Seronei arap Chelulei Cheison (a member of the Kaap Matelong family of the Nandi of Kenya) is an ambitious food scientist with very specific focus and accumulated experience in the dairy chemistry/ food enzymology and protein/peptide chemistry. He has a vision to extend nutritional interventions to alleviate disease conditions that are a problem to human consumer health. A believer in the “thy food is thy medicine” school of thought, he is making his humble contribution to the food/ nutrition sciences. The knowledge base in the dairy/food sciences was built over the time he studied Dairy Science and Technology at Egerton University after stubbornly refusing the nagging of his headmaster at Kapsabet Boys High School, John Peter Makenzi, who wanted him to study law. After a brief but disappointing stint in business and a traumatic and chaotic time in political and Nandi land rights activism, Cheison rediscovered self in academia, and has since not looked back. Once he decided, he swept aside all pretences to politics and focused on academics, obtaining his PhD from P. R. China's premier food school, Southern Yangtze (since renamed Jiangnan) University in Wuxi, Jiangsu Province. He went on to confound both friend and foe by obtaining the doctorate degree in very trying circumstances, away from his young family, which was to be a blessing later. He is currently focussed on bioactive peptide production from dairy proteins (especially whey proteins) using enzymatic membrane reactors. In addition, he focuses on downstream chromatographic separation and animal tests as well as addressing the problem of protein allergy and the use of enzyme hydrolysis to eliminate allergenic epitopes. He is currently exploring ways to use bioactive peptides as interventions to reduce and/or eliminate digestive disorders like chronic inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) in the human gastro-intestinal tract (GIT). A firm believer in the rewarding potential of education, Cheison believes that one of the surest ways to deal with poverty is to invest and struggle to attain education. When he says "Poverty teaches us our clear options for life, and they are very few", he knows for sure that the options are very limited indeed. One either works hard or works hard, he advices. Nothing proves this more than his own life experiences!
Early life
He was born nearly 2PM on Tue 20 Feb 1968, the third child to the late Joseph Kiptarus arap Songok and Julia Jeptarus. He has six siblings, three brothers (David Kipkemboi arap Tarus, Daniel Kimutai arap Rambaei and Michael Kipketer arap Rotich) and three sisters (Sally Cherobon Butia, Philister Cherotich and Catherine Chesang). When he was a toddler, he survived a scare when he was scalded in his feet after dipping his feet into some boiling water. He was to recover from the extensive burns which led to total lose of the skin on the left foot. But he lived through it, probably a mark of every Matelong family to which he belongs and which is haunted by scalds. At only five years old, he was chosen by his Spartan maternal grandmother, Opot Tera, consequently being separated from his parents and siblings and emigrated to Mogobich Village of Uasin Gishu District at that tender age. In the new sparsely populated abode, the hopped from home to home living in granaries as they put up their own house. The grinding poverty in the area left his grandmother with no option but to go harvesting leftovers from burnt maize and wheat fields some ten kilometres away. Sometimes, the gathering was too burnt out to make ugali (maize gruel popularly eaten in Kenya), the Chelalatiinik were converted to either porridge or some local brew. Meanwhile, he was employed as a herds-boy so that they could get cream and a quarter litre of milk a day for the better part of his childhood. All the while, his age-mates and the children of the families for which he was herding cattle were going to school. Meanwhile, during his herding labour he learnt the alphabet from his uncle, Jackson Kipkios arap Tuwei (Kokoin). It was not until the ripe age of ten years that he started school at Chemenei Primary School. By this time, he could read and write, indeed he could write the names of all the cows he was tending (among the Nandi, in fact the Kalenjin, cows have names much like people do).
Even after starting his primary education, the going was not always smooth because only in the second year in primary school, his parents summoned him to go back home to Cheptabach, Nandi Hills immediately after the birth of their last-born sister, Catherine Jesang. Although he was brilliant in class at the local Koisagat Primary School, the conventional thinking in the local primary school in the tea estates was that no child from among the Nandi squatters was brilliant enough to top any class. He was soon to discover that the sum for his marks was always manipulated to rank him lower than he should have been! He watched as his classmates were awarded exercise books and pencils for 'coming top' of his class. This raised the realisation in his mind that in that school he had no future, he didn't belong here. He had to go back to his grandmother’s place in Uasin Gishu. He made up his mind that this was not his place. He decided to run away on foot, from Nandi Hills back to his grandmother's place at Mogobich, Uasin Gishu!
