Kakenya Ntaiya Explained

Kakenya Ntaiya
Birth Place:Enoosaen, Kilgoris, Kenya[1]
Education:Randolph-Macon Woman's College, University of Pittsburgh
Known For:Anti-FGM work

Kakenya Ntaiya (born 1978)[2] 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.[3] The first class of 30 students enrolled in May 2009.[4] The center requires that parents agree not to subject their enrolled daughters to female genital mutilation[5] (FGM/C) or forced marriage.[6] [7]

Early life and education

Ntaiya is the eldest of eight children.[8] 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.[9]

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".[10] 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.

Awards

Ntaiya is the recipient of a number of awards that recognize her work to educate girls: Vital Voices Global Leadership Award (2011),[4] CNN Top Ten Hero of the Year (2013),[11] and the Global Women's Rights Award from the Feminist Majority Foundation (2013).[12]

Notes and References

  1. Web site: How Pitt alumna Kakenya Ntaiya fights for the rights of women and girls in rural Kenya. 2023-06-22. Henderson. Kara. University of Pittsburgh. 2023-11-17.
  2. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/serra-sippel/kakenya-ntaiya-cnn-hero_b_4158928.html The Huffington Post
  3. http://www.kakenyasdream.org/about-us/kakenyas-story/ Kakenya Center for Excellence
  4. Web site: Kakenya Ntaiya Vital Voices. www.vitalvoices.org. 2016-09-06. 2016-09-18. https://web.archive.org/web/20160918220529/http://www.vitalvoices.org/vital-voices-women/featured-voices/kakenya-ntaiya. dead.
  5. Web site: My journey to start a school for girls in Kenya: Kakenya Ntaiya at TEDxMidAtlantic 2012. TEDx Talks. Youtube.
  6. Web site: Woman challenges tradition, brings change to her Kenyan village. November 10, 2013. CNN. Toner. Kathleen.
  7. Web site: Kakenya Ntaiya exchanged female genital mutilation for an education, now runs school for girls in Kenya. 25 Feb 2015. The World Today. Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
  8. Web site: Kakenya Ntaiya: Making Dreams of Education a Reality for Girls Everywhere. Black. Renata. 2016-08-03. The Huffington Post. 2016-09-06.
  9. Web site: Bound for Marriage as a Child, Now a Change Agent for Kenyan Girls. https://web.archive.org/web/20160904165117/http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2016/09/kakenya-ntaiya-rolex-explorer-moments/. dead. September 4, 2016. 2016-09-02. 2016-09-06.
  10. News: Kakenya's Promise. The Washington Post. Argetsinger. Amy. 2003-12-28. 2019-04-26.
  11. Web site: Top 10 CNN Hero: Kakenya Ntaiya. www.cnn.com. 2016-09-06.
  12. Web site: Global Women's Rights Awards 2016. feminist.org. 2016-09-06. 2018-04-29. https://web.archive.org/web/20180429154924/http://www.feminist.org/GlobalWomensRightsAwards/past-honorees.html. dead.

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