Eddah Gachukia

Eddah Wacheke Gachukia (born 13 July 1936) is a Kenyan educationist and entrepreneur. She is a co-founder of the Riara Group of Schools that includes Riara University.

Quotes

"Strength Of A Woman: Eddah Gachukia" (2014)

"Strength Of A Woman: Eddah Gachukia", Kenya Citizen TV (March 8, 2014)

• Girls education benefits on herself, her family, her community, her nation.

• Unless all our children are in school, we can’t talk about development. Development will not come from minerals and oil; it will come from the people themselves. It is the way they think and how productive they are in whatever they do
  • On Africa’s development and the value of education

• We need to train thinkers and innovators. These are people who can make it wherever they go
  • On Africa’s development and the value of education

• Family is central as far as we are concerned l guess that why we have always been partners.

• Educating a girl is educating a nation. When you educate a woman, you have educated a whole community

• If teacher are professional and they know any child can learn, any student can learn any subject literally the children will do well.
• My father was very progressive and forward thinking. He was a teacher in Nairobi who was earning next to nothing. My mother had also gone to school and passed. She had attended what is now known as Mary Leaky Girls High School.
  • Edda Gachukia – Dedicated educationist who bravely champions for women’s causesSectors.kenyayearbooks.go.ke( April 26, 2022)
• “Because of the sharpening from my mother and because my sister and brother were already in school, I was eager to learn what they had learned.”
  • Edda Gachukia – Dedicated educationist who bravely champions for women’s causesSectors.kenyayearbooks.go.ke( April 26, 2022)
• “I remember a woman I was with in standard four coming back as our teacher in standard five. It was funny because she wasn’t particularly sharp, but she was mature and there was a shortage of teachers.”
  • Edda Gachukia – Dedicated educationist who bravely champions for women’s causesSectors.kenyayearbooks.go.ke( April 26, 2022)
• “I was in a class of 20 students, 19 of whom were boys. You don’t know what that does to your confidence, as a little girl coming from far in the company of boys.”
  • Edda Gachukia – Dedicated educationist who bravely champions for women’s causesSectors.kenyayearbooks.go.ke( April 26, 2022)
• “I would arrive school soaked in rain and he would take me to his house so that I could dry up and change my clothes. These were the peculiarities of the day.”
  • Edda Gachukia – Dedicated educationist who bravely champions for women’s causesSectors.kenyayearbooks.go.ke( April 26, 2022)
• “The principal looked at me and denied me entrance as he thought I was too small. My sister was already schooling there and I was dying to join her.”
  • Edda Gachukia – Dedicated educationist who bravely champions for women’s causesSectors.kenyayearbooks.go.ke( April 26, 2022)
• “Small incidents like those stayed with me.”
  • Edda Gachukia – Dedicated educationist who bravely champions for women’s causesSectors.kenyayearbooks.go.ke( April 26, 2022)
• “A former schoolmate who had proceeded to African Girls came to visit wearing her khaki uniform and green tie. It was that green tie that I went after not the education,”
  • Edda Gachukia – Dedicated educationist who bravely champions for women’s causesSectors.kenyayearbooks.go.ke( April 26, 2022)
• “It was a positive experience because it exposed me to girls from all over Kenya at an early age.”
  • Edda Gachukia – Dedicated educationist who bravely champions for women’s causesSectors.kenyayearbooks.go.ke( April 26, 2022)
• I remain good friends with many of my schoolmates from African Girls High School. Many of them became teachers
  • Edda Gachukia – Dedicated educationist who bravely champions for women’s causesSectors.kenyayearbooks.go.ke( April 26, 2022)
• “If I was to repeat my life, it would be my time at African Girls High School. I especially enjoyed boarding school because I was able to escape the work at home.”
  • Edda Gachukia – Dedicated educationist who bravely champions for women’s causesSectors.kenyayearbooks.go.ke( April 26, 2022)
• “I tried very hard to carry water but I always experienced pain in my neck. If you have gone through such challenges you want to obsessively be part of bringing change for women and girls. Boys never did such work. My brothers only had to take the cattle for grazing but the girls had numerous tasks. The world to me was always unequal especially for girls.”
  • Edda Gachukia – Dedicated educationist who bravely champions for women’s causesSectors.kenyayearbooks.go.ke( April 26, 2022)
• “I really wanted to help women overcome some of the societal challenges that bogged them down.”
  • Edda Gachukia – Dedicated educationist who bravely champions for women’s causesSectors.kenyayearbooks.go.ke( April 26, 2022)
• . “My mother died in childbirth. That has been the root of my passion in advocating for reproductive health.”
