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 There are many wonderful things that exist
in the country Kenya today. It has beautiful land and animals and an amazing culture,
but there is one issue that is affecting many people in Kenya.
That issue is their education. Education is something that everyone should get to experience,
but that isn’t the case in Kenya. Most of the kids there do not have the
opportunity to attend school.
Kenya has a poor education system because it is not sufficient enough to support most of the
kids in Kenya. The government doesn’t fund the education system with enough money which
results in a poor school system. The Kenyan education system is severely underfunded.
In past years the government said that they would make education free in Kenya, but nothing is ever free.
While the education is technically "free", families still need to try and pay for the cost of uniforms, supplies, and books (School).
The government also doesn’t want to fund public schools that would be built so children who
live in the outskirts of town can attend school.
Most of the schools in Kenya are under-equipped and under-staffed.
That is why the majority of poor Kenyan kids don't go beyond the primary school
level. While the government is providing very good textbooks to the school for the children to learn from, most of the families cannot afford to buy
these textbooks.
Therefore a vast majority of children are losing an opportunity
to go to school. Kenya has a poor education system
because Kenya is faced with regional and gender disparities in education. Kenya is having trouble
getting kids to enroll in school. The two main reasons
for that is because the government plays a minimal
roll in providing ECD services and a lack of awareness amongst the
communities and parents regarding the importance of
school. The Gross Enrolment Rate (GER) has declined from
35.4% to 33.4% in the past 2 years (Kenyan Education).
In 1999 a census was taken and this census proved that
a total of 574,249 children were not enrolled in primary schools (Kenyan Education).
Many of the kids that are have the privilege to be in school dropout.
The dropout rates are as high as 37% and 14% of kids have to repeat the grade
they are in (Kenyan Education). The school system also doesn’t have
good programs for children with disabilities. Out of 750,000
children, only an estimated 90,000 have been assessed.
Out of 90,000, only 26,000 children are enrolled in special programs that would give them the attention they deserved (Kenyan Education).
Kenya has a poor education system because it is not sufficient enough to support most of the kids in Kenya.
While the government may not be doing everything they can to fix the problems in Kenya, they are doing some things.
They have embarked on trying to put more
focus and emphasis on increasing the income of the poorest members of
Kenya’s society (Elibrary).
A number of orphans in Kenya don't have the chance to
attend any school, so the government is working on putting up
boarding schools near the orphanages that would also have a
feeding program (Elibrary). People are trying to address the
problems of education in Kenya. This website helped me see what the government is trying to do to fix the education problem Kenya is facing.
This website helped me to see how the government is not funding
the education system in Kenya and what effect that is having on the kids.
School, Galiee Primary. Education in Kenya.
Well, after 2007, Kenya heeded the call for those stronger institutions.
The 2010 constitution, touted as reformist,
led Kenyans once more to heightened expectations for a new dawn. Establishments such as the Supreme Court, a new
electoral commission, a bicameral parliament, a revamped anti-corruption commission, remuneration commission, commission for implementation of the constitution, even a cohesion and
integration commission, you name it, Kenya has it.
Kenya was a hot bed of new institutions with colossal
budgets to go with them. Laws followed these officialdoms amid public
fanfare, and to an onlooker, Kenya was institutionalizing!
Fast-forward five years, and corruption, ethnic rifts, and incompetence almost completely match -if not surpass- the Kibaki days.
One would almost think the revamping of Kenyan institutions worked to justify the systemic catastrophes while doing little about the executive overreaches and patronage Kenyans so desperately
hoped to change. While it might sound like a simplification, the truth is that tribal calculus and personal whims of Kenya's leaders today, outflank any institutional
technocratic approach envisioned in the 2010 constitution.
Koinonia Community started Kivuli Centre in 1997 to cater
for the needs of vulnerable boy child with a deep concern of children on the streets and
youths around Kawangware, Riruta and the entire Nairobi and its environs.
Kivuli Centre is a project that involves the whole community promoting the
welfare of the children, young people and the community at large.
Kivuli centre is located in Nairobi Dagoretti south constituency, Riruta
along Kabiria Rd. The centre is a host to about 50 boys aged between 7 years to 17 years who are receiving comprehensive care under a 3 year rehabilitation plan using the 3R care plan model.
