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Founder/ Director
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Engr. Oku Kanayo Egbeni

ENG. OKU KANAYO
Eng. Oku Kanayo is Co-Founder and Director of Freedom International Schools – Africa (FISA) in Kenya. FISA blends Afrocentrism and the global International Baccalaureate curriculum, and is the first Afrocentric and Global school in the world. Oku was born and raised in Asaba, Delta state, Nigeria. He holds a BSc in Computer Engineering from the University of Benin, Nigeria, and an MSc in Computer Engineering from Dalana University, Sweden. His prowess in marketing and software engineering has seen him work as an ICT consultant and business strategist for Virgin Media and Hewlett Packard in the UK. However, these professional accomplishments outside Africa are just a tip of the gargantuan giftedness that Oku has. It is through relocating back to Africa in 2014 that his true purpose in life was established. In 2014, Oku and his wife Utheri officially founded Children in Freedom, an NGO that gave scholarships to children from humble backgrounds. Oku quickly realized that paying school fees was not enough, as the children had low self-efficacy and struggled to dream and project a positive future for themselves. He designed an Afrocentric mentorship curriculum called Mentorship for Freedom (MFF), whose main goal was to teach the children to embrace their cultural heritage and identity; to love and value themselves as black Africans
and appreciate the wealth of their continent. MFF delved into true and positive African histories and revealed the greatness of African thought and innovations. MFF soon morphed into a school, and in 2017, he put together a construction team and built with his own hands, the first classrooms of FISA. Oku is a polymath, and an extremely gifted individual with high emotional intelligence and discernment. He has the ability to ‘feel things’ and has led FISA into unchartered territories. He is ruggedly brave and takes risks that many would not. He dreams big for the African child and has the gift of turning his vision into Afrocentric curriculum that is implemented at FISA. Oku has used his ICT expertise to implement ambitious ICT programmes from kindergarten to high school, including learning to code using HTML, Java and Python. He is proud that FISA has so far won the first ReimaginED Liberatory Learning Award, the 2022 MASK School Prize, and 2023 DIAR Award for Most Inclusive Social Enterprise. In 2023, FISA was shortlisted as a Top 10 school worldwide, by the World’s Best School Prizes. Oku is a great cook and personally trains the school’s kitchen staff; indeed FISA is famous for its delicious food.

Dr. Utheri Kanayo
Profiles

Dr. Utheri Kanayo

DR UTHERI KANAYO studied Education at Undergraduate and Master's level at Kenyatta and Nairobi universities, and an MPhil and PhD in Education at Newnham College, University of Cambridge, UK. She has worked as an academic researcher at The Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge, and Research Manager for Camfed International, UK. She is well exposed to Africa’s educational landscape, having carried out research in nine African countries i.e. Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Nigeria, Tanzania, Uganda, South Africa, and Swaziland. In 2013, Utheri and her husband Kanayo quit their well-paying jobs in the UK to return to Kenya and established an NGO called Children in Freedom. They offered scholarships and mentorship to African children, encouraging them to love their African heritage, and use their talents to innovate solutions for their communities. In 2018, Utheri co-founded the first Afrocentric school in East Africa, Children In Freedom School (CIFS). In 2023, the school was ranked among the Top 10 best learning institutions worldwide by the T4 initiatives rankings. In June 2024, CIFS became an international Baccalaureate candidate school and changed its name to Freedom International School-Africa (FISA). Utheri is a member of council for the Open University of Kenya where she chairs the Academic, Research and Linkages committee. She is also The Special Africa Advisor for The Beacon Equity Trust, and a Metis fellow.