Dynamics for Establishing Secondary Schools in Modern Kenya:

Comparison with the Harambee Movement.

Abstract

After Kenya achieved independence, educational opportunities expanded with the help of community contributions in what is known as the Harambee movement. A person's expected contribution to Harambee depends on their wealth level; thus, the movement was a form of wealth redistribution within the community. Although educational expansion has been facilitated by government initiatives since the 2000s, the spirit and practice of Harambee remains as a means of establishing schools. The objective of this study is to examine the processes through which new secondary schools are established in modern Kenya by analysing the role of communities. Through case studies of five schools in Busia County, this study found that the relationship between the community as educational providers and the community as educational consumers has undergone changes that have resulted in a decrease in overlap between the two roles as the number of schools increases. The function of wealth redistribution has seemingly succeeded, with differentiations made between pre- and post-establishment of public schools. It was succeeded as the redistribution by particular people from geographic community and as a cost-sharing with unified amounts by parents. This study indicates that the regional divide will become more complex through the interaction of diversified ways of involving communities in school development and the existence of multi-stratified communities surrounding schools.