Kakenya Ntaiya

A girl who demanded school

Kakenya Ntaiya made a deal with her father.

She would undergo the traditional Maasai rite of passage of female circumcision if he would let her go to high school. 

Ntaiya tells the fearless story of continuing on to college, and of working with her village elders to build a school for girls in her community. 

It's the educational journey of one that altered the destiny of 125 young women.

Kakenya Ntaiya talks about the freedom she has found in education. 

Tracing her path back to childhood, Kakenya remembers her family hardships and the constricting nature of traditional Maasai values on her future. 

But Kakenya was not going to accept her family's selection of a husband-to-be for her at age five; and she was certainly not going to let generations of ritual and multiple father-figures with a limited perception of her potential stand in the way of her own dream. 

Instead, Kakenya with the support of her mother  rallied together the very community that resented her independence and convinced them to send her to college in the US. 

Now, less than a year away from finishing her PhD in international education, Kakenya is still dreaming - but this time, for her entire village. 

She made a lot o difference and opened a different path to other girls in her country.