Reducing the School Dropout Rate of Girl Children of the Turkana Pastoralist Families of

North Western Kenya

Dorcas N. Wepukhulu

A Paper presented for the partial fulfilment of the Master of Arts Degree in Sustainable

International Development awarded by:

Brandeis University

The Heller School of Social Policy and Management

May, 2011

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Abstract

This study sought to investigate the barriers that hinder girls from the Turkana nomadic

pastoralist community of north-western Kenya from enrolling and completing both primary and

secondary education. The objectives and the purpose of the study were to establish the extent to

which the lack of parental involvement in their daughters’ education process, the unmet gender

needs, the lack of a clear policy that supports girls to continue with education in marginalized

areas such as Turkana and the high mobility among the Turkana contribute to the high dropout

rates among the girls in Turkana district. Among the key findings are the ignored gender needs

that force even those girls who may be interested in pursuing their education to drop out of the

school system. There was also expressed desire by those whose views were sought for education

in the district but one that was relevant to the nomadic way of life and one whose mode of

delivery does not put the community in a situation in which they are forced to make a choice

between it and their pastoral way of life that revolves around livestock keeping. The method

used in completing this study included reviewing literature, the analysis of secondary data,

holding informal conversations with some individuals from Turkana and one focus group which

was conducted in a very informal way. The researcher also drew a lot from her own experiences

and observations from schooling in Turkana for four years (1978-1981) as well as her knowledge

as a teacher there for eight years (1998-2004, 2007-2009).

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Executive Summary

Although the gender gap in education seems to have narrowed in the last few years with

girls’ enrolment rising in some parts of the world, there are still many barriers that hinder girls’

education in some parts of south western Asia and many regions of sub-Saharan Africa (PRB

2006 pg. 1). Notwithstanding enrolment in primary education in developing countries coming

close to 90 per cent in 2008, up from 83 per cent in 2000, this pace is inadequate to enable these

nations to achieve the target of education for all by 2015 (UN 2010 pg.1). There are about “69

million school-age children” who are out of school with almost “half of them (31 million)” being

in sub-Saharan Africa “and more than a quarter (18 million) in Southern Asia” (Ibid). Many

studies show that one reason for these high figures is the increasing dropout rate which is

severely experienced in sub-Saharan Africa (Ibid). The dropout phenomenon mostly affects girls

due to multiple factors that include discriminatory cultural practices that encourage or force girls

to get married at an early age, marginalization of certain communities, low literacy rates among

communities, lack of girl-supportive educational policies that champion their course, and “girl-

friendly schools” (Ibid).

The development question this study tackles is what combined factors contribute to the

high school dropout rates of girl children from the Turkana Pastoralist families of North Western

Kenya? Turkana is one of the 22 Arid and Semi-Arid Lands (ASAL) of Kenya. These districts

“cover 80 per cent of the total area of the country with a population of 8.25 million out of the 33

million (25 per cent of Kenya’s population) (GOK 2005 pg. 8). Turkana is the largest ASAL

area covering 77,000 square kilometres with a population of over a half a million people (Ibid).

Literacy levels in ASAL are unacceptably lower than in other parts of Kenya with rates

among females being lower than that of males (GOK 2005 pg. 8)). Although “primary education

in Kenya is a basic right and the only formal education that is open to majority of the population”

(Ibid), this is a right that is not enjoyed by children in Turkana, in particular girls. Transition

rates to secondary and tertiary institutions are generally very low and boys usually register higher

rates of transition compared to girls (Ibid). Despite high enrolment in response to government’s

introduction of free primary education in 2003, there is a high prevalence of early marriages

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which involves parents withdrawing their young daughters from school to prepare them for

marriage making retention of girls a big challenge. The Turkana nomadic lifestyle, their cultural

attachment to livestock, high levels of poverty that force them to be passive recipients of aid, and

marginalization have all contributed to their tendency to undervalue formal education (education

in school) particularly for girls.

One major findings of the study was that there are specific gender issues in Turkana that

contribute greatly to girls dropping out from school. Nomadic pastoralists have unique needs

which have to be taken into consideration if education is to be meaningful to them. This study

also found overall that there are low school enrolment and retention rates among nomadic

pastoralists worldwide. A lot of literature that was reviewed acknowledges the importance of

education in development and recommend exhaustive efforts to make education accessible by

all. The study looked at the role of government in education provision and the part played by

development partners and the local community.

There is a clear relationship between education and development as is emphasized that

“education is the key missing link in achieving the Millennium Development Goals” (Gartner

2010 pg. 1). This paper explores the vital role of the community, government policy and the

development partners in making education accessible to the nomadic pastoralists in Kenya

particularly the Turkana, and in the process, breaking some of the barriers that hinder girls from

enrolling and completing the education course. Through the analysis of secondary data, relevant

reviewed literature, and a combination of personal experiences and observations and informal

conversations with key informants from Turkana, the study made recommendations that are

hoped to boost girls’ completion rates. It concluded that addressing the educational needs of the

Turkana nomads, paying special attention to those gender needs and issues that hamper girls’

education and actively involving parents in the process is vital. It also recommended the

government to continue ongoing consultation with the nomadic communities to ensure a

sustained commitment to the proposed strategy on education for nomads.

