Kenneth Kamwi Matengu (born 1978 in

Katima Mulilo Katima Mulilo or simply Katima is the capital of the Zambezi Region in Namibia. It had 46,401 inhabitants in 2023, and comprises two electoral constituencies, Katima Mulilo Rural and Katima Mulilo Urban. It is located on the B8 national roa ...

Namibia Namibia, officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country on the west coast of Southern Africa. Its borders include the Atlantic Ocean to the west, Angola and Zambia to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south; in the no ...

) is a

n professor and vice-chancellor of the

University of Namibia The University of Namibia (UNAM) is a multi-campus public research university in Namibia, and the largest university in the country. It was established by an act of Parliament on 31 August 1992. Background UNAM comprises the following fac ...

since August 2018, replacing Prof.

Lazarus Hangula Lazarus Hangula was vice-chancellor of the University of Namibia (UNAM), from 2004 to 2018. He replaced Peter Katjavivi, who left to become an ambassador for Namibia. Hangula earned his M.A. and Ph.D. (both ''cum laude'') from the Johannes Gutenber ...

. He was Pro-Vice Chancellor for Research, Innovation and Resources Mobilization at the

from 2016 to 2018. On 29 June 2018, Matengu was appointed as the third

vice-chancellor A vice-chancellor (commonly called a VC) serves as the chief executive of a university in the United Kingdom, New Zealand, Australia, Nepal, India, Bangladesh, Malaysia, Nigeria, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, South Africa, Kenya, other Commonwealth of Nati ...

of the

, becoming the youngest person to assume the position.

Education

Matengu did his

high school A secondary school, high school, or senior school, is an institution that provides secondary education. Some secondary schools provide both ''lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper secondary education'' (ages 14 to 18), i.e., ...

at Caprivi Senior Secondary. He holds a Certificate in International Relations from the

University of Tampere The University of Tampere (UTA) (, ) was a public university in Tampere, Finland that was merged with Tampere University of Technology to create the new Tampere University on 1 January 2019. The university offered undergraduate, postgraduate an ...

, Bachelor's degree in Geography and Sociology from the

, Doctor of Philosophy, Ph.D (exemia cum laude) in Innovation Diffusion and Development from the

University of Eastern Finland The University of Eastern Finland () is a university in Finland, which was founded in 2010 and has campuses in Joensuu and Kuopio. History The Finnish Parliament passed the Universities Act on June 16, 2009, which, among other things, extende ...

. He has published 50 peer review articles, books and book chapters, as well as international conference papers.hosts inaugural conference of IGU Commission on African Studies
Devdiscourse

References

1978 births Living people People from Katima Mulilo University of Tampere alumni University of Namibia alumni University of Eastern Finland alumni Academic staff of the University of Namibia {{Namibia-bio-stub