Daystar University

Daystar is a Christian liberal arts university in Nairobi, Kenya.

Daystar's original campus is close to Nairobi city centre, but there was no room to expand at that location. Therefore, in the last decade a new campus has been built at Athi River, some 40 km to the south-east of the city, on the Mombasa Road which became the main campus. This development has been largely as a result of work of the vice chancellor of Daystar, Professor S. Talitwala.

In 1967, Dr. Donald K. Smith, an American missionary, and Motsoko Pheko, an African journalist, founded Daystar Communications. Daystar sought to improve techniques used in communicating the message of Christ, to analyze the target audience of these messages, and to design more effective communication strategies for reaching such audiences.

Daystar began short-term training programs in 1971 to assist church leaders in developing cross-cultural communication strategies. It now has an enrollment over more than 4,400 students in 15 undergraduate majors, 7 masters programs, and 2 PhD. programs.

The university continues to produce graduates who are serving in various capacities in Africa.

Daystar University prides itself in training broad-minded critically thinking graduates. It has five schools and thirteen academic departments which include

School of Communication

School of Arts and Humanities

School of Science, Engineering and Health

School of Human and Social Sciences

School of Business and Economics

The Department of Language and Performing Arts, sometimes referred to as LPA Department, is the department in Daystar University that houses degree programs and classes in Music and in the literature and languages of Kiswahili, French and English.It is a member department of Daystar University's School of Communication, Language and Performing Arts.

The department was hived off the former department of Humanities in August 2010. Members of the full-time faculty are Ann Wachira, Bill Rowe, Brenda Wambua, Caroline Rugendo, Kithinji Kindiki, Larry Ndivo, Mike Kuria, Purity Kiambi, Rebecca Oladipo and Regina Gachari. Its head of department is Wandia Njoya.

At its creation in 2010, the department was challenged by low student interest and misleading information about the potential of the creative arts. The challenges included attacks on the arts as irrelevant to the Kenyan context, and students receiving advice not to take programs offered by the department. These attacks were in line with the larger Kenyan education philosophy that sees the purpose of school as solely to prepare people for employment.

The department thus embarked on an aggressive campaign to increase its visibility in the university and to persuade students to enroll in its classes as electives, minors and majors. The department's strategy included

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