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Braeburn Imani International School is an international co-education day and boarding school welcoming students from all over Africa and beyond.
The school is situated off Thika Highway on Mang’u Road, near Thika town, about an hour’s drive north of Nairobi.
The school was founded in 1969 by the Kenya Canners Ltd (now Del Monte Ltd) and has grown from a single building to a fully integrated complex with a kindergarten, primary and secondary school sections.
It has its own swimming pools and playing fields, as well as a shooting range and its own horses, plus plenty of space to ride them.
Braeburn Group of International Schools acquired the grounds in 2013 and relocated from its original Del Monte pineapple plantation to the nearby 20-acre piece of land and renamed it Braeburn Imani International School.
The school offers National Curriculum of England and Wales to about 200 pupils aged between three and 18 years; 60 of whom are full boarders. IGCSE, AS and A2 examinations are taken, at the school that also offers a bridging, one-year programme for pupils from schools that have gone through the 8-4-4 system and wish to enrol in European universities.
Learners here are treated to special, well-balanced meals every day and are also advised to carry packed meals from home. Nutrition teachers regularly talk to students about their meal preferences and adjust the menu accordingly.
This is a school you go to if your parents are loaded. School fee goes up to more than Sh1 million per year depending on grade and activities students are involved in.
Imani’s parent, Braeburn School, also has an interesting story. Its roots go back to 1968 when a kindergarten was opened by an English woman in a house (long since demolished) that was located in what now is the car park at the front of the present school on Gitanga Road
The name ‘Braeburn’ has its origins from “Burnbrae”, which was the colonial name for this part of Nairobi. Burn and Brae, in turn, is the Scottish “burn” for stream and “brae” for hill.
This is where Julie Gichuru, an entrepreneur and media personality who worked at Royal Media Services’ Citizen TV during her heydays, sharpened her skills. She is now a director at Acumen Communication Limited and is a trustee of the Africa Leadership Initiative EA.
After spending time at Loreto Convent Msongari School, Julie, convinced her parents to transfer her from the local 8-4-4 system to a GCE boarding school and that’s how she joined Imani School in Thika in the early nineties for Form 3 and 4.
Many alumni of Braeburn go for further studies in overseas universities and venture into academic research, arts, music and business.
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