Educational Challenges after the Post Election Violence in Kenya. Presented at the 54th CIES Annual Conference hosted by Michigan State University, held in Chicago Illinois, USA. March i-s", 2010

Abstract

The theme of the conference is Re-Imaging the role of education in the contemporary society. The central promise of universal education, is to produce a more just and peaceful world, which has yet to be realized. What happened in Kenya in year 2007/2008 was really unexpected and an emerging issue that challenged the belief that has been held for a long time that Kenya was a peaceful country among the war torn region of East and Central Africa. The author therefore believes that this work is relevant to the conference theme, which is Re-Imagining the role of education in addressing the emerging paradigms such as political strife even in long lasting peaceful states like Kenya and how to allow educational practitioners (us) to envision a better future. The paper has endeavoured to demonstrate the influence of politics on education and how this in turn affects individual perception about peaceful coexistence among the people. The truth of the matter is that when people are well schooled or educated, then they should be able to live peacefully regardless of their differences on political lines (Republic of Kenya, Sessional paper No.1 of 2005). The main reason being that, education is an agent of change and that is why learners are taught and exposed to the national goals of the educational system so that they can practice the same in real life. This paper will therefore seek to establish through the theoretical framework why people are not able to live at peace with one another due to political influence even after being in the same class/school.