Wanjiku has been teaching Gender and Development on a part-time basis at the African Women’s Studies’ Centre of the University of Nairobi since 2019. She has nearly 18 years of international development experience in East and Southern Africa, in the areas of decentralized governance, public policy analysis and engagement; community-based development programming and gender. She has worked in these roles in Kenya, Ethiopia, Uganda, Tanzania, Malawi, Mozambique, Rwanda and Zambia. In these countries, she has worked on strengthening the capacity of local governments and non-state actors; and in supporting initiatives that mobilize localized action and resources. 

She has solid experience in project life cycle management, including project design, community mobilization, project evaluation and impact assessment. She has built substantive experience in research and capacity development for CSOs and governance institutions in citizen engagement and gender mainstreaming.  Her other areas of gender specialization relate to the critical gender/energy and gender/agriculture nexus. In these roles, she has worked for organizations such as the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), Practical Action East Africa, Acumen, Africa Enterprise Challenge Fund, Tetratech International, ForumCiv, SoCha, County Assemblies Forum, the Agile and Harmonized Assistance to Devolved Institutions (AHADI), Columbia Global Centre in Africa, SNV, among others. 

Her Doctoral Degree at the University of Nairobi in 2015 focused on Kenya’s devolution process, specifically looking at gender and agency in devolution. She holds a MSc. in Public Policy and Management (2011) from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) of the University of London. She completed her M.A in 2005 and B.A in 1998, both from the University of Nairobi.