By Ben Leshau
Maasai Mara University’s School of Science is set to manufacture herbal medicine capsule and tablets from after it received high-tech chemistry equipment worth Sh15 million from a Chinese University.
The 43 sets of equipment will be used by the Science students in medical research on herbal medicine which is are common source of medicine among the native Maasai community.
The varsity’s Vice Chancellor, Prof. Mary Walingo said the equipment was part of the university’s Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signe with University of Chinese Academy of Sciences (UCAS).
“In 2015, we entered into partnership with the Chinese institution and we are now seeing some of the fruits of the partnership. We want to be a first class university and we can only achieve that through acquisition of such state-of-the art equipment,” stated Prof.Walingo.
The VC said the shipment of the equipment was given 100 percent tax waiver by the Government as a way of promoting higher education.
The equipment also comes as a boost to the recently-launched multi-million botanical garden where herbal plants will be grown for research purposes.
Prof. Nathan Oyaro from the Department of Sciences at the university hailed the delivery of the equipment, terming it as a milestone in medical research.
He said the Maasai Mara University botanical garden is divided into 12 gardens where a collection of different species of herbal plants are being grown.
“These equipment will ensure that we take our Chemistry, Sciences to practical levels away from the usual theoretical. We will use this equipment to teach them how to make medicine as we have been lagging behind as a country in the sector,” Prof Oyaro observed.
