Grace Wangui Kihara

It is with profound sorrow that we announce the passing of Dr. GRACE WANGUI KIHARA, Senior Lecturer, Department of Agricultural Economics, Egerton University, on 2nd November 2026 at Nakuru Level 5 Hospital. Wife to Henry Mwangi Kihara; mother to Brian and Diana; daughter of the late Mzee Kihara of Ol Kalou; sister to Margaret and Joseph; aunt to many. Family and friends meet daily at Milimani, Nakuru, at 5.30 pm. Cortege leaves Nakuru Memorial Chapel on Friday 20th November at 8.00 am for a funeral service at ACK St. Andrew's Church, Njoro, then burial at Ol Kalou. M-Pesa Paybill 502771, Account KIHARA. Rest in peace, Doctor.

Students at Egerton University used to say that Dr. Grace Kihara could find the profit in a bag of potatoes. She spent thirty-seven years in the Department of Agricultural Economics at Njoro, and she taught the same lesson in every lecture: a farmer who keeps records is a farmer who keeps his land.

Grace was born in Ol Kalou in February 1966, the second of six children of a potato farmer and a primary school cook. She walked to Ol Kalou Girls' Primary, won a place at Mary Hill Girls and later studied agricultural economics at the University of Nairobi, graduating top of her class in 1988. A master's at Egerton followed, then a doctorate at Wageningen University in the Netherlands, where she learned to cook stamppot and missed githeri every winter.

She returned to Njoro in 2001 and never left. Her research on smallholder potato and dairy markets in Nyandarua and Nakuru shaped how county extension officers advise farmers on storage and pricing. She supervised more than sixty graduate students, several of whom are now lecturers themselves, and she quietly paid examination fees for those who could not. Every December she hosted her department at her home in Milimani for nyama choma and fierce games of scrabble.

Grace sang alto at ACK St. Andrew's, Njoro, and mentored girls from the nearby schools through a club she founded with two colleagues in 2008. She died at Nakuru Level 5 Hospital on 2 November 2026 after a courageous illness, bearing it with the same calm she brought to every viva.

She leaves her husband Henry, her children Brian and Diana, her sister Margaret and countless students who still hear her say: show me the data.