Professor Isabella Njeri Wachira Towey is a Kenyan Scholar and senior lecturer at the University of Nairobi.
Wachira has been named as the first female Professor of Quantity Surveying in Kenya in 2026, marking a significant milestone in the country’s built environment and higher education sector.
Her elevation to professorship highlights years of academic excellence, professional practice, and her contribution to the construction sector dominated by men.
The University of Nairobi, where she serves as a Senior Lecturer, has celebrated her achievement, reflecting both personal accomplishment and resilience in advancing inclusivity in a traditionally male-dominated profession.
Isabella Njeri Early Life and Education
Isabella Njeri Towey was born and raised in Kenya, with her education journey focused on engineering and construction management, which has shaped her career path.
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In her higher Education, Wachira joined the University of Nairobi to pursue a Bachelor of Arts in Building Economics.
She later advanced her education internationally with a Master of Engineering in Project Management from Concordia University in Canada, where she developed expertise in project planning, execution, and management systems in the construction sector.
With a passion for construction in a male-dominated field, she enrolled for a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Construction Management from the University of Cape Town, South Africa, one of Africa’s leading institutions for built environment studies.
Professional Career and Academic Leadership
Professor Isabella Njeri is a registered Quantity Surveyor with the Board of Registration of Architects and Quantity Surveyors (BORAQS), Kenya.
She is also a Lead Quality Auditor with the Kenya Bureau of Standards (KEBS), where she contributes to quality assurance frameworks and standards compliance in construction and related industries.
In addition, she is recognized as a Fellow Arbitrator with the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (CIArb) Kenya/UK.
Academically, she serves as a Senior Lecturer at the University of Nairobi, Faculty of the Built Environment and Design, Department of Real Estate, Construction Management and Quantity Surveying.
As a senior lecturer, she is involved in teaching, research supervision, curriculum development, and mentoring of undergraduate and postgraduate students.
Her research interests are in the construction industry, including labour management, occupational health and safety, training and capacity building, gender issues in construction, and the application of new technologies.
Through her research work, she has contributed to discussions on improving workforce efficiency, enhancing safety standards on construction sites, and addressing gender disparities in the sector.
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Wachira has published and contributed to academic research with several publications for her academic award and students’ supervision at The University of Nairobi, including:
- Management of Steel Reinforcement Works Procedures and Their Impact on the Health of Workers in Building Construction Sites in Nairobi County, Kenya
- Predictive Model for Project Construction Labour Productivity versus Flow of Project Materials and Components
- Research on ethics management in construction project environments. She was the academic supervisor and contributor
- Studies on public-private partnerships (PPPs) for affordable housing in Kenya, analyzing implementation challenges and opportunities
- Informal labour in the construction industry in Kenya: A case study of Nairobi
- Labour management in Kenya
- The Construction Industry in the 21st Century: Its Image, Employment Prospects and Skill
- An investigation into the training of labour in the informal construction sector in Kenya
- An Investigation into the use of construction management softwares: A survey of construction
- Labour Productivity in the Construction industry in Kenya
- Informal labour in the construction industry in Kenya: A case study of Nairobi Sectoral
- Informal Labour in The Construction Industry in Kenya
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