10,789 steps. Or just about 7.2 kilometres. Those are the steps it will take you to know Prof Peter Gatiti, the associate vice-provost and university librarian at Aga Khan University, overseeing 12 libraries at the institution’s global network dispersed in six countries.
He is also the chairperson of the Kenya Libraries Association (KLA) with research interests including information sciences, systemic reviews, evidence-based practice, bibliometric analysis and knowledge management (no offence taken if I lost you at systemic…but can I have you back now?)
While sipping tea from a memento engraved hot flask, Prof Gatiti says education quenched his dreams, as if there was something different in the water at Mount Kenya, where he grew up.
We are walking at the Karura Forest, the air cold and dry—so dry you could kindle a forest fire if you rubbed your hands together furiously.
But the air is also resplendent with academia and a menagerie of aphorisms and pearls of wisdom and winding tales in winding trails buttressed by years of 'eating books’—but Prof is not just top heavy.
He will have you know that he plays table tennis. Let’s take that again. He plays table tennis, strikingly fast. He also has a hand in tennis. For Prof—a champion chess player in his heyday—success is about the long game, not the quick hits. Later we have breakfast at Karura’s River Café, where he recounts his journey from Kerugoya Boys High School to rubbing shoulders with the who’s who of Harvard University, this glitterati of knowledge, playing his hand about as subtly as a poker player grinning, boasting about their full house and chucking all their chips onto the table.
A man in his own class. Fold your hands. The professor is in town, a walking Athenaeum as a totem of the contemporary world.
Why walking?
This trend started after chess championships, which I went up to the national level. I was coaching the youth until 2002 when my team represented Kenya in the world group chess championship in Greece.
I rewarded myself by starting to take good care of myself, doubling down when I lived in Leeds for eight years. Most people there love walking, and I just naturally picked it up, using my phone to record my progress.
You do it in the morning?
Yes, because sometimes I don’t get home early in the evening.
How long do you walk?
Thirty minutes to an hour but it depends where the walking is taking place. In my estate, 30 minutes is sufficient. I start my day at 5am, and work for about two hours because of the time difference.
Does walking mean anything to you?
It enhances good health but it is more time to reflect. Walking is like having a quiet moment to yourself.
Has something crazy happened when taking a walk?
There is a time when this branch of a tree broke and fell on me. Let’s just say I found myself on crutches.
Pole. What’s the most boring part about walking?
I hate saying this but we all love your dogs, but you love them more. I hate stepping on your dogs’ poops. Ugh.
Has any of your family members picked up walking?
My wife is into walking and running. She is a social runner, who does not get involved in competitive running. One of my daughters also joins me in walking when she is around. I have a son and two daughters.
How is fatherhood with a busy schedule?
I find it a blessing because I will always find time for familial obligations. It gives me the energy — it is a calling and blessing and it gives me a sense of responsibility.
What do you do at the weekend?
It is very packed. Crazy for me and members of my family, because of school programmes and whatnot. When I am in the country, I prefer dropping the children to school, because that is a time we get to bond. In the evening my wife picks them up from school.
Monday through Friday we don’t have the typical family time to sit together for breakfast, except Saturdays when we have a very long, well-prepared breakfast by my wife and two daughters.
It is almost impossible to have a Saturday where there are no meetings for me, whether this is social or church, or community engagements. We have a monthly drive to the Mount Kenya region to appreciate the environment.
What is one food that you could eat every day?
Ugali. I can’t stay a week without eating ugali. But I am also into mukimo.
Do you also cook?
They are better than me but I am good at making ugali. From my bachelor days haha! I also make nyama choma so good I think it is a talent I can pursue once I retire. The way I do it is just ahhh!
How do you do it?
You marinate nicely. Make sure it is not very soft or very dry. Then there is a way you serve it with some nice kachumbari…there can never be enough tomatoes for kachumbari. Serve with ugali.
Aga Khan University (AKU) Associate Vice Provost and University Librarian and Kenya Library Association Chairperson Prof Peter Gatiti makes his remarks during a workshop held at Ibis Styles Hotel on April 25, 2023. PHOTO | FRANCIS NDERITU | NMG
Then what happens on Sunday?
