He was educated at Kenyatta College, receiving a Bachelor of Education (Swahili Language), and later studied at Yale University, gaining an Master of Arts in Anthropological Linguistics and a Doctor of Philosophy in Swahili Language Linguistics.
He has served as an executive secretary of the Inter-University Council for East Africa (2000–2010), and was the first Chief Executive Officer of the Kenyan Higher Education Loans Board (1995–2000). He is currently serving as the pro chancellor at Mount Kenya University and the dean of the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at the United States International University Africa. He has been a Tutorial Fellow and Lecturer in Swahili Language and Linguistics at Kenyatta University and later Egerton University in Kenya.
