Umma University

On 30 September 2025, President William Ruto of Kenya officially opened Umma University in Kajiado County, making it the country’s first fully fledged Islamic university.

The President unveiled a commemorative plaque at the entrance to the campus bearing the name “Abdulrahman Al-Sumait Complex” — after the Kuwaiti physician who founded the institution twenty-eight years earlier, and who died twelve years before it opened.

Between those two dates lies the story of an institution that began as a single college in a town north of Nairobi and grew into a university of five faculties and twenty-six academic programmes, with 5,600 graduates.

Beginnings in Thika

The university was founded in 1997 in the town of Thika under the name Thika College for Sharia and Islamic Studies, by the late Kuwaiti physician Abdulrahman Al-Sumait and with the support of the Kuwaiti charity Direct Aid, which he had established.

According to Al Jazeera, the college expanded over the years and in 2007 secured official accreditation for its first programmes. In the same year it entered a partnership with the International University of Africa in Sudan and began awarding bachelor’s degrees. In 2010 its name changed to Umma University.

It was advancing in a setting with no precedent: Muslims make up roughly a third of Kenya’s population, yet the country did not have a single recognised Islamic university.

Recognition, after a long wait

On Tuesday 23 July 2013, in an event those present described as “historic”, Umma University received official recognition from Kenya’s Commission for Higher Education.

The ceremony was held at the Commission’s offices in Nairobi and attended by Education Minister Jacob Kaimenyi, who handed the certificate to the chairman of the board of trustees, Abdulghafur Al-Busaidi.

The dream has come true.

Abdulghafur Al-Busaidi, Chairman of the Board of Trustees, Umma University · 23 July 2013

Ahmed Wali, dean of the faculty of Sharia, said the earlier delay was caused by the absence of any precedent for assessing an Islamic university, which obliged the Commission to bring in an Arab expert. He added that the university would remain under the Commission’s supervision for four years.

The building contract

Construction in Kajiado had in fact begun before his death. On 1 February 2012, Direct Aid signed the contract for the university campus at the Kuwaiti embassy in Nairobi. It was signed by Dr Abdulrahman Saleh Al-Muhailan, then vice-chairman of the society’s board, in the presence of Kuwait’s ambassador to Kenya, Yaqoub Al-Sanad.

The Deputy President opens the first building

Direct Aid opened the new building in Kajiado — 75 kilometres south of Nairobi — under the patronage of William Ruto, then Deputy President, and in the presence of Field Marshal Abdulrahman Swar al-Dahab, former president of Sudan and head of the Islamic Da’wa Organisation. Kenyan television carried the ceremony live, and Maasai children from the orphanage at the Kajiado centre opened it with a traditional performance.

The building housed a library with seating for 500 students and 10,000 books and references in Arabic and English, alongside a digital library available through the university’s portal.

I consider this university my own. As Minister for Higher Education I witnessed its first brick, at the opening of Thika College for Islamic Sharia, and I had the honour of attending the graduation of its first cohort. Today I have the honour of opening the university’s new campus in Kajiado — and I will work to have the charter granted to the university by His Excellency the President.

William Ruto, Deputy President of the Republic of Kenya · 25 September 2014

Abdulkarim Al-Mujaim, Kuwait’s chargé d’affaires in Kenya, called the opening “a luminous historic step in the course of relations between Kenya and the State of Kuwait”, adding that “Dr Al-Sumait carved his name into the history of charitable work across the African continent, from east to west”.

The charter

President Uhuru Kenyatta granted Umma University its charter — the highest level of recognition in the Kenyan system — making it fully recognised by the government.

The ceremony was attended by Kenya’s Education Minister, the chairman of Direct Aid Dr Abdulrahman Al-Muhailan, the chairman of the board of trustees, the chairman of the university council, and Kuwait’s embassy representative Ahmed Al-Bakhit.

The accreditation came so that Umma University would be the first Islamic university with official and final recognition in Kenya — as the society’s founder, Dr Abdulrahman Al-Sumait, may God have mercy on him, had wished and worked for.

Direct Aid statement

The official opening

William Ruto returned to Kajiado, this time as President, eleven years after opening the first building as Deputy President.

The President said his government was working to enable higher-education institutions to “shape a new generation of graduates — skilled, ethical and innovative”, pointing to stronger governance in universities and a restructuring of funding that lowers fees and widens access.

On the same day he laid the foundation stone for the third phase of construction, the faculty of engineering, describing it as a step “important in giving young Kenyans the tools to innovate, build and lead in the industries of tomorrow”.

Graduates in public office

At one of its ceremonies the university graduated 654 students, 265 of them women, in 12 different degrees, before representatives of the Kuwaiti embassy, government officials, university heads and members of the diplomatic corps.

I began my own path with Direct Aid as a graduate trainee, and through my work with the society I saw success follow success — and perhaps this university is the finest of them. I am glad to see 265 women among the graduates, affirming the teachings of Islam on the care and education of women.

Noordin Haji, Director of Public Prosecutions, Kenya — guest of honour at the ceremony

Al Jazeera reported that the university has produced graduates now holding senior positions in the public and private sectors inside Kenya and beyond:

Direct Aid also announced that 13 of 20 judges appointed in a single cohort were graduates of the university.

Umma University is not merely an academic institution. It is a model of contemporary university education that brings together academic excellence, cultural identity and social responsibility.

Dr Abdullah Abdulrahman Al-Sumait, Director General of Direct Aid · 30 September 2025

Twenty-eight years