Christopher Khaemba

Christopher Situma Khaemba is a Kenyan educator, former headmaster of Alliance High School, and the current 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 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.

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.

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 Housemaster, 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 headmaster 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 and 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.

This once-prominent Western Kenya high school was undergoing a period of financial difficulties, dilapidated facilities, and general frustration among students and teachers in poor academic performance when Khaemba arrived in 1995 as Principal.

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 headmaster 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

Since August 2010,general manager- Education Pillar,Currently helping shape.Equity Group Foundation: Responsible for :

1.Work plans for all the three programs.

2.Generation and implementation of policy guidelines and documentation.

3.Managing relations with all education pillar partners: Donors, Ministry of Education, schools, etc.

4.Overall direction on implementation of mentoring and leadership model

5.Fundraising and program expansion

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.

In 2015 Christoper Khaemba teamed up with Oliver Sabaot, Oliver Rothschild, Chinezi Chijioke and Humphrey Wattanga to establish Nova Academies in Kenya. The Olivers, Chinezi and Wattanga are alumni of Ivy League Universities (Chinezi and Wattanga attended Harvard, Rothschild did Yale, while Sabaot 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 Academies- [1].

The first Nova Academy, opened in January 2016 with 120 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' Nova Academy high school is set to open in January 2017,

For his accomplishments in education, Khaemba has been a recipient of a number of awards:

• One of Kenya's leading newspapers, The East African Standard, named Christopher Khaemba as one of the 100 most influential Kenyans in 2007, alongside Nobel Laureate Wangari Maathai and veteran athlete Kipchoge Keino.
• Khaemba was among those awarded the Head of State Commendation by President Kibaki on the Jamhuri Day of 2005
• Recipient of the 1999 Distinguished Service Medal, conferred by President Daniel arap Moi, for reviving Friend's School, Kamusinga, between November 1995 and November 1998
• the Uhuru Open Tour, a grouping of Kenyans who raise funds through golf tournaments to support poor children through high school, gave Khaemba the Citizen of the Year Award in 2003. This was in recognition of his campaign for the support of boys from poor and impoverished backgrounds.
• He has had four other commendations from Massachusetts Institute of Technology for the impact he placed on his students who attended the university.· Member, Toastmasters International, Rosebank, South Africa
• Member of the South African Heads of Independent Schools
• Member- African Leadership Academy Global Advisory Board