I earned my Ph.D. degree in Public and International Affairs in 2004 from Northeastern University, Boston, Massachusetts, in the United States. My major concentration was in Comparative Politics and International Relations. Prior to that, I studied for my B.A. in Political Science and Linguistics and M.A. in International Relations at the University of Nairobi, Kenya. I have taught at Rhodes College in Memphis, Tennessee since the fall of 2005. I was tenured and promoted to Associate Professor in 2011 and then promoted to full Professor in 2018. I have previously taught at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville, Northeastern University in Boston, University of Nairobi, Kenya, and Kenyatta University, Kenya. In 2012, I was awarded Rhodes College's Clarence Day award for Excellence in Research and Creative Activity and in 2016 I received the Ali Mazrui Award for Research and Scholarly Excellence from the University of Texas at Austin. Some of my publications include the following:

1. Contending Political Paradigms in Africa: Rationality and the Politics of Democratization in Kenya and Zambia
2. The Roots of Ethnic COnflict in Africa: From Grievance to Violence.
3. The African Search for Stable Forms of Statehood: Essays in Political Criticism
4. Regime Change and Succession Politics in Africa
5. Kenya: The Struggle for Democracy
6. Gendering African Social Spaces: Power, Women, and Cultural Expressions
7. Contentious Politics in Africa: Identity, Conflict, and Social Change
8. The Human Rights Sector in Kenya: Key Issues and Challenges