Deciding on how to go was not easy, but he had once asked his uncle direction to the grandmother’s place. Unknown to his uncle, he had pointed North, saying that the place was beyond the Ol’Lessos hill. That was enough. One morning in April 1980, the young boy set out on foot, crossed the family farm and disappeared into the tea estates. At the age of twelve, he estimated that if he followed the road, his parents and elder brothers David and Daniel could catch up with him. He decided to negotiate a shortcut, climbing the elevation from Kapchorua Tea Estate to Sirwa and on to Kibabet Tea Estate, his basic requirements of a blanket and a handful of clothes and books clutched in hand. At Kibabet, a sympathetic tea plucker asked who he was, where he was going and why he didn’t have a bag. He thought everybody knew his father, a tea estate supervisor. After much discussion, the sympathiser gave him his polythene apron to wrap the hand held belongings. Cheison asked again where Ol’Lessos was, and the Good Samaritan motioned further North, “that hill over there”, he said. The young lad trudged on.
After an afternoon’s walk through the wilderness he ended up at Mogoon, near Ol’Lessos where he found yet another Good Samaritan who offered him food. With no money except a fifty cents coin which had been given by a tribal Turkana woman who knew the young boy when he met her on his way to Koisagat Tea Estate, he was drained and exhausted. After a short probe at the host family, Kap Malel of Ogirgir near Mogoon in Nandi, they discovered that some distant relatives of his lived not very far from there. They were introduced to him, and they gave him shelter for the coming three months. All the while, as he had anticipated, his elder brother and a neighbour had tried to follow him but they followed the road, and lost track of him returning home to his worried parents empty handed. At Kap Kulio, a step-son of his mother (Nandi relationships have no equivalents in English terms) who lived at Mogoon, he was to go through a trying moment as a tea plucker, herdsboy (again!) and a charcoal burner. All these were done in the hope of raising enough money to buy school uniforms (in Kenya school children wear school uniforms) so as to realise the burning desire to complete his education. Life at Mogoon was an eye-opener. As a tea plucker at the Kulio tea farm, he was not paid and going back to school at Mogoon was never to be. Every little saving that came was siphoned off and by July of 1980 when his grandmother caught up and picked him up he had no savings.
Undeterred, when he arrived in Uasin Gishu, his uncle's newly-married wife, Rosaline, helped him burn charcoal from the huge wattle trees that were falling due to the windy conditions those days. But he had lost one year in the self-exile period. Working hard with the help of Rosaline, he decided to make charcoal which was selling at KShs 15/= a bag, he saved enough money to buy uniforms for himself and go back to class four in 1981. Thus, Cheison attended Chemenei Basic School, in Uasin Gishu between 1977-1978 and 1981-1985 with the time in-between spent at Koisagat Primary School in Nandi Hills.
No reading lamp
Determined to excel at Chemenei Primary School, Cheison decided to innovate for lighting in order to read and revise his work at home after school. The distance between school and home, a five km (ten kilomeres round trip) road race was draining and challenging for the bare-foot youngster. However, having failed to raise enough money to buy paraffin for the reading lamp, he decided to use old tractor tyres! Yes, old car and tractor tyres borrowed from neighbours were shaped into narrow strips. In spite of the explosions and the smoky nature of the tyre-lamps which made the exercise books dirty, he was determined to realise his father's final wish of going to "Kenyatta University and getting six degrees, twice as many as Jean-Marie Seroney (then a revered leader of the Nandi)". The effort was recognised by his English language teacher, Benjamin Kipngetich Kosgey, who decided to buy him diesel for the reading lamp. The result was a sterling performance during the primary school exam. That was to be the last thing he heard from his proud father. His father, Joseph Kiptarus arap Songok, fondly called Leeldet, was brutally murdered just two weeks to the commencement of his class eight examinations (final primary school exam in Kenya) but that did not stop the ambitious boy who overcame the loss to excel in his KCPE and went on to secure an admission to Lenana School, Nairobi. As fate would have it, he would never set foot at Lenana School until 20 years later, when he visited a student, because of intrigue and complications which nevertheless consigned him to the prestigious Kapsabet Boys High School where he was to make a lasting impact. Having lost his father a fortnight to the exam, his paternal uncles sold his chance at the Lenana School to a politician in his native home district of Nandi. One thing overwhelmed Cheison from youth. He thought he could suffer for a while in order to secure his and his future family's life forever.
