Peter Tabichi
Peter Mokaya Tabichi is a Kenyan science teacher, Franciscan brother, and global education advocate whose work proves that brilliant minds can blossom in the most resource-scarce classrooms. A physics and mathematics teacher at Keriko Mixed Day Secondary School in semi-arid Pwani, Nakuru County, he won the US $1 million Global Teacher Prize in 2019, the first African to do so, after his learners beat wealthier, well-resourced schools in national STEM contests and reached the Intel International Science & Engineering Fair with a drought-resistant crop project.
Tabichi still donates about 80 percent of his salary and prize money to scholarships, uniforms, solar lamps, and community micro-projects. He founded talent-nurturing, peace, and environmental clubs that unite students from rival pastoral communities and run tree-planting drives along the drought-stricken Rift Valley. His after-school coding circle now feeds competitors to Kenya’s annual Robotics Boot Camp.
Named a UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador for Science and Youth in 2020 and a United Nations SDG Champion in 2022, Tabichi advises on girls’ STEM policies and regularly addresses global forums, from COP 27 to the Vatican’s Education Summit, on equity in learning. Most recently he launched the Tabichi STEM Fellowship, which pairs rural Kenyan teachers with volunteer mentors from MIT and Strathmore University, multiplying his vision of curiosity, compassion, and academic excellence across the continent.