On March 12, 2018, a ceremony was held at the Kenya presidential palace in farewell to the students to China from the Confucius Institute at Egerton University. China's ambassador to Kenya Liu Xianfa attended the ceremony and delivered a speech. About eighty people were present, including Kenya's President Kenyatta, Education Secretary Aminna, Secretary for agriculture and irrigation Kiwonchuli, the Civil Officer of the Presidential Palace Kinayou and other officials, along with vice chancellor, Chinese and Kenya deans for the Confucius Institute at Egerton University, student representatives.
In the ceremony, President Kenyatta thanked China for the great and long time support to the Kenya education and to the national development. He expressed that China and Kenya, though miles apart, yet the friendship goes back to ancient times, the two countries have become a strategic partner for closer cooperation. In recent years, the Confucius institutes and Chinese universities have become increasingly close to Kenya, and the practical cooperation between the two countries has been fruitful. He told those who are lucky young recipients of the scholarship to uphold ambitious and long dreams, cherish the opportunity, learn professional knowledge seriously and China's successful experience and to make contribution with efforts in boosting agricultural development, promoting the "Four Priorities" and "Vision 2030".
In his speech, Liu Xianfa said that China and Kenya are good friends, good brothers and good partners. China has committed to strengthening exchanges and cooperation with Kenya in agricultural personnel training and technology transfer. Since the Confucius Institute at Egerton University was established in 2012 as the world's first one with agricultural characteristics by the Nanjing Agricultural University in cooperation with Egerton University, more agricultural cooperation mechanism was developed in broader field and in increasingly rich content, especially the establishment of Kenya most advanced molecular plant laboratory in East Africa with China’s help, which has effectively enhanced the level of agricultural science and technology in Kenya. The initiation of the scholarship program is the latest achievements in cooperation between China and Kenya, which will help the Kenya government in implementing the "Four Priorities", cultivate talents in agriculture, promote realization of agricultural modernization at an early time. Ambassador Liu encouraged the young students to study hard and to achieve early success, and to made contributions to the construction of the home country and to the friendship between China and Kenya.
The scholarship program will be managed by the Confucius Institute at Egerton University, aiming at helping the country in training leading agricultural science and technology talents. From 2018 to 2022, 100 Kenyan youth will be selected to study for Master and PhD degree in agriculture for the needs of Kenya, covering areas of food safety, nutrition, food storage, agricultural products value chain management, the use of land resources, water conservancy, animal husbandry, horticulture, and so on. This year, 10 to 15 of students selected by the Kenyan government will travel to Nanjing Agricultural University to study for 3-4 years for a Master's degree and or a doctoral degree.