Secondary school education at Kapsabet Boys High School
At Kapsabet Boys High School, his academic performance began with a stint outside the top ten bracket in first term, was in the top ten in the second term and finally came second best in the third term. From form two onwards, he emerged top in his class and in the combined streams of over 125 students in spite of lack of school fees while his mother brewed chang'aa to educate him and his other siblings. In recognition of his good public speaking and academic aptitude, he was chosen together with his bosom friend and class prefect, Aspenus Kisorio arap Togom, while in form two to represent Kapsabet High School in a Lion’s Club of Nakuru-funded student exchange programme, which took him for a month to Njoro Boys High School in Nakuru. This was taken seriously by the young Cheison and he adequately represented his school as the ‘face of Kapsabet High School’.
Cheison was an exceptional student at Kapsabet High School. In from two, he was appointed a dining hall prefect, taking lead of the most sensitive department in the school. He remembers when he used to say to himself ‘if my class performance drops, other student will think I ate mooriot (or the hard crust formed at the bottom of the cooking container, sufuria, during preparation of ugali). Not a bookworm, he was active in such events as debates and sports cheer-leading, which was to earn him the nick-name 'Ileet' - lightning. He was talented in class and took to challenges, such as when his biology teacher found him explaining to the class the whole blood circulation system. One day during a visit by medical students to Kapsabet Boys High, one medical student (currently a senior medical administrator) from the University of Nairobi was to make the greatest mistake when he told an audience in answer to one of Cheison's questions that when one reported to the medical school the lockers had skeletons and the wardrobe was inhabited by a human cadaver. For a man who had only seen his dead father a couple of years earlier, nothing could be worse! Not many believed when he said he wasn't going to study medicine. He enjoyed his school time in spite of the poverty back home and he remembers a moment in high school, indeed, when one of the students from Central Kenya, and a fellow prefect, confessed that he had been told by his parents that he would never find any challenge in class because the local boys were thunderheads. The gentleman had found, to his disappointment that he had to contend with Cheison coming top of the combined streams at Kapsabet.
Cheison’s leadership, creativity and organisational ability was to come out clearly when, out of the blues, he proposed to his classmates that they should hold a literature conference to discuss the set books of that year Chinua Achebe’s “Things Fall Apart” and Francis Imbuga’s “Betrayal in the City”. Using his good relationship with the literature techer, he formed a committee from his classmates, wrote out invitations to as far-off schools as Kericho High School and Kipsigis Girls who were excited to participate. His articulate and well-thought out synopsis of Jere is still remembered. The conference was a tremendous success and a similar one was held at Kipsigis girls shortly thereafter to discuss the Kiswahili set books. It was during this time that the name Barnabas was dropped from his list deciding instead to adopt his traditional names whose meaning he understood (refer to the EastAfrican Standard of 31 Jul 2006). This was inspired by 'Africanisation of our names', the agenda discussed in "Betrayal in the City". The literature and Swahili congress events are now permanent fixtures of those school calendars, and probably few of the participants know the origin! Another rare first was when Cheison wrote and recited a Nandi vernacular ‘poem’ entitled “Anyoone” which translates loosely to “I’m coming”, ending with his favourite 'akwaai let Kap Maasia', which sent his headteacher into a roarous laughter.
In the third form, Cheison was appointed a house captain of Solai house, which was to emerge the top academic house until and long after he left Kapsabet Boys High School. It is also remembered that he was a regular speaker on the school assembly impromptu speech-teasers which were promoted by Mr. Makenzi. In addition, Cheison edited and wrote editorials for the school magazine. Some of his thought-provoking writings graced the school noticeboard for a long time even after he left Kapsabet High. Despite lack of school fees, Cheison was allowed by the pragmatic John Peter Makenzi (a 2007 election parliamentary candidate for the Kangundo constituency seat) to go through Kapsabet High with a fee balance of over KShs. 10, 000/= which he was to clear 12 years later on 5 Feb 2001 in order to obtain his KCSE certificate to enable him go to China.
