Kenya Student Unrest

June 4, 2018

Student unrest affects a lot of schools in Kenya. The students gang up and decide to either burn up their school, cause riots such that the school is closed temporarily, or simply disrupt learning through unruly behavior. Most of these acts are caused by students who are afraid of failing their exams because they have not prepared for it, students who have been expelled from other schools due to bad behavior, students who come from broken homes, and/or students who have been bullied at their former schools, so they feel a need for revenge and cause havoc in the schools where they get re-enrolled .

At Kimuka School, the School Management got wind through the grapevine that some students were planning to cause unrest at school and forced the other students to join in the strike. The Form 2 class was the culprit, and though the teachers had been given the names of the ring leaders, they did not want to act immediately least they cause more harm than good. Our meeting for last week Wednesday was thus focused on talking to the whole of the Form 2 class. We urged them to refrain from any actions that would cause suspension or expulsion from school. The Ministry of Education has of recent put in place very strict rules for students caught causing trouble at school.  These students cannot join any other school in the country; their names are circulated in the local media, and some have been taken to court and put in juvenile schools.

We advised the students against the strike, asking them to think of the consequences of unruly behavior. We all created imaginary scissors in our heads, and agreed that we would use the scissors to cut off any negative thoughts that come to our minds. We would cut off unhealthy friendships, too, and anything that ties us to situations that are harmful to us. We put ourselves in the picture too, so the girls would see that we are also not perfect, and we need to also deal with issues that are not helpful in our life.

Tomorrow we have our second meeting at Kanjeru School.  Wednesday, we go back to Kimuka.  Friday, we have Kasarini School, and we will go to Shiners School next week.