The Nairobi Institute of Reformed Theology (NIRT) was established in 2022 by Ekklesia Afrika, a ministry of Emmanuel Baptist Church devoted to equipping pastors and building healthy churches across Africa. NIRT offers a four-year, MDiv-level program created in response to the need among local pastors and churches for rigorous, graduate-level theological training that is theologically orthodox, Reformed, and accessible within East Africa.
There are few Master’s-level theological programs in Kenya. Among those that exist, none maintain a distinct commitment to Reformed theology, and high academic standards and even basic Christian orthodoxy are often lacking. Moreover, in line with broader trends across the continent, many theological programs emphasize applied disciplines—such as missiology—without providing a robust foundation in the core areas of exegesis, biblical theology, and systematic theology. This imbalance has contributed to a pattern of African theological discourse in which culture and context tend to govern theology instead of Scripture. The vision of NIRT, then, is to serve local churches in Kenya and beyond by helping to raise up lay Christians, pastors, and pastor-scholars who can lead others to navigate the temptations and perplexities of this world by the light of Scripture.
NIRT courses meet ATS (Association of Theological Schools) standards, but at present, NIRT operates as a church-based educational program and is not yet accredited within Kenya. It is, however, actively pursuing local partnerships to offer recognized certification. NIRT also maintains a partnership with Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary (PRTS) in the United States, through which students may pursue an MA degree by combining NIRT classes with PRTS’s online courses at a significantly reduced cost. In addition, NIRT is in talks with seminaries in the United States and Europe about admitting students into advanced theological programs upon completion of NIRT’s program.
