Kenda Mutongi was born and raised in a small village in western Kenya. She is a social and cultural historian of postcolonial Africa; her work is interdisciplinary, and combines ethnographic research with narrative history in order to analyze the often-overlooked everyday mundane experiences of ordinary Africans. She is currently working on a book that focuses on the history of schooling in post-colonial Kenya. Mutongi is Professor of History at MIT.