  • Edda Gachukia – Dedicated educationist who bravely champions for women’s causesSectors.kenyayearbooks.go.ke( April 26, 2022)
• “We saw the house and liked it, so we purchased it and moved in. The little school was full of European children. When people realised we had taken it over, they brought their children.”
  • Edda Gachukia – Dedicated educationist who bravely champions for women’s causesSectors.kenyayearbooks.go.ke( April 26, 2022)
• “We were convinced by our parents to start a standard one with some three children who had just completed nursery school.”
  • Edda Gachukia – Dedicated educationist who bravely champions for women’s causesSectors.kenyayearbooks.go.ke( April 26, 2022)
• “In 1998 we realised a lot of the children who come here come from Eastlands. We managed to get a plot there and built a school with a kindergarten, primaryschool and girls secondary school which is a boarding.”
  • Edda Gachukia – Dedicated educationist who bravely champions for women’s causesSectors.kenyayearbooks.go.ke( April 26, 2022)
• “Education in Kenya is one of the areas heavily invested in, but because of population, demand surpasses supply. I’m glad no child can be sent back home. It took going beyond the budget to mobilise every available resource and I’m privileged to have chaired the Task Force.”
  • Edda Gachukia – Dedicated educationist who bravely champions for women’s causesSectors.kenyayearbooks.go.ke( April 26, 2022)
• “The university is more of my husband than myself. I was feeling too old to take on the project but he was really determined. Every year he studies the statistics on how many students enroll in form four, how many pass to go to university and how many enroll in university. After finding that only 10% entered university, it became his obsession to meet a fraction of the demand.”
  • Edda Gachukia – Dedicated educationist who bravely champions for women’s causesSectors.kenyayearbooks.go.ke( April 26, 2022)
• “I visited Starehe Boys Centre in 1963 and seeing what Dr. Griffin was doing left a lasting impression.”
  • Edda Gachukia – Dedicated educationist who bravely champions for women’s causesSectors.kenyayearbooks.go.ke( April 26, 2022)
• “It is good for us at this age.”
  • Edda Gachukia – Dedicated educationist who bravely champions for women’s causesSectors.kenyayearbooks.go.ke( April 26, 2022)
• “If by the end of the day I have visited the kindergarten, lower and upper primary as well the high school and university, I feel happy and humbled by God’s blessings.”
  • Edda Gachukia – Dedicated educationist who bravely champions for women’s causesSectors.kenyayearbooks.go.ke( April 26, 2022)
• “Life changes so fast.”
  • Edda Gachukia – Dedicated educationist who bravely champions for women’s causesSectors.kenyayearbooks.go.ke( April 26, 2022)
• “We still have a lot to do regarding gender matters.”
  • Edda Gachukia – Dedicated educationist who bravely champions for women’s causesSectors.kenyayearbooks.go.ke( April 26, 2022)
• “You cannot separate development from education.”
  • Edda Gachukia – Dedicated educationist who bravely champions for women’s causesSectors.kenyayearbooks.go.ke( April 26, 2022)
• “Kenya is one of the most heavily invested in education, but because of population, demand surpassed supply.”
  • Edda Gachukia – Dedicated educationist who bravely champions for women’s causesSectors.kenyayearbooks.go.ke( April 26, 2022)
• “Every two months I meet 12 of my schoolmates at African Girls High School. We decided we wont meet at our funerals.”
  • Edda Gachukia – Dedicated educationist who bravely champions for women’s causesSectors.kenyayearbooks.go.ke( April 26, 2022)
• “We visit and worship together. As you grow old you learn to appreciate the Lord more.”
  • Edda Gachukia – Dedicated educationist who bravely champions for women’s causesSectors.kenyayearbooks.go.ke( April 26, 2022)
• I thank God that my husband and I still enjoy each other’s company. We may at times not share the same views especially in politics, but we agreed a long time ago that we are friends and we work well together on projects.
  • Edda Gachukia – Dedicated educationist who bravely champions for women’s causesSectors.kenyayearbooks.go.ke( April 26, 2022)
• “If I write my memoir I’ll have a lot to say about the fun times I had with my children.”
  • Edda Gachukia – Dedicated educationist who bravely champions for women’s causesSectors.kenyayearbooks.go.ke( April 26, 2022)
• “At least 51 percent of school-age girls are out of school.”
  • KENYA: Teachers Blamed For Girls’ Poor PerformanceIPS News(October 18, 1997)
• "We want Kenyans to be seen to be promoters of justice in education,"
  • Feature - Cost of free educationThe New Humanitarian( March 25,2003)
• "We need to accommodate all the children including all those with special needs. There should be no exclusion in this period of inclusion."
  • Feature - Cost of free educationThe New Humanitarian( March 25,2003)