Kakenya Ntaiya

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Kakenya Ntaiya (born 1978)[1] is a Kenyan educator, feminist and social activist.

She is the founder and president of the Kakenya Center for Excellence, a primary boarding school for girls in the Maasai village of Enoosaen.[2] The first class of 30 students enrolled in May 2009.[3] The center requires that parents agree not to subject their enrolled daughters to genital mutilation[4] or forced marriage.[5][6]

Early life and education[]

Ntaiya is the eldest of eight children.[7] Maasai tradition and culture dictated that Ntaiya should be engaged around the age of five, undergo female genital mutilation (FGM) as a teenager, and then leave school to marry. Instead, she negotiated with her father that she would undergo FGM if that meant she could continue her education and complete high school.[8]

Ntaiya holds an undergraduate degree from Randolph-Macon Woman's College in Lynchburg, Virginia. While a student there, she was the subject of a four-part series in the Washington Post titled "Kakenya's Promise".[9] Ntaiya went on to earn a Doctorate in Education from the University of Pittsburgh, where she was the recipient of the Sheth International Young Alumni Achievement Award.[1]

Awards[]

Ntaiya is the recipient of a number of awards that recognize her work to educate girls: Vital Voices Global Leadership Award (2011),[3] CNN Top Ten Hero of the Year (2013),[10] and the Global Women's Rights Award from the Feminist Majority Foundation (2013).[11]

References[]

  1. ^ a b The Huffington Post
  2. ^ Kakenya Center for Excellence Archived 2014-10-24 at the Wayback Machine
  3. ^ a b "Kakenya Ntaiya | Vital Voices". www.vitalvoices.org. Retrieved 2016-09-06.
  4. ^ "My journey to start a school for girls in Kenya: Kakenya Ntaiya at TEDxMidAtlantic 2012". TEDx Talks. Youtube.
  5. ^ Toner, Kathleen (November 10, 2013). "Woman challenges tradition, brings change to her Kenyan village". CNN.
  6. ^ "Kakenya Ntaiya exchanged female genital mutilation for an education, now runs school for girls in Kenya". The World Today. Australian Broadcasting Corporation. 25 Feb 2015.
  7. ^ Black, Renata (2016-08-03). "Kakenya Ntaiya: Making Dreams of Education a Reality for Girls Everywhere". The Huffington Post. Retrieved 2016-09-06.
  8. ^ "Bound for Marriage as a Child, Now a Change Agent for Kenyan Girls". 2016-09-02. Retrieved 2016-09-06.
  9. ^ Argetsinger, Amy (2003-12-28). "Kakenya's Promise". The Washington Post. Retrieved 2019-04-26.
  10. ^ "Top 10 CNN Hero: Kakenya Ntaiya". www.cnn.com. Retrieved 2016-09-06.
  11. ^ "Global Women's Rights Awards 2016". feminist.org. Retrieved 2016-09-06.


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