52.4 percent in just a year. 

“Within our region, we call ourselves the Silicon Savannah, the headquarters of technology in Africa,” Lokaale said. “And that has come as a result of kids who are able to go out to some of the best universities, including those in New York state, and then come back home with  the skills that they've learned.”

His time getting to learn more about SUNY Oswego increasingly convinced him that it represented an excellent destination for Kenyan students.

“What is remarkable about Oswego is you put students at the center of everything that you do,” Lokaale noted. “So there's always talk about improving the student experience and investing in facilities to make learning interesting for the students. Everybody wants to do more for the students, which is why I'm keen on this kind of exchange program, because I see a lot of good and positive things that we can learn from one another.”