In my family, it is an obligation to go to church. I find myself after church going shopping then we have a prolonged lunch out of home, occasionally joined by a friend or close family member.
Are you a bush or beach person?
To be honest I am a bush person. I feel more connected to the forest than the beach having grown up in Mount Kenya. Walking here at Karura makes me reconnect with my youth and village.
Have you been to other nature places?
Last week we had a nice tour of the Niagara Falls. We have the Canadian tour, which I toured, and the American part. Niagara splits America and Canada. When you go to a foreign country and you take a walk, that gives you a chance to bond with other walkers.
Does the librarian ever watch Netflix?
Haha! I am forever reading. To be a librarian usually comes due to a passion for reading.
I started with storybooks, graduated to science fiction, and now I am into motivational volumes like Dale Carnegie, Stephen Covey and Barack Obama.
What is the last book you read?
The Art of Public Speaking [by Dale Carnegie]. People go through so much training but these books reaffirm what you already know.
You might be a good public speaker, but when you read you reaffirm that you are on the right path and that opens up your mind to other methods of public speaking.
What’s the simplest pleasure of life?
At one point it used to be watching over my own success, but now it has become impacting other people’s successes.
For instance, my children and total strangers who call me, thanking me for having done something that changed their lives. My pleasure is when I see people thriving out of something I participated in.
What’s your guilty pleasure?
A lack of enough time for myself. Sometimes I also feel guilty that societal expectations of me such as guidance, hope, and time—within 24 hours are not enough to satisfy all of them. My time is just never enough.
What is the most painful thing you’ve been told?
There is something that people fear but if you are to succeed you must cope with it: rejection. Sometimes a nice email is crafted—‘there were many applications but yours stood out. The competition was very close, and it was very hard for us to make a decision, and unfortunately, you did not make it.’ That used to stress me. Rejection. Not anymore.
What is a purchase of less than KShs 10,000 that changed your life?
Actually, it was less than KShs 2,000. It was a book. Management Information Systems by Laudon and Laudon, who are both professors of information systems. I read it so much I feel sorry for it.
What is the dumbest thing you’ve spent money on?
One day I could not locate my location, at that time Google Maps were non-existent. I thought instead of asking people for directions, I decided to just give some information to a taxi driver.
I was prepared for a ride of about 15 to 30 minutes. Do you know he moved from here to just there and I paid 10 quid (KSHs 1,833.54 )? I felt so dumb haha!
What’s your superpower?
There is something they say, Eddy. Knowledge is power. Data is unstructured information, and that leads to knowledge and consequently wisdom. It gives you an edge of competitive advantage over others.
Do you have a secret talent that nobody knows?
I am very good at networking and making people feel at ease with me. That’s how people easily settle on me to be their leader or in mediation processes.
What is one thing you always thought to be true but you realise it isn’t?
The story of mermaids haha! I am embarrassed to say that until recently, I used to think Jurassic Park animals were true, that they existed, I think it is crap. It’s a lie!
What is a weekend hack that can make my weekends better?
Take a long drive to nowhere. I go with my wife. That will help you appreciate our country and don’t be tempted to go to familiar ground. Go enjoy yourself with the locals in a remote small town.
What’s on your bucket list?
Impacting the lives of other people. I spent so much time on international engagements, now all I think about is picking up these best practices and using them back home and impacting the lives of young people so that they can have hope and succeed.
What is one question people never ask you but you wish they could?
My notion in having a profession that is not so well known, but people keep skipping it haha! Like you haha! The vast majority want to become the usual lawyers or doctors, never librarians.
Librarianship encompasses many other things, from traditional librarians to information sciences and knowledge management.
Now we are into data science and information systems, and when you adopt how they are shaping the learning of today, you are able to produce graduates facing the best of technology to be successful in research and other matters pertaining to education.
Who do you know that I should know?
Martha Whitehead, the Vice President of the Harvard Library and University Librarian. She did the reimagining of the Harvard learning space, in terms of the modernization of Harvard libraries which are over 100 in number.
