Mike Wamaya, founder of Project Elimu. Photo: Project Elimu
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Mike Wamaya and Project Elimu: the ballet school that put Kibera children on the Kenya National Theatre stage.
Kibera Creatives is a KNN series on the artists, designers and performers who built their names from Kibera. Profiles are compiled from published reports and the subjects' own public pages; sources are listed at the end. Spotted an error? Write to news@kibranewsnetwork.co.ke.
Michael "Mike" Wamaya is a former professional dancer who trained with the Kenya Performing Arts Group and performed in Europe. In 2009 he joined the UK charity Anno's Africa as a dance instructor and began teaching ballet in Kibera, at Spurgeons Academy and KAG School, and in Mathare, using the Royal Academy of Dance syllabus.
When Al Jazeera photographed his Wednesday class at Spurgeons Academy in September 2016, almost 30 children were taking part, and the best of them were training at Dance Centre Kenya in Karen.
The Global Teacher Prize
In 2017 Wamaya was named one of the ten finalists for the Varkey Foundation's Global Teacher Prize, chosen from 20,000 nominations in 179 countries. He was the only African in the top ten. The same year he founded Project Elimu, the word is Swahili for education, and its Kibera Ballet School.
Voices of Kibra to Kibra Rising
In 2018 the school staged Voices of Kibra, a ballet with 120 children, performed on 24 October and 30 November. It was produced by Poland's Kulczyk Foundation, Project Elimu's first funder. By 2020 the organisation was running after-school clubs in 25 schools, reaching 413 children, and had built a movable dance floor at its Kibera centre.
Its annual showcase, Kibra Rising, was scheduled for the Kenya National Theatre on 24 August 2025. On 31 October 2025 the Kulczyk Foundation began building the Stella & Adam Center as Project Elimu's new headquarters; the foundation says the current centre receives about 500 visitors a day. In its October 2026 report, Project Elimu said 231 students took part in the April 2026 holiday programme and more than 200 were expected for the November to December programme.
"Dance is for everyone," Wamaya told the Christian Science Monitor in August 2025. His other line is shorter: "Slum is in the mind."
Sources: Christian Science Monitor, 25 Aug 2025; Al Jazeera, 14 Sep 2016; Nation, 2017; Global Teacher Prize, 2017; Kulczyk Foundation, 31 Oct 2025; Project Elimu reports on GlobalGiving, 2026; GlobalGiving, 2020.
That was a Kibra News Network report, read by an A I voice.
Kibera Creatives is a KNN series on the artists, designers and performers who built their names from Kibera. Profiles are compiled from published reports and the subjects’ own public pages; sources are listed at the end. Spotted an error? Write to news@kibranewsnetwork.co.ke.
Michael “Mike” Wamaya is a former professional dancer who trained with the Kenya Performing Arts Group and performed in Europe. In 2009 he joined the UK charity Anno’s Africa as a dance instructor and began teaching ballet in Kibera, at Spurgeons Academy and KAG School, and in Mathare, using the Royal Academy of Dance syllabus.
When Al Jazeera photographed his Wednesday class at Spurgeons Academy in September 2016, almost 30 children were taking part, and the best of them were training at Dance Centre Kenya in Karen.
The Global Teacher Prize
In 2017 Wamaya was named one of the ten finalists for the Varkey Foundation’s Global Teacher Prize, chosen from 20,000 nominations in 179 countries. He was the only African in the top ten. The same year he founded Project Elimu, the word is Swahili for education, and its Kibera Ballet School.
Voices of Kibra to Kibra Rising
In 2018 the school staged Voices of Kibra, a ballet with 120 children, performed on 24 October and 30 November. It was produced by Poland’s Kulczyk Foundation, Project Elimu’s first funder. By 2020 the organisation was running after-school clubs in 25 schools, reaching 413 children, and had built a movable dance floor at its Kibera centre.
Its annual showcase, Kibra Rising, was scheduled for the Kenya National Theatre on 24 August 2025. On 31 October 2025 the Kulczyk Foundation began building the Stella & Adam Center as Project Elimu’s new headquarters; the foundation says the current centre receives about 500 visitors a day. In its October 2026 report, Project Elimu said 231 students took part in the April 2026 holiday programme and more than 200 were expected for the November to December programme.
“Dance is for everyone,” Wamaya told the Christian Science Monitor in August 2025. His other line is shorter: “Slum is in the mind.”
KNN Newsroom is the staff byline for stories written, rewritten and edited at the Kibra News Network desk. Where a story credits an outside outlet, the original source is linked at the foot of the piece.
