Kenya’s Human Rights and Education: The 2007 Post Election Challenges and Opportunities
Although Kenya has made significant strides in its human rights agenda through formal education programmes at all levels, the 2007 post election violence that led to over 1000 people killed and about 350,000 internally displaced presents a sphinx to unravel. The past decade has seen Kenya take concrete measures to enhance human rights. Such measures have sought to ensure equal rights to education regardless of income, including exceptions from tuition and other charges in the eight-year compulsory Primary school education system and the establishment of a financial aid for needy university students. Secondary school students have also benefited from the recent subsidy of tuition.
The free primary school education introduced in 2003 raised the enrollment at the time from 5.9 million children to 7.5 million by December 2004.An additional average of 1 million children per annum has been recorded since then. The number of universities has doubled in the past 10 years. This has made it possible to help poor people to get equal access to higher education, and by so doing has highlighted social fairness. The population with tertiary education keeps soaring at unprecedented rate. For instance most government department staff, notably the primary school teachers, have degrees. Despite all these, the 2007 post election time saw neighbours turn against each other with weapons of all kinds - killing, maiming, displacing - raising questions about the level of the people’s human rights awareness.
Kenya is a developing country with a population of 30 million and its human rights development still faces many challenges. The education system needs to be reviewed so that education becomes for the nation not for the tribe. To respect and protect human rights and promote all round development of such rights is a long term arduous task for the Kenyan government and Kenyan people. Kenya needs to make a contribution to global human progress. The 2007 post-election violence poses a challenge to the efforts made in the area of human rights. The disputed election seems to have been the immediate cause of the violence. Deep seated causes include tribalism, corruption and unfair distribution of resources such as land. Perhaps Kenya needs to understand that human rights does not only refer to civil rights and political rights but also includes economic, social and cultural rights, because these rights are interrelated. There’s an opportunity in how these rights can further be incorporated in the education system with a view to check socio-economic, cultural and political intolerance that visited the country after the 2007 disputed presidential election. Besides domestic efforts, Kenya needs to compare its notes with both regional and international community regarding this, especially in handling the issue of ethnicity through education.
The political and civil levels, however, should be effectively protected to ensure steady progress in the democratic systems of elections, decision making, management and oversight. Only a vibrant and inclusive education system especially at the tertiary level can foster this. The development of higher education has the potential of a far-reaching influence on economic development and further guaranteed citizen rights on education. When larger populations of people access higher education, chances are that human rights awareness and protection increase in similar proportions. Such education should, however, have checks to ensure that it is for nationhood rather than for ethnicity and balkanization.
Get political science term paper help from professionals.