Education at Egerton University
Having sat his KCSE in 1989, Cheison was again haunted by jealousy when a local primary school headteacher hid the admission letter to Egerton University, Njoro and it was only God who let him go to Egerton some one month after everybody else had reported! It was while in Nairobi to see off his brother Dan who was going to India that he decided to go through the Ministry of Education to check where he had been admitted that he discovered that he was an Egerton University student. He asked when the reporting date was and he was shocked to realise that his college had started accepting new students two weeks earlier. In fact the letters had been sent out to prospective students well over a month earlier but he hadn’t received his! After going home to ask if the letter had arrived and going to Egerton to collect a replacement, he reported for the new course of Dairy Science and Technology.
Cheison was to go through his university education under very traumatising circumstances because just when he was joining, the education system was undergoing changes which included introduction of fees. He remembers a bad experience when he went to see a former Dean of the Faculty of Agriculture who asked Cheison to his face how many children and wives and he (Cheison) had. He was shocked that he looked old enough to be a father! In spite of his own financial difficulties, he took it upon himself to help student members of the Nandi District Egerton University Students Association (NDEUSA), of which he was a chairman. He helped two male students get money from politicians, and was disappointed but not dissuaded when one of the beneficiaries decided to quit college even after securing funding. At Egerton, Cheison was a peer counsellor and was always in the thick of trouble-shooting about students’ bereavement and broken relationships. These challenges trained him to cope with his own deficiencies while the honorarium became a God-sent stipend to supplement his meagre education loan.
Life after Egerton
The time after graduating from Egerton was characterised by a temporary dabble in evangelism, politics and business at his Sinonin Limited. The political activist had risen to champion the squatter land rights through a series of eloquent write-ups in the leading Kenyan print media. Having accumulated some clout of his own while advocating Nandi land rights and compensation by the white settlers for the lush white highlands (as if there are black highlands!), he was asked to contest the Tindiret parliamentary seat in 1997, which request he turned down. He always believed that politics to a poor man was like going to the grave alive. Nonetheless, Cheison was to look for a candidate to oppose the incumbent, Kosgey. This experience took him from one political camp to another. The new people who were interested in the seat needed his machinery, intelligence and organisational not least public speaking skills and acumen as well as mastery of Nandi culture and language. Little did he know that the cartel that was shielding Kosgey from the electorate was fast forming around the young contestants. His honesty and sincerity gave him away when it soon emerged that the people he was supporting were suspicious of him turning to contest the seat against them later on in spite of countless assurances that he was focused on his desire to realise his deceased father’s death wish. No amount of talk convinced the erstwhile political minions. He was soon to discover the dirty side of politics and it was not long before he made amends with Kosgey with the now famous pronouncement 'Mur Kimageet kesilei' and helped him trounce the opponents in a sensational contest between the master and the students. He mesmerised every audience with his agility, skill with language and wealth in proverbs and history and infantile honesty and straightf talk. He had made a name and an impact and it was time to move on. Cheison always believed that his place was in academia. After several attempts to leave the country for further studies, a chance happened in China. It was de ja vu! The journey to a postgraduate programme had been long and chequered. But with every challenge came a rock-solid determination to achieve his father's last wish to 'read more than Jean-Marie Seroney'.
Nandi land rights and education activism
From the day he assumed the chairmanship of Nandi Egerton University Students Association, Cheison ran a series of well thought-out and incisive write-ups in Kenya's leading print media on the need for the British settlers to compensate the Nandi squatters who lost land at the beginning of the last century. Raising the awareness of the Nandi community on their right to improved health, education and access roads to be provided by the Tea companies, Cheison managed single-handedly to draw attention to the squalor or the squators (refer to Kenya Times of 1. Sat 31 Dec 1994 page 7, "Compensate People who lost Land" and 2. Tuesday 2 Jan 1996 Page 7, "Give Locals Chance to buy Farms", 3. The Weekly Review 23 Sep 1994 Page 2 "Nandi Squatters"). The same piece was published by Kenneth Matiba's The People under the banner "Compensate Nandis who were robbed of Land" He argued for 'a secondary school per tea estate', provision of free health care to the squatters for each tea estate to its squatters and establishment of a scholarhip scheme to help educate the children of the squatters. On employment, Cheison argued that the senior management jobs should be given to the sons and daughters of the natives who had enough education, notwithstanding the circumstances under which that education was obtained.
