Dr Morrison Muleri Currently Resource Management Officer, The World Bank, Washington DC, USA.

Morrison Muleri, 40, the last born boy in a family of 11, remembers vividly the last moments he shared with his father before he died in 1998 aged 80. Having stopped by their home in Lumakanda on his way back to his station in Nairobi from a mission in Soroti, Uganda he found the elder Muleri clearly dying. Yet he repeated what he had told him every so often, “Go back to work, work hard without complaining, be disciplined and do not hurt other people, learn and God will bless you”. Back in Nairobi, Morrison received a call a day later; his father was no more.

The Muleri’s were just an average rural family. Their belief in education was strengthened by an uncle, Wilson Savatia, who as a tutor at Kaimosi Teachers College, was the envy of the whole location. Wilson bought Morrison his first pair of shoes when he came first in class five and his elder brother, Benson, a teacher by profession took up Morrison when their father retired in 1979. Sandwiched between two teachers who pushed and encouraged him along and commuting 20km each way on foot to and from Kiragilu Primary School every week, Morrison never looked back.

The record he set at CPE is unbroken at Kiragilu where he returned in 2007 and constructed a permanent staff room. He went on to earn a first division at Kakamega High School, 17/20 points at Kabarak High School and an honors B.Com degree in accounting at the University of Nairobi. Following his father’s last counsel, he obtained an MBA at the University of Nairobi, completed ACCA at Strathmore College to become a chartered certified accountant, obtained a professional certificate at Harvard University in USA in public financial management and a PhD at Sheffield Hallam University in the UK.

Morrison looks back at his career with appreciation. Having worked as an audit assistant and an accountant with Coca Cola, he decided in 1993 to focus his career on the development sector. He devoted eight years to a Regional Dutch consultancy firm where he rose to be the deputy director. He joined Oxfam GB in 1998 as the regional finance coordinator for the Horn, East and Central Africa Region and was promoted in 2002 to the headquarters in Oxford and assigned to work as the Regions Financial Adviser to East Asia, South Asia and Southern Africa. Morrison left Oxfam in 2004 to join the Commonwealth Secretariat in Westminster, London where he worked until 2006. He is currently a Resource Management Officer at the World Bank in Washington DC. He lives in Maryland with his wife, Mellisah Mangoli, and their children.

Reflecting on his life, Morrison remarks that it has taken him five things to succeed: hard work, discipline, focus, open mind and luck. Neither has he ever forgotten where he came from. He has helped build and equip schools and churches, educated relatives and delivered motivational speeches. His work has taken him to 30 different countries and he sees all human beings as essentially the same.

He lists his mentors as his parents, Herman and Rebecca Muleri; his brother Benson and cousins Maj. Mulehi and Prof. Lusigi. Those who shaped his adult life include the late Prof. Peter Gufwoli, Dr. Ruud Bos, Prof. Kinandu Muragu, Prof. Gareth Morgan and Rt. Hon. Don MacKinnon. He is inspired by Nelson Mandela, Bill Clinton, Tony Blair and Barack Obama.

At work: Muleri at his office at the World Bank in Washington DC in August 2008

Being congratulated by the Chancellor of Sheffield Hallam University on graduation day