Reflecting On Events That Lead To Students Activism in Kenyan Secondary Schools: Intervention and Prevention

International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS) | Volume V, Issue II, February 2021 | ISSN 2454–6186

Reflecting On Events That Lead To Students Activism in Kenyan Secondary Schools: Intervention and Prevention

Lewis Muli Ngesu
University of Nairobi, Kenya

Abstract: Throughout history, student activism and violence has been a major issue interpreted in various ways reflecting different ideological, social and political orientations. There is a general academic consensus concerning the empirical facts of increasing students’ violence in Kenya, however the questions about the causes of the increase has been more controversial. This study investigated the events leading to students’ violence in Kenyan secondary school. The study adopted a descriptive survey design. The target population comprised of head teaches and teachers. Data was collected using questionnaires and interviews. Quantitative data was analysed using Statistical Package of Social Sciences software programme version 21. The study established that there are unique events that may lead to students’ violence and efforts to minimise them vary across the different schools in Kenya.

Keywords: Students activism, Violence

I. INTRODUCTION

Student militancy as a worldwide phenomenon in Africa largely since the 1960’s is just a subject of a much older and wider “youth phenomenon” dating as far back as the middle ages, as widely across Europe as France, Italy, Germany and England where the movement initially confined itself within the university campuses and centered on disobedience of authority (for example the king and his delegates) and on refusal to be disciplined (Hobber in Lipest and Altbach 1969: v). According to Ishumi (1976), the growth and development of public schools increased the number of students who were open to the realities of life outside their private home; they had access to an increasing range of ideas and literature, had a wider choice of alternatives and a correspondingly larger number of possibilities of independent action. The forms of action have varied widely, depending on the prevailing circumstances, but they all have ushered in a dimension of tension, insecurity, instability and a spell of “unpeaceful” relations with the wider society (Ishumi, 1976). According to Cohen (2005), students strike is a disruptive behaviour which interferes with the learning development or happiness of a pupil and other members of society

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