On education, he was to lead the Egerton University students from Nandi in gathering and donating books to a number of secondary schools in Nandi. Under the auspices of an ambitious project named Jean-Marie Education Award, the university students were to provide career counselling and award certificates to the most improved students (The East African Standard, Mon 21 Mar 1994, "Students donate books"). Alongside this, Cheison wrote extensively on the need for the British to compensate the Nandi for the killing of the Orkoiyot. Writing in the Daily Nation on the murder of the Nandi Orkoiyot in 1905 (The Daily Nation, Thur 27 Apr 1995 Page 7, "Britain should compensate Nandis", see alsoThe Kenya Times of 24 Jun 1995, "Nandis Should be Compensated"), Cheison proposed a candid way of helping redress the holocaust. He argued that the British should establish and build landmarks at Kapngetuny (present-day Nandi Hills). He proposed that: "a monumental complex to house a cultural centre be built and called Koitalel Samoei Cultural Centre and Memorial Library which should include a modern theatre and a resort facility". He went on "Then our cultural artefacts in Britain could be housed here for future generations to appreciate their worth and value". This prophecy was to be realised nearly a decade later! Only last month, Kenya's East African Standard carried a story detailing the construction of a monument and cultural centre which is poised to be a reservoir of Nandi culture. He is happy that the campaign is yielding fruit and his argument for the tea estates to be sold to the locals is being realised in his lifetime. On corruption, he wrote that the government should introduce a way of 'auditing' the police booking logbooks in order to eliminate the 'tearing up of charge sheets' (East African Standard of 8 Jan 1996, "How to End TKK Racket", see also Kenya Times of Thur 4 Jan 1996, "How to end bribery at police road blocks").
Drawing attention to the internacine infighting of leaders in his native Nandi, he called for leaders to sober up and address the problems of the local community such as land distribution, poverty eradication and educational standards (Kenya Times Sat 3 Feb 1996 Page 7, "Nandi Problems need a Solution" see also The Weekly Review, 20 May 1994 page 2, "Nandi Politics"). Further still, he was not afraid to point a firm finger at the troublemakers (Daily Nation, Mon 9 May 1994, "Too is dividing Nandis-Leaders"). He has argued that a land that does not recognise and lionise its heroes will itself be forgotten. He argued for the naming of streets and institutions after the late Jean-Marie Seroney. He even went ahead and sponsored a volleyball trounament "The Jean-Marie Seroney Volleyball Tournament" in order to keep the Nandi hero and independence advocate alive. Cheison continues to pen very incisive pieces for his native homeland's news analysis magazine, The Kalenjin Monitor for which he writes his must-read 'Letter from Munich'. He now wishes to devote most of his time to research and hopes to one day win a major innovation award in science.
On Society
On society, Cheison wrote and argued for the introduction of sex education in schools in a headline letter to the editor published by the Daily Nation. This thought was informed by the training he had obtained as a peer counsellor at Egerton University. Some of the most memorable moments are when he dismissed Njehu Gatabaki, then publishing The Finance, in which he argued that the Kalenjiin were herdsmen with and alleged allergy for education. A rebuttal was published soon thereafter entitled "Why Gatabaki is wrong" authored by Tony Kirwa and Seronei Cheison. Njehu Gatabaki responded in his usual derision by private mail but when he met a march in the altercation to publish their letter refuting his acerbic allegations, an obviously deflated Gatabaki wrote back deriding the budding Kalenjin nationalists.
