Moses Adika, a Kenyan businessman, graduated from the University of Nairobi with a Civil Engineering degree on Saturday, September 19, 2026, closing a chapter that had remained open for 11 years.
In an Instagram post that has captured the attention of many, Adika described the long and winding road between his first day on campus and the moment he finally collected his certificate.
Several years into his engineering programme, Adika made the difficult choice to leave school and channel his energy into building a business. The decision was not well received by everyone around him.
Why did Adika leave school?
He acknowledged in his post that people had strong opinions about his departure, and he understood their concern.
“Leaving school felt risky,” he wrote. “But I believed in what I was building, and by God’s grace, it paid off in ways I couldn’t have imagined.”
The business he left school to build ultimately succeeded, and Adika credited that experience with teaching him lessons that no lecture hall ever could.
When did Adika return to UoN?
Even as his enterprise flourished, one thing continued to weigh on him.
He described feeling a persistent pull towards the degree he had never completed, a sense that something important had been left unfinished.
Once he felt satisfied with what he had achieved in business, he returned to the University of Nairobi, sat through classes again, completed his examinations, submitted his project and walked away with a Second Class Upper Division.
Adika’s word of encouragement to netizens
Reflecting on the journey, Adika offered a message to anyone who might find themselves at a similar crossroads.
“It’s never too late. Success in one area doesn’t mean you have to give up on another. And a break is not the same as giving up. You can always come back,” he wrote.
He closed his post by expressing gratitude to his family and friends who stood by him even when his unconventional path made little sense to those watching from the outside, signing off with a nod to his two identities: “Shrewd Businessman and Civil Engineer, at last.”
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