Prof Calestous Juma Left Indelible Footprints in the COMESA Region

Once in a while, humankind gets blessed with prodigious talents to light the world and dispel darkness. Civilizations and breakthroughs in human history have arisen from such gifted people.

Such was Professor Calestous Juma, who passed away on 15 December 2017, after a battle with cancer, and interred on 6 January 2018 in his home country, Kenya.

His death sent shock waves throughout the world, among political leaders, his peers in the academia, his large community of students as well as followers on social media, and his global family of friends.

Some will remember Calestous as an academic, a scientist, the founding Executive Secretary of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity, or the founder of the African Centre for Technology Studies; but many of us will remember him as a development engineer, who fervently sought solutions to actual social economic problems afflicting humankind.

Professor Calestous Juma was successively named among the 100 most influential Africans and most reputable people in the world.