Education is Gold
Postgraduate education in China
Cheison enrolled at China's Southern Yangtze University (which was changing name from Wuxi University of Light Industry). Getting a clear idea about his research enabled him to settle for the thesis topic in the first month after going to China. It was no wonder that he attained the minimum requirements to receive a Master of Science degree in the shortest period ever studied in China (18 months) in a country where a postgraduate degree takes an average of three years. His thesis was on peptides from milk that lower blood pressure by inhibiting an enzyme involved in the ‘disease’. His complete Maters degree thesis may be accessed here. Going back to Kenya in 2003 to get a part-time appointment as a lecturer in Dairy Technology at Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology, and finally as a tutorial fellow at Maseno University, Cheison was soon to find himself in the characteristic Kenyan scenario of lecturers going on strike. However, completing his MSc (Food Science) in an unprecedented 18 months instead of the requisite 36 months (3 years) soon became a blessing when Cheison was recalled to take up the Outstanding Foreign Student Scholarship for his PhD studies beginning March 2004. He was to make history once again by completing his doctorate (summa cum laude) in a record 2.5 years in a country that takes an average of 3.5 to four years. This was not without another record. Attaining a PhD in China was as traumatising as it was dramatic. During his PhD studies, Cheison published eight scientific papers in revered international peer reviewed journals. Those papers attest to his industry, innovativeness and perseverance. Working in a novel area in mainland China involving application of membrane technology modelled into an enzyme reactor, his work was to earn acclaim when he was declared the winner of the University President’s award for the exemplary work. His complete PhD dissertation may be accessed here.
The result of the effort was a prestigious appointment as a Group leader of a Junior Research Group (a post-doctoral research appointment) at the elite Technical University of Munich, Germany. His research focus is production and application of bioactive peptides in novel nutritional interventions which puts his work strategically at the inter-phase between nutrition and medicine. Arriving at this point is a dream come true.
The story of the Cheisons is never complete without mention of the family's other defiant heroine. Ms Cherotich Cheison's story is told with pride and joy. Married for ten years and divorced two kids later, Dr Cheison's young sister decided at the ripe age of 28 to go back to primary school. She was to shock the doubting Thomases when she emerged top in her primary school exam, joined Moi Girls High School in Eldoret and went on to score an impressive B+. Ms Cheison is currently pursuing a Bachelor of Veterinary Medicine course at the University of Nairobi while her son is taking his final year exam in 2007 at Chemartin Primary School. You can read Ms Cheison's story, carried in the Daily nation of 09 Mar 2005, here.
A dedicated Christian, poet (see his poems at www.poetry.com), motivator and powerful orator as well as a committed family man, Dr. Cheison aspires to provide inspiration to his Matelong Family and the Nandi community in various aspects, especially by providing leadership in education. Not a man to bury his head in the sand, avoid thorny issues or keep what he believes can be of help to others, he publishes his unflattering political commentaries in his frank and stinging blog. He believes that poverty can be overcome by hard work and focussed effort and that nobody need wallow in poverty because our land is blessed. He is an ardent disciple of Ben Carson’s ideology that “Education is the only equaliser”, the only thing that brings a poor man to the same level with a rich man. Cheison speaks Nandi, Swahili, English, Chinese and a little German. In addition he can communicate in Dholuo and Gikuyu languages, spoken in his native Kenya. He has a long-term ambition to write books in his native Nandi language. For the former herdsboy, charcoal burner and factory labourer, the journey has been long and trying but the academic sky is the limit. For someone whose first pair of shoes was the shoes shoes he was bought on joining form one, he says he is not ashamed of his background. Being born to a poor family was not an irrepairable curse. He believes that people ought to learn from their present circumstances and decide whether to whine till death or sharpen their resilience and perserverence and change their destiny. Undeterred by his deficiencies, he has decided to take lessons from big schools: men and women who became stronger by struggling and he advises people not to 'pray for challenges equivalent to their abilities but to pray for energies that measure up to their challenges'. He walks tall because he knows he can make some things happen in his lifetime. What he can't change, others will certainly manage to change. Incidentally, he is almost grateful to God for being born to a very poor family, but he says he set his frame of mind to believe he is not poor! Talk of the power of the mind, and he is one such unapologetic disciple. He is happily married to Ednah (nee Ednah Soy) and the couple are blessed with Kiptoo, Cherop and Kipchumba.
Current Research
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Peer Reviewer
Dr. Cheison serves as an ad-hoc peer reviewer to: