In Memory of Alice R. Bulogosi
February 8, 1950 - April 10, 2003

Photo of Alice R. Bulogosi
Nairobi Kenya, February 2000

This photograph was taken just after Ms Bulogosi and Jafred S. Musisi accepted a UNESCO grant on behalf of the Kenya Library Association.

Photo contributed by Deborah M. LaFond, [email protected]

Professional Affiliations

Member of the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions' Standing Committee (SC/URL)

Senior Assistant Librarian, 1986-2003. Kenyatta University, Nairobi, Kenya

Publications

Bulogosi, Alice R. (2003) Kenya Library Association. In The Encyclopedia of Library and Information Science, ed. Miriam Drake, 1474-1480.

Bulogosi, Alice R. (1998) Library Associations in the SCECSAL Region; 25 Years Today. Maktaba: Journal of the Kenya Library Association, Special Issue July, 16-17, 20.

ALICE  ROSELLEN  MAKHAYA  BULOGOSI:  A  EULOGY

Written and delivered in Nairobi Kenya 2003
by Mrs. Nganga, Chief Librarian, Kenyatta University, Nairobi Kenya

To write a eulogy for a person who has touched many lives intensely and differently, will always entail the risk of reducing a complex gifted life and character into a dry set of cliches and personalised biases. One must accept this risk and weakness before eulogising such an enigmatic person as Alice.

Being from a large family, Alice distinguished herself so well in embracing the extended domestic responsibility. She quickly made friends, knew and appreciated her siblings by rejecting the common temptations of public figures to carry cultural responsibility with a mixture of guilt and hypocrisy. As a rallying point, she pulled family and colleagues with equal vigour and rigour.

As we mourn the passing of a great daughter of the motherland and as segments of the continuum that has become Bulogosi's family.

Alice leaves her family members as a person whose daily challenges and fears, sufferings and aspirations are imprinted on the minds of friends she brought home. It is a small price to demand of these family members that the solidarity so warmly nurtured by our departed sister be reinforced by her memory.

Alice was a principled person, and as a member of the Kenya Library Association, she was working tirelessly to help seek out patriots who were ready to rise above tribalism. Those involved in this initiative with her will always remember her for the self-commitment, tampered by her unfathomable warmth of spirit. As we see death reap from our midst one so young and promising, we shall do much justice to the fallen heroine if we dare her patriotism and social responsibility.

May God rest her soul in eternal peace until we meet again.

LIFE HISTORY OF THE LATE ALICE ROSELLEN MAKHAYA BULOGOSI

Alice Rosellen Makhaya Bulogosi was born on 8th February 1950 at Madioli Village, the then Murhanda Sub-location of Isukha Central location, Kakamega District. Alice was the eighth child among the five sons and eight daughters to Mzee Richard Bulogosi and Mama Ingaitsa Bulogosi.

She started her primary education at Madioli Primary School in 1957 from where she graduated in 1964 to join the then Duchess of Gloucester [now Ngara Girls] and Kipsigis Girls for her secondary education. In 1968 she passed her Cambridge School Certificate Examination and proceeded for her A-level studies in the same school. After completing high school education, Alice joined Dar-es-Salaam University in 1971 for Bed. Degree and graduated in 1973.

Upon her return, Alice was posted to Limuru Girls High School as a teacher, where she taught for four (4) years and then left the teaching profession and joined the Kenya National Library Services as a librarian. While at the KNLS, she won a scholarship to study post-graduate diploma in Library and Information Sciences at the University of Aberystwith in Wales.

In 1986, she joined Kenyatta University as a Librarian and in 1989 she won a scholarship to study for her Masters degree in Library and Information Sciences in Britain.

As the secretary of the Kenya Library Association, she distinguished herself as an energetic, constructive and consummate member. She made many friends both locally and internationally and she was regarded highly by most of her colleagues in Libraries Association.

Alice started her sickness in April 2002. She was treated by the University Health Unit for what was suspected to be stomach ulcers and amoeba. She was put on treatment but there was no improvement. As a result her health started deteriorating. She then sought specialised medical treatment in private clinics and was later referred and admitted to the Mater Misericodia Hospital in August 2002 and diagnosed as having advanced cancer of the stomach. She was discharged on 5th September 2002 with the advice that her case was terminal and therefore home-based care was the best.

As a family, we decided to move her from her house in Kiserian to her sister's house in Rubia Estate, where she continued to live until her promotion to glory on April 10, 2003 at 5.10am.

Alice was thus robbed from us by the cruel hand of death. She is survived by her daughter Michelle Chipo Mashonyika, who is a student at USIU.

May the Almighty God rest her soul in eternal peace.

Page created September 2004 by Deborah M. LaFond, Social Sciences Bibliographer, University at Albany with assistance from Joana Tse, University at Albany English Major and Library Assistant.

Ms. LaFond's remembrance of Ms. Bulogosi's collegial discussion, orientation to Kenyatta University Library and exemplary reference service, outreach to students and librarians will not be forgotten. Ms. Bulogosi and Mr. Jafred Musisi had planned to contribute an article to The Reference Librarian, Special Issue on Africana Librarianship, October 2004.