Wanjiru Kamau-Rutenberg

Biography

Wanjiru Kamau-Rutenberg was born in 1976 in Kenya. She studied political science and went on to earn a PhD from the University of Minnesota. She became a professor at the University of San Francisco, where she taught and researched African politics and gender.

In 2008 she founded the African Women in Leadership Organisation (AWLO), a platform to support and connect women leaders across Africa. She later became the founding director of Akili Dada, a Kenyan organisation that identifies and supports high-achieving girls from low-income backgrounds with scholarships, mentorship and leadership development.

In 2018 she was appointed Director of Research Grants at the African Academy of Sciences, where she led the Developing Excellence in Leadership, Training and Science (DELTAS) Africa programme, a major initiative to fund African researchers and build scientific capacity across the continent.

What She Fought For

Kamau-Rutenberg has fought against the idea that African women in science and academia have to leave the continent to succeed. She has worked to build the infrastructure, funding and networks that allow brilliant African women to do world-class research at home.

She has also been a vocal critic of how international funding for African research often flows through Western institutions rather than directly to African researchers and institutions. She pushed for African-led research funded on African terms.

Major Achievements

• Founder of the African Women in Leadership Organisation (2008)
• Founding director of Akili Dada, supporting high-achieving girls from low-income Kenyan families
• Director of Research Grants at the African Academy of Sciences
• Led the DELTAS Africa programme, distributing hundreds of millions of dollars to African researchers
• TED Fellow
• Named among the most influential women in African science and education

Her Impact Today

Wanjiru Kamau-Rutenberg has changed the career trajectories of hundreds of African women in science and leadership through scholarships, funding and advocacy. She represents a generation of Africans who are not asking for access to Western institutions but building their own.