One point that changed everything

Prof Rebecca Mwikali Wambua. [Jayne Rose Gacheri, Standard]

Before emails, meetings and university demands begin, Prof Rebecca Mwikali Wambua greets the day in silence. In the stillness of dawn, gospel music hums softly beside her Bible and breakfast smoothie, a quiet ritual she calls “alignment” before stepping into leadership at African Nazarene University.

For Prof Wambua, discipline and mindset are not motivational slogans but principles that have shaped every stage of her journey; from a student who narrowly missed admission to law school by one point, to becoming one of East Africa’s leading voices in Distance, Open and e-Learning.

“I wanted to be a lawyer,” she says matter-of-factly, “I missed it by one point.”

For many students, especially in Kenya’s competitive education system, such a setback can feel devastating. Dreams collapse quickly when grades determine opportunities, and many young people struggle to separate academic results from self-worth. At the time, family and friends encouraged her to pursue teaching instead, a safer and more predictable path.

“I said yes,” she recalls. “I didn’t know it would become purpose.”

A chance meeting on her way to one of her earliest teaching assignments at Riara Group of Schools would permanently reshape how she viewed her future. She met her former primary school teacher, who told her: “If you chose teaching, you will be an excellent teacher.”

“That day, I stopped seeing teaching as second best,” she says.

Looking back, Prof Wambua believes the foundations of her resilience were laid much earlier, during her years at St Teresa’s Girls High School. It was there, she says, that she made a personal decision about faith and values.

“I decided my faith would be personal — not inherited, not convenient, but chosen,” she explains.

That decision, she says, became the anchor that steadied her through uncertainty, disappointment and major career transitions.

One of the most difficult periods of her life came when she resigned from a job without another secured. At the time, she was raising three children, yet she chose to step into uncertainty rather than remain in a situation she no longer believed in.

For two years, she searched for opportunities, volunteered, learnt marketing skills and knocked on institutional doors while trying to keep her family stable.

“At that time, I had three children, and school fees did not pause because I was transitioning,” she says quietly.

Prof Wambua says children learn resilience by watching how adults handle difficult seasons, not from perfect circumstances.

“Children don’t need perfection,” she says. “They need to see courage.”

She believes many parents tie a child’s worth too closely to grades, forgetting that “potential needs patience.”

Her career later shifted into digital learning at Kenya Methodist University, where she saw talented students excluded by geography and circumstance.

“There had to be a better way,” she says.Determined to help shape that future, she pursued a PhD in Distance Education at the University of Nairobi while raising three children and working full-time. Much of her research and coursework happened late at night after family responsibilities were complete.

“Earlier, I only wanted a Master’s degree,” she says with a laugh. “But God expanded the assignment.”

Her work gradually focused on building credible systems for digital learning — developing quality standards, training frameworks and institutional structures that would allow online education to gain legitimacy and respect within higher education.

In 2023, while serving at African Nazarene University as Coordinator of Postgraduate Programmes in the Department of Education, she founded the Distance, Open and e-Learning Practitioners’ Association of Kenya (DOLPAK). Supported by ANU Vice Chancellor Dr Stanley Bhebhe and Deputy Vice Chancellor Rodney Reed, the initiative began as a collaborative professional platform.

A year later, it expanded into DOLPA-EA, a regional body now spanning seven countries and more than 50 universities across East Africa.

Prof Wambua still remembers key meetings with the Commission for University Education that helped shape national conversations around online learning standards.

“I remember the room clearly,” she says. “A long table and serious faces, but I knew I was not there to network. I was there to legitimise a model.”

Those conversations contributed to strengthening policies and standards for open and distance learning in Kenya and the region.

Today, Prof Wambua sits on the CROSSREF Board; a global nonprofit organisation supporting scholarly publishing and digital object identifiers — and also consults for the Commonwealth of Learning. Yet despite the titles and recognition, she insists her greatest influence begins at home.

“I was studying for my Master’s with one child in grade four and two in kindergarten,” she recalls. “They saw me read. They saw me submit assignments. They saw me tired, but disciplined.”

She often reminds parents that children learn more from observation than instruction.

“If your actions are so loud, your children cannot hear your lectures,” she says.

Her message to families is simple: stop comparing children, nurture curiosity, and focus on character beyond grades.

“Comparison damages confidence,” she says. “Adaptability strengthens it.”

Though she now holds influential roles in global education, Prof Wambua says legacy matters more than titles.

“I want to leave permanent footprints,” she reflects.