For the past five years, the boarding school she started in her own village of Enoosaen, 250 miles outside Nairobi, has educated Maasai girls from the fourth through eighth grades, giving them the foundation to continue their schooling in high school and beyond. Traditionally, most girls in this area are married off as young teenagers. As a child, Kakenya resisted that path and imagined a radically different life for herself.

She succeeded in creating that life, earning a B.A. and later a Ph.D. in education in the United States. Now married and the mother of two young boys, she spoke to National Geographic about being back in Kenya to help other girls pursue their education and their dreams.

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