About Kenyan
EARLY YEARS
I am a fourth-generation Washingtonian and native of Ward 5, raised in a working-class family of six in the Stronghold neighborhood of Northeast. My parents, an electrician and a library technician taught my three siblings and me the importance of family, hard work, education, and public service. I attended Shaed Elementary in Edgewood, St. Anthony Grade School in Brookland, and graduated from Woodrow Wilson Jackson-Reed high school, where I played varsity basketball.
After graduating high school, I worked as a mail carrier for the U.S. Postal Service. Initially enrolling at the University of the District of Columbia, I eventually transferred to and graduated summa cum laude from Howard University with a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science and Community Development. I am the first man in my family ever to graduate from college.
PUBLIC SERVICE
After college, I began to lay the foundation of my career in public service by working as a staffer in the United States House of Representatives for Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton, a role that provided me with an understanding of constituent services and the federal legislative process. My experience working for Congresswoman Norton inspired me to enroll in law school at the University of Maryland School of Law, where I was an editor of the law school’s Journal of Race, Religion, Gender and Class. My coursework and experience on the journal would leave a lasting impression on me and fuel my desire to help those seeking justice from our judicial system.
After law school, I worked as a law clerk for an Associate Judge on the 7th Judicial Circuit of Maryland. I then served as an Assistant State’s Attorney in Prince George’s County. I saw first-hand where the justice system worked as well as where it fell short of dispensing fair and equal justice, especially for individuals from our most underserved communities. I joined the Civil Rights Division of the United States Department of Justice (DOJ), where, as a trial attorney, I enforced key federal civil rights laws in cases throughout the country. My caseload at the DOJ included defending the civil rights of the mentally ill, nursing home residents, persons with disabilities, and other vulnerable populations.
Being a civil rights trial attorney for the DOJ was my dream job. But at the same time, I saw too many people living in my community continue to struggle, missing out on the prosperity of the economic revitalization the city had experienced since my teenage years in the 1980s and 1990s. I could not ignore the strong feeling of wanting to do more for the neighborhood and city that helped to shape my life’s trajectory. Armed with a passion for my community and a deep sense of purpose, I became president of my neighborhood civic association and took a job as a policy advisor with the Deputy Mayor for Public Safety and Justice, where I worked first-hand with executive and Council officials to shape policy and legislation in the District of Columbia.
FAMILY
My wife, Princess, and I live in my childhood home in Stronghold with our two daughters, Kesi and Jozi. I am very proud of them and can’t thank Princess enough for being the rock in my life. I will leave it at that before I embarrass them anymore.
