Christopher Khaemba


Christopher Situma Khaemba is a Kenyan educator, former principal of Alliance High School, and the former Dean of the African Leadership Academy in South Africa. He moved from Alliance to become the founding Dean at the South Africa-based academy in 2008. Widely regarded as one of Africa's leading educationists, Khaemba was named the head administrator of the new institution at its inception in September 2008. He had served as Principal of Kamusinga for 3 years and Alliance for 10 years, during which period he oversaw the re-establishment of the school's strong performance in academics and involvement in extra-curricula activities.

Kenya Air Force

Khaemba attended Kenyatta University, Nairobi where he graduated with an MBA. He was an officer and pilot with the Kenya Air Force before quitting in 1984. Khaemba moved on into teaching, and he has never turned back.

Alliance High School

After making the drastic turn from the military into academia, Khaemba joined the teaching staff at Alliance High School, where he would go on to become a Mathematics and Physics teacher for the next fourteen years. During that time, he rose through the ranks becoming principal, Careers Master, Senior-Master, and Deputy-Principal. Most of these positions would see him take charge of daily operations at the school routine and implementation of the curriculum. Khaemba's no-nonsense approach to learning earned him the nickname "Sodium" from his students. He was appointed by the government as principal of Friends School Kamusinga in 1995 to overhaul the declining standards in the school. Within three years, Khaemba had instituted changes that helped the school regain its prominence as an academic giant and power-house of co-curricula activities in Western Province and nationally. Because of his success and a leadership philosophy that stressed the importance of imparting students a well-rounded education, Khaemba was recalled to become Principal at Alliance in 1998.

Khaemba is widely reputed for reinstating the position of Alliance as a top secondary education institution in Kenya; under his Principal-ship, the school was consistently ranked within the top-ten best performing schools in the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education. He has stated that discipline is a key component that he acquired while in military service, and is critical to both his students' success. Khaemba is also well known for placing students from varied backgrounds into universities in the United States, especially Ivy League colleges. while responding to interview with Nation media, this is what Christopher Khaemba had to say, "Apart from getting the school back to Academic supremacy, for five years Alliance High School continuously won most of the Awards at the National drama festival. I placed on average 20 to 30 students into Ivy League universities with full funding. We fully replaced all the old students' dormitories with modern ones in a space of 7 years. No student left school on account of inability to pay fees" Alliance through his determination moved places.

African Leadership Academy

Khaemba was selected to be the inaugural Dean of the African Leadership Academy in Johannesburg, South Africa in 2008. The founders of the continental school, who include Fred Swaniker (CEO), Acha Leke and Peter Mobaur, settled on the Kenyan academic administrator after seven months of searching across the globe for a suitable educator. The founders stated that Khaemba stood out as the favourite for the position, given his record at Alliance and Kamusinga, adding that he "has the entrepreneurial energy, integrity and a passion for learning and for Africa". As at 2010, ALA has placed more than 30 of its students in top-brass schools in the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany and Canada. Some of those colleges include Columbia University, Cornell University, Dartmouth College, Duke, Purdue MIT, Middlebury, University of Pennsylvania, Stanford, Cardiff University, University of Dundee, University of Durham, University of Essex, Imperial College, University College London, London School of Economics, University of Manchester, Oxford, School of Oriental and African Studies, Jacobs University, Dalhousie University and Carleton.

Currently, he still support the school with fundraising campaign, and help with students' admissions, college placements and supporting the alumni.

He is currently (as at 2016) member of the Global Advisory Board of the African Leadership Academy. This is a small team of advisers drawn from around the World that helps give direction to the Academy

Education Advisor in the Office of the Prime Minister and Serving on the Nairobi City County Cabinet

Khaemba was appointed Education Advisor in the Office of the Prime Minister of Kenya in January 2012. He served in that position till April 2013, when a new Government was formed, and the office of the Prime Minister abolished. He moved to the Teachers Service Commission where he served as Deputy Director, Teacher Management for 4 months, till September 2013, when he was appointed to serve on the Nairobi City County cabinet as the Executive in charge of Education, Youth Affairs and Social Services. In February 2016, Khaemba was moved to the Urban Planning and Lands sector as the Executive in charge. This sector is considered to be the most challenging Ministry in Nairobi County, and there is no doubt the Governor of Nairobi, needed someone with proven record of change management, to help sort out the problems in the sector. Khaemba was the person he settled for.

Nova Pioneer

In 2015 Christoper Khaemba teamed up with Oliver Sabot, Oliver Rothschild and Chinezi Chijioke to establish Nova Pioneer in Kenya. Oliver Sabot, Oliver Rothschild and Chinezi are alumni of Ivy League Universities (Chinezi and Wattanga attended Harvard, Rothschild did Yale, while Sabot attended Colby). Khaemba has had a robust relationship with Ivy League and other global universities over the years. Sunday Nation Newspaper of January 17, 2016 committed 3 pages of print to the story behind Nova Pioneer- .

The first Nova Pioneer School, opened in January 2016 with 128 boys. The School that is modelled on South Africa's African Leadership Academy, is offering Kenya's high school curriculum that is enriched with innovation and entrepreneurship modules and practice. A girls school Nova Pioneer Girls High School opened in January 2017 while Nova Pioneer Primary - Tatu City opened in 2018. The network of schools is set to open its second primary school in Athi River in January 2019 .

References
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