Audio By Vocalize
Professor Chege Waruingi. [File, Standard]
Few men or women live to be 79 years old and leave big marks on society. Among them was Bernard Chege Waruingi, a big man of body and vision who was proud of his mixed Kikuyu-Maasai blood. In choosing, like other people of prominence, to be cremated instead of being buried, he was probably influenced by his father, Kinyanjui Waruingi, who was cremated at Langata. Friends and relatives, therefore, organised ‘memorial’ rather than funeral services, with the climax being at windy Olepolos.
In life, he had an adventurous and rebellious streak. It manifested itself at Alliance High School, forcing the principal to go looking for him and take him back to class, where he displayed brilliance by winning a trip to England because of writing a good essay. He defied odds and expectations by going to Ohio University, where he acquired degrees in zoology and commerce before going to Indiana for a PhD in marketing.
He returned as a lecturer at the University of Nairobi, where, Kariuki Ngotho remembers, he ensured that Kariuki was elected Dean of the Faculty of Commerce. He later used that political acumen to help his youthful friend, Prof George Saitoti, in politics. The two kept close contact. Besides his involvement in national high politics, Waruingi served as a board member of Magadi Soda and advisor to successful corporate entities. Most importantly, he was well known for education advancement and turning a rocky hill in Kisamis into a popular international meat-eating club.
