Speakers and panellists

Wanjiru Koinange is a writer, restorer of libraries and entrepreneur from Nairobi, Kenya. Her debut novel, The Havoc of Choice was published in London and Nairobi in 2019 and 2020 respectively and was a national bestseller in 2020-2022. It has also been translated to and published in Arabic in October 2022 and was re-issued in the UK in 2023. The novel, which chronicles events surrounding Kenya’s 2007 general election, has been described as “one of the best accounts of the new Africa in years.”

Dr. David Njengere, MBS is the Chief Executive Officer and Accounting Officer of the Kenya National Examinations Council since 1 July 2021. He is the Secretary to the Council and Chairperson of the Senior Management. He is responsible for spearheading partnerships of the Council. He is mandated to run the Council affairs; ensuring that the mission is achieved. He holds a PhD in Education, Master of Philosophy in English and Bachelor of Education in English and Literature.

Leketi Makalela is a full professor and founding Director of the Hub for Multilingual Education and Literacies at the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa. He is a Distinguished Visiting Professor at City University of New York. His research areas include translanguaging, multilingual education and literacies. He pioneered a globally acclaimed theoretical model: “ubuntu translanguaging” and its pedagogical equivalent, “ubuntu translanguaging pedagogy”.

Dr. Mugisha Annet Kajura is a Teacher by profession who specialized in Teacher Education. She has worked as a Primary School Teacher, Tutor in Primary Teachers’ College, Inspector of Schools. She is currently working with Ministry of Education and Sports in Uganda as Assistant Commissioner, Teacher Education Training (AC/TET), Teacher Education Training and Development Department, Ministry of Education and Sports.

Dr Harry Kuchah is Associate Professor of Language, Social Justice and Education at the School of Education, University of Birmingham, UK. He has been a consultant on different aspects of language policy and practice for the Council of Europe and the British Council. His research interests include teaching languages to young learners, English medium education and context appropriate pedagogies and he has published widely in these areas.

Dr Mary Goretti Nakabugo is Executive Director of Uwezo Uganda, giving the organisation strategic leadership and directing its research agenda and evidence sharing. She is a Board member and Secretary of the Regional Education Learning Initiative Africa (RELI Africa) and is co-Principal Investigator of its flagship program on Assessment & Action for Life Skills and Values in East Africa (ALiVE). 

Dr. Michael Tusiime is a Fulbright Alumni and a faculty Member at the University of Rwanda- College of Education. Michael specializes in learning assessment and curriculum development. His other research interests include teacher professionalization, agency, language, and identity. He is a principal investigator of the USAID-funded Language of Instruction Transition and other projects focusing on transformative education.

Dr Alessia Cogo is Senior Lecturer in Applied Linguistics and Editor-in-Chief of ELT Journal. She researches English diversity, English as a Lingua Franca and translanguaging from a sociolinguistic perspective and in relation to teacher education and critical language pedagogy. She is the director of the Centre for Multilingualism with English and has been involved in EMI projects in Brazil and Thailand, exploring language practices from a social justice and decolonised perspective.  

Kadidja holds a Ph.D. in Applied Linguistics and a Master’s in TESOL and an alumna of Fulbright and African Futures Research Leadership Program at Michigan State University. She's an asst. professor of TESOL at Ecole Normale d’Enseignement Technique et Professionnel and University of Arts and Humanities, Mali. Her research includes 2nd language assessment, literacy development, and directed motivational currents. A guest co-editor of the journal Language Learning and Technology.

Barry is the British Council’s Head of English Language Research. He has worked on test development and validation projects globally and advises ministries and institutions on assessment policy and practice. He is the founding president of the UK Association of Language Testing and Assessment, holds a visiting professorship at the University of Reading, UK, and is Advisory Professor at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China. He was awarded an OBE for his contribution to language testing.