While in Kivuli the boys attend formal education under
Kenyan curriculum, talent development programs the Kikuyu,
with 22 percent of the population, is the most educated and prosperous group.
By the 2002 election of President Mwai Kibaki, who is Kikuyu, such political violence had become routine.
News reports were quick to label the violence that followed December 2007
presidential elections as tribal, but some experts say this is a gross oversimplification.
Contrary to prevailing attitudes, Kenyans have not traditionally
identified themselves by ethnic group and studies have shown they do not have significant feelings of ethnic injustice.
In a 2003 Afrobarometer survey, 70 percent said
they would choose to be Kenyan if faced with a choice between a national identity and their ethnic group (28 percent refused to identify themselves as anything but Kenyan).
Analysts say much of the unrest that erupted after the December 2007 polls was just the latest display of politically organized violence.
Political coalitions on both sides hired thugs to do their bidding,
and ordinary Kenyans were caught in the cross fire, they say.
Though much of Kenya’s ethnic violence can be attributed to political manipulation, there
are economic inequalities between some ethnic groups, and long-standing bitter
disputes over land, particularly in the Rift Valley.
According to the 2007/2008 UN Human Development Index, Kenya ranks 148 of 177
countries on income inequality. Many Kenyans believe the Kikuyu
have accrued a disproportionate percentage of the benefits of
Kenya’s recent economic growth. The head of the Nairobi Stock exchange, the Central Bank of
Kenya, and Kenya Electric Generating Company, the region’s largest power generator, are all Kikuyu
(Bloomberg). These are "economic issues that get reflected through ethnic institutions,"
says Harvard’s Juma.
Because Kenya’s political system concentrates power in the hands of the president and his political cronies,
it only exacerbates these economic inequalities, experts say.
A book on inequality in Kenya, published by the Nairobi-based Society
for International Development, says there is evidence that political patronage in Kenya’s public spending has increased economic and regional inequalities (PDF).
There is broad consensus within and outside Kenya that the country needs constitutional
reforms that strengthen local government and rectify regional resource
imbalances. There has been a push for such reforms since
1991, and some experts say the current political stalemate offers an opportunity to catalyze action.
"If we don’t create a new constitutional order, we will have even a bigger crisis in the future," says Juma.
Others think there is a short-term opportunity for incremental reforms, including establishing an independent electoral commission and eliminating the president’s power to dissolve parliament.
These could be combined with an agreement on basic constitutional principles, says Barkan. There is evidence that political patronage in Kenya’s public spending has increased economic and
regional inequalities. Most interested parties, save for the president and
his advisers, agree that power should be shifted from the executive
branch to strengthen the judiciary and parliament.
But experts disagree on how to achieve that shift, and what other elements are necessary
for effective constitutional reform. Some, including the opposition party led by Raila Odinga, argue for a system of
governance with a federalist character, somewhat
like Nigeria.
Others recommend a system of subsidiarity, in which decisions
are made at the provincial level and coordinated with
the central government. Juma cautions that
if power is decentralized, local capacity must be built up.
"If you decentralize administration but not competence, these regions will continue to be poor," he says.
He believes that constitutional reforms should be preceded by a
long-term economic growth plan for the country. How to initiate constitutional reforms
in the current political climate remains unclear.
Juma suggests the attorney-general, who has the security of tenure and
is the legal adviser to all branches of government, could spearhead a reform process.
Anderson says the Kibaki-Odinga stalemate could "rumble on for months and months and months.
Kenyans see democracy and economic growth as inextricably linked. Their main aspiration for democracy, according to Afrobarometer, is that it will create more equitable distribution of economic opportunity (PDF). For Kenya’s economy to take off, it must distribute power among ethnic groups. "Kenya could
be a shining example," says Barkan. "But it could unravel
further politically and the economy could become moribund." Juma believes for regional imbalances to be addressed, the country needs to upgrade its infrastructure. He suggests that a large-scale government employment scheme, structured like the New Deal in the 1930s United States, could employ youth to do this. Most experts see a limited role for international actors such as the United States and the European Union in Kenya’s political future. Despite recent turmoil, the country has a vibrant media, a thriving civil society, and an economy that—prior to the election crisis—was on the upswing. It is not dependent on international aid. Thus democratization "can only
go as fast as the locals can go," says Barkan. Fallout from the December elections will likely slow this process, but to what degree is unknown.
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