Kakenya Center for Excellence

Empowering girls through education, health, leadership and community engagement

The Kakenya Center for Excellence, a government-funded primary boarding school for girls near Kilgoris, Kenya, breaks harmful cultural norms by empowering girls through education, health, and leadership initiatives, achieving a 100% transition rate to secondary education and transforming community attitudes towards gender equality and female genital mutilation (FGM). Established in 2009 by Dr. Kakenya Ntaiya, the school focuses on breaking the cycles of poverty and gender inequality.

Serving 197 primary school girls, the school’s mission is rooted in a holistic educational model that includes healthcare, leadership training, and career counselling. By integrating local religious leaders, elders, teachers, and parents in governance, the school ensures its programmes are culturally appropriate and community-supported.

The parent organisation, Kakenya's Dream, is instrumental in preventing FGM and child marriages - prevalent in Maasai culture where 51% of women undergo FGM and 50% are married before 19 - by securing parental agreements and fostering community dialogue. This has led to a significant shift in local attitudes: fathers, once indifferent, now actively champion their daughters' education, with the school facing a surge in enrolments as community perceptions evolve.

Leadership at the centre, including School Principal Pacifica Onyango and Director of Programmes Daniel Korinko, drives a culture of empowerment that has positioned the school as a beacon of change. Their efforts have been recognised nationally, with students consistently ranking in the top 10% on exams.

Additional activities include partnerships with the Ministry of Education and local leaders, amplifying the school’s impact and fostering broader societal change. These collaborations ensure that the school’s practices serve as a model for educational excellence across Kenya.

Should The Kakenya Center for Excellence win the World's Best School Prize for Community Collaboration, the school intends to expand its transformative programmes, enhancing its infrastructure to support more students and further empowering girls to lead societal development in Kenya and beyond.