Cecilia Wangechi Mwathi (15 May 1963 – 17 August 2011) was a Kenyan mathematician and union activist. She was the first woman in Kenya to become a mathematics professor,[1] and was known both for her activism for higher education and for inspiring Kenyan girls to study science, technology, and mathematics.[2]
Early life and education
editMwathi was born on 15 May 1963 in Kaigonde, a village in Kenya near Gichira,[1] as the fifth of eight children in a poor family. She was educated in Gichira,[3] having to walk 5km barefoot to reach the school.[4] She then went to Mugoiri Girls High School and Chania High School before studying mathematics education at Kenyatta University, where she was awarded a bachelor's degree in 1987.[3] In the next years, she worked as a high school teacher at Garissa High School and then Kenya High School.[4] Returning to Kenyatta University in 1991, she earned a master's degree in mathematics in 1992.[3]
From 1995 through 1998, she was a doctoral student at the University of Zimbabwe, while working as a mathematics instructor in Kenya. She completed her Ph.D. at the University of Zimbabwe in 1998;[3] her dissertation was Groups of Units in Algebraic Number Fields of Fourth and Eighth Degrees, and concerned algebraic number theory.[5]
Academic career and later life
editMwathi joined the faculty of the Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT) as an assistant lecturer in 1992. She became a lecturer in 1995 and senior lecturer in 2000.[3]
In 2005 she became secretary general of the UASU-JKUAT faculty union chapter.[3] In 2006, the university became embroiled in a crisis over its failure to pay its faculty in a timely manner, and Mwathi was a leading representative for the faculty in this issue.[6][7] After the faculty went on strike in October 2006, Mwathi and another union leader, Moses Muchina, were fired from their faculty positions, and in 2008 the Kenyan courts upheld their firing.[8] However, later in 2008, when Mabel Imbuga became vice-chancellor of JKUAT, she announced an amnesty on the issue and reinstated Mwathi to her professorship,[2] conditioned on not pursuing further legal action.[4] Mwathi was named associate professor in 2010.[4]
Mwathi was the hosting chair and convener of the Second Africa Regional Congress of the International Commission on Mathematics Instruction, held at JKUAT in 2007.[9] She also served as editor in chief of the Journal of Agriculture, Science, and Technology, published by JKUAT.[4]
She died on 17 August 2011, in Nairobi Hospital, after a long illness,[1][2] survived by three daughters and two foster children.[4] JKUAT held a requiem mass in her honor on 24 August 2011.[2]
References
edit- ^ a b c Muchire, Wilfred (October 2011), "Mourning Kenya's trailblazers", Reject, no. 49, p. 2, retrieved 2021-09-23
- ^ a b c d Requiem Mass for Mathematics scholar, Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology, 24 August 2011, retrieved 2021-09-23
- ^ a b c d e f Curriculum vitae, retrieved 2021-09-23 – via Docplayer.net
- ^ a b c d e f Muchire, Wilfred (March 2011), "Prof Cecilia Wangechi Mwathi: First woman Professor of Mathematics in Kenya", Strength of a Woman, p. 12, retrieved 2021-09-23
- ^ O'Connor, J. J.; Robertson, E. F., "African women with a doctorate in mathematics 2: those whose doctorates were obtained between 1997 and 2006", MacTutor history of mathematics archive, University of St Andrews, retrieved 2021-09-23
- ^ "Pay Us On Time, Lecturers Say", Daily Nation, 9 April 2006, retrieved 2021-09-23 – via AllAfrica
- ^ "Crisis Talks Over Dons' Grievances", Daily Nation, 6 August 2006, retrieved 2021-09-23 – via AllAfrica
- ^ "Sacked Dons Lose Reinstatement Bid", Capital News, 26 July 2008, retrieved 2021-09-23
- ^ "Second Africa Regional Congress of the International Commission on Mathematics Instruction", MathNED, retrieved 2021-09-23
External links
edit- Williams, Scott W., "Cecilia Wangechi Mwathi", Black Women in Mathematics, University at Buffalo