 Kakenya Ntaiya’s
story shows how education
can change all the
cards in the hand
a young girl is dealt
at birth. The oldest
of eight children
of a Maasai tribal
family, she was engaged
to be married when
she was five years
old. She grew up
caring for cattle
and her siblings
in a small village
20 miles from the
nearest paved road.
She often was the
only person to help
her mother give birth
in their hut. She
was expected to undergo
ritual circumcision
at puberty, leave
school and marry
the man her parents
had chosen.
Kakenya had other
ideas. She told her
father she would
undergo the circumcision
only if she could
stay in school. Her
father agreed, and
at 13 she joined
the estimated 2 million
women who have suffered
female genital cutting
worldwide.
Undeterred, Kakenya
finished high school
with top marks and
decided she wanted
to attend college – in
the United States.
No girl in her village
had ever done that.
So she negotiated
again, this time
with the village
elders. If they let
her go, she promised,
she would come back
and help build a
school and a maternity
hospital.
It worked. The village
women united to raise
the money to send
Kakenya to the United
States. They knew
pregnancy in Kenya
often means death:
one in every 19 women
will die there of
complications in
pregnancy and childbirth,
one of the world’s
highest rates.
Kakenya graduated
from Randolph-Macon
Women’s College
in 2004, and her
mother came from
Kenya to attend the
ceremony. Kakenya
went on to a PhD
program in education
at the University
of Pittsburgh, determined
to become a leader
in helping others
get an education
in Kenya. She has
now raised more than
US$75,000 toward
the school she promised
to build in her village.
Kakenya’s success
has inspired millions
of people. She has
been the subject
of a Washington Post
series, a BBC documentary
and many magazine
articles. She married
in 2006 and is expecting
her first child in
September 2007.
“Now all the
village women want
their daughters to
stay in school,” she
tells audiences throughout
the world.
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