Last week Rev. Dr. John Senyonyi was appointed to the position of Vice Chancellor of Uganda Christian University. He will replace Prof Stephen Noll later this year. The Standard’s Arthur Oyako caught up with him

You studied statistics and yet became a clergyman, what is the link between the two?
All truth is God’s truth. When I was studying statistics at PhD level reality hit me hard. I saw a web of logic and order that underlies mathematical issues; you cannot have an accident as purposeful as creation.

How did you get your calling in ministry?
I think it was in late 1976 or early 1977. It was not so clear, however, that is when I first got the prompting to take up a path in ministry.  I had a feeling that I was studying mathematics but my ultimate call was to serve in the church. At the end of my first degree I begun thinking of going into ministry but my older brother advised me against the move and instead encouraged me to continue with my studies. He said that if God had plans for me they would always come, it would only be matter of time.
After my PhD, the urge to serve in the church became stronger. So I consulted, some people agreed with me while others did not. As you may know my wife is a daughter of a clergy man and because of this she was opposed to the idea but she also, after a number of prayers, consented and that is how I was brought to the life of the collar.
I was ordained in 1989 and thereafter offered a position by Bishop Festo Kivengere at the African Evangelist Enterprise where I worked until I came to UCU in 2001. 

Are you a subscriber of the African Areopagus Society?
Yes I am and I also do have sympathies with them but I do not have much of the time to join them at the meetings and also to participate often enough. Knowing about science and faith, I think it is a two sided coin. I am convinced that faith in God is defensible and that science may be the other side that provides the evidence much needed for faith.

Did you envision yourself at the top job in UCU, say about ten years ago?
No. I came here to do ministry. Even moving me from chaplaincy to DVC Finance and Administration was something that I resisted for months you know issues to do with money and people are hard, but now that you ask it had never occurred to me that I would one day leave the chaplaincy not to mention becoming VC.

What plans do you have for UCU, are something’s going to change or will it all stay the same?
The advantage I have is that I have been a part of many of the things that have been put in place. I am familiar with them and they were put in place with my consent. I am not a hypocrite who agrees and then wishes to change one’s mind.  These are things that I agreed to and was a part of; I have no plans of dismantling what I have been a part of.

What is your stand on the fees increments policy?
The recognition that in the economic world there is something called inflation is the reason that fees will gradually go up and the method that we have employed is relatively fair. It would be very sad if we decided to increase once in a while but with unrealistic sums say 40%. In 2008 food prices went up by about 30%, did we increase tuition by that margin? You saw what happened with the cost of electricity and we still did not bring it down on the students, inflation is one thing we cannot run away from that is why the fees regime is the way it is.
 

What kind of family do you come from?

My father, Eriakimu Kajja, was a school teacher, our mother Eflance Kajja was a house wife, they are both retired now and are still alive.
I come from a family of 13 children, two, however, died at infancy and another at the age of 15 years. I am the third born with a sister and brother before me.
My family was very loving and close knit, that is still the way things are and our father loved for us to attain an education. A philosophy he may have bred from the time he was in school. He was an alumnus of Bishop Tucker Theological College where he trained as a school teacher.
I attended primary school at Nakasongola Church of Uganda Primary School where my father was the Head Master before moving on to Bowa Church of Uganda Primary school.
For Secondary School, I attended Ndejje SS and Kings College Budo for O and A levels respectively.
While at Budo I studied Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics before joining the University of Nairobi where I studied mathematics before coming back to Makerere University as a lecturer of Maths.
 
What inspires and drives you to be the man that you are?
My faith in Christ is what drives me. I don’t think there is anything else. I have found that my faith is defensible; it is solid and is based on a good foundation. I am not the type who is looking to be a big person, it has been one of the most faithful things to me.

With your current profile you could work anywhere. Please tell me why you are not a member of the brain drained society?

I have tended to move when am sure that it is where God wants me to be. I have been offered jobs especially in the 1990s, some of them even required me to work as an expatriate but I never took them up. I am human and may want to earn more but where God’s hand is not I shall not move. I do not disparage the need to earn a confortable income but if God did not have a say in my being there then I would be a very miserable person. I think God wants me to be here and that is why I am still here.