Janet Muthoni -Ouko is a governance and education rights advocacy specialist. She heads the Elimu Yetu Coalition, which represents the national civil society education movement in Kenya. Ms. Muthoni-Ouko also serves on the Board of Directors of the Global Partnership for Education representing the Developing Countries Civil Society constituency.
She has been at the forefront of citizen demand for education reform in Kenya since 2005; since then, she has seen the sector transforming through the constitution-making process to acknowledge education as a social economic right and to recognise the role of citizen participation in processes.
She has led Kenyan education civil society in supporting the Ministry of Education to realign itself to the Constitution of Kenya and Vision 2030, which is Kenya’s medium-term development blueprint. She has headed several national level working groups within the education sector and was in 2012 appointed by the Minister for Education to chair the selection panel for the first National Education Board, whose role is to advise the minister on education policy matters.
She was appointed by the Cabinet Secretary for Education to sit on the taskforce on affordable secondary education. Ms. Muthoni-Ouko was also appointed by the Governor of Nairobi City County, Dr. Evans Kidero, to serve as Vice Chair to the task force to improve performance of public schools in Nairobi County.
She began her career in governance and education rights activism at Moi University where she was the Secretary-General of Moi University Student Organisation (MUSO). She is a graduate of management from Moi University School of Business and is currently undertaking a Master of Business Administration in Project Planning Monitoring and Evaluation in Kenyatta University.
Ouko resigned on Monday, citing challenges including a small number of schools against a large population.
Ms Ouko, whose resignation is effective January 31, said she will pursue “other interests”.
She said she had submitted her resignation letter to Governor Mike Sonko and was awaiting his response.