Pastoralist Education in Kenya: Continuity in Exclusion in Arid and Semiarid Lands (ASAL)

Abstract

At the conclusion of 2013, Kenya will be 50 years old. It is a remarkable journey that has seen progress in various spheres of national endeavors. One such area is education. Soon after independence in 1963, primary school enrollment increased substantially in the 1960s and 1970s in response to the government's policy of increasing access to education as one of the strategies in combating illiteracy, a key challenge to national development. Not only would expanded educational opportunities contribute to human capital development that is germane for economic development, it would also lead to a more equitable society through enhanced social mobility of the poor. The object of this analysis was to document the continuity in the exclusion of nomadic pastoralists in Kenya's education system. The focus was primarily on primary school since it provides the foundation for basic literacy and is the platform that determines access to other levels of education. Besides looking at government policies, the analysis also explored empirical data collected in schools and households in the nomadic pastoralists regions.