How Prof Paul Wainaina, Primary School Teacher Rose to Kenyatta University VC
Embattled Prof. Paul Wainaina, Vice-Chancellor of Kenyatta University, has recently been at the center of a controversy over a plot of land designated by the government for the World Health Organization (WHO) African regional operations and logistics hub.
Prof. Wainaina is said to be opposed to the government’s decision to allow WHO to set up the hub on the grounds adjacent to the Kenyatta University Teaching, Referral, and Research Hospital (KUTRH).
However, few people are aware that Prof. Winaina rose from being a primary school teacher to becoming the Vice-Chancellor of one of the country’s largest universities.
Wainaina earned a Bachelor of Education in Kiswahili from the University of Nairobi in 1976.
Six years later, in 1982, he graduated from the same institution with a master’s degree in education philosophy and a thesis titled “Educational Implications of the Metaphysical Controversy Between Free Will and Determinism: With Special Reference to Moral Education in Schools.”
He received his Ph.D. in education philosophy from the University of Alberta in Canada in 1985. His dissertation was titled “A Critique of Utilitarian Justification of Education.”
On his 14-page CV, the don emphasizes his steady rise since 1970, when he taught in primary school for a year before moving on to secondary school for another year.
Wainaia was a Tutorial Fellow at the University of Alberta while pursuing his Ph.D. in Canada between 1982 and 1984.
He returned to Kenya as a lecturer at Kenyatta University until 1987, when he was promoted to senior lecturer at Moi University.
He was promoted to Associate Professor of Philosophy of Education in 1990, where he remained for six years before being promoted to full professor in 1996.
Prof. Wainaina then became a Professor of Philosophy of Education at the University of Namibia in 1997. During his tenure, he worked his way up the ranks to become a deputy dean and, eventually, Dean of the Faculty of Education.
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In 2005, he returned to Kenyatta University, where he has remained to this day. He rose through the ranks of the university to become Deputy Vice-Chancellor in 2010, and then Vice-Chancellor in 2018.
Prof. Wainaina is a well-known education scholar who has written three books as well as journal articles.
He has also reviewed 9 doctoral dissertations and 10 master’s theses.
How Prof Paul Wainaina, Primary School Teacher Rose to Kenyatta University VC
