Fredrick Kyalo Manthi

The Prehistory Club based at the National Museums of Kenya has in the last 15 years engaged with over 50,000 high school and university students in Kenya. The activities of the Club which include lectures on human evolution have undoubtedly helped in demystifying views held by most Kenyans about human evolution. In 2007 and 2011, support from the Wenner-Gren Foundation enabled the Prehistory Club to organize workshops in Nairobi that brought together over 300 high school teachers from across Kenya. In attendance during the 2011 workshop were also teachers from Uganda, Malawi and Tanzania. The workshops, dubbed ‘Building bridges between prehistory and religion”, enabled teachers share with scientists from across the World their experiences and challenges in teaching human evolution. It is believed that the knowledge and experiences the teachers acquired have benefited large numbers of students. Past outreach programs by the Club targeted regions that neighbor Nairobi. In 2023, support from the Wenner-Gren enabled the Club to successfully hold presentations on human evolution in marginalized parts of Kenya, including the Lake Turkana Basin from where the bulk of the World-famous human fossils derive. Indeed, these engagements enabled students and teachers to appreciate the importance of paleosciences to understanding ancient ecosystems.