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Acknowledgements

Special appreciation and gratitude go to my academic advisor, Professor Kelley Ready,

who tirelessly and patiently guided me in every stage of the study. By consistently directing and

challenging me, I was able to critically think and examine my topic from different angles. Her

thoroughness and genuine interest in my work meant that I counted on her for valuable feedback

which she gave very timely. In the same way, I cannot forget to extend my gratitude to Professor

Mary Brooks whose brainstorming session with me helped me articulate the problem I wanted to

address. The entire Heller Faculty contributed through their encouragement and gentle

reminders that kept me on track. I also want to thank my fellow in-residence students whose

views were very helpful.

I want also to acknowledge the support of my family which was energizing. Their

encouragement and assurance that I would do well and finish the course helped me give my best

to make them proud of me. I am grateful to my friends whose e-mails and phone calls urged me

on.

In a very special way, I want to thank the people who to took time to share with me their

unique stories and experiences. Among them are those who worked hard to avail the necessary

records and data that I needed for Turkana.

Special thanks go to Ford Foundation my sponsor, through the International Fellowship

Program (IFP), without whose generosity my ambition and desire to advance my studies in

International Development would never have been realized. This scholarship enabled me

experience a different world and acquire new skills that I hope to put to use soon. For this

reason, I am grateful to the Ford Foundation personnel in Kenya and in New York for their

support during my two years as a graduate student at Brandeis.

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List of Abbreviations

AIDS Acquired Immuno Deficiency Syndrome

ASAL Arid and Semi-Arid Lands

BSS Behavioural Surveillance Survey

CDF Constituency Development Fund

CDOL Catholic Diocese of Lodwar

CIDA Canadian International Development Agency

DL Distance Learning

EFA Education for All

EfN Education for nomads

FBO Faith-based Organization

FPE Free Primary Education

GOK Government of Kenya

HIV Human Immunodeficiency Syndrome

IFP International Fellowship Program

IIEP Institute for International Economic Policy

IPAR Institute for Policy Analysis and Research

IRIN Integrated Regional Information Networks

KDHS Kenya Demographic Health Survey

KESSP Kenya Education Sector Support Program

KFSSG Kenya Food Security Steering Group

KKV Kazi Kwa Vijana (employment for youth)

KNAP Kenya National Association of Parents

KNBS Kenya National Bureau of Statistics

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KYEP Kenya Youth Empowerment Project

MDG Millennium Development Goals

MDNKOAL Ministry of Development of Northern Kenya and Other Arid Lands

MOE Ministry of Education

NAPE National Association of Partners in Education

NARC National Rainbow Coalition

NCNE Nigeria’s National Commission for Nomadic Education

NGO Non-governmental Organization

OCHA Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs

ODI Overseas Development Institution

PSCs Primary School Committees

SIDA Swedish International Development Agency

TEFA Turkana Education for All

UN United Nations

UNESCO United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization

UNHCR United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees

UNICEF United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund

USAID United States Agency for International Development

WFP World Food Program

YEDF Youth Enterprise Development Fund

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Table of Contents

INTRODUCTION ....................................................................................................................................... 10

THE DEVELOPMENT QUESTION .................................................................................................................. 10

THE STUDY ................................................................................................................................................ 12

CONTRIBUTION TO THE DEVELOPMENT FIELD ........................................................................................... 14

CONTEXT OF THE STUDY ............................................................................................................................ 16

BACKGROUND AND PROBLEM STATEMENT ............................................................................................... 17

METHODOLOGY ...................................................................................................................................... 22

REVIEW OF RELEVANT LITERATURE ........................................................................................................... 22

PERSONAL EXPERIENCE AND OBSERVATIONS ............................................................................................. 23

INFORMAL CONVERSATIONS WITH KEY PERSONS ....................................................................................... 24

DATA ......................................................................................................................................................... 25

LIMITATIONS ............................................................................................................................................. 26

LITERATURE REVIEW ........................................................................................................................... 26

GOALS OF EDUCATION .............................................................................................................................. 27

PREPARATION FOR SEDENTARY LIFESTYLE AS AN ALTERNATIVE ............................................................... 30

THE ROLE OF SUPPORTIVE POLICY ON INCLUSIVE EDUCATION ................................................................... 33

VALUE OF EDUCATION ............................................................................................................................... 37

FINDINGS AND SUBSTANTIVE DISCUSSION ................................................................................... 40

LOW ENROLMENT AND RETENTION RATES AMONG NOMADIC PASTORALISTS IN THE WORLD .................. 41

THE IMPORTANCE OF EDUCATION IN DEVELOPMENT ................................................................................ 41

THE FEASIBILITY OF NOMADIC PASTORALISM IN AFRICA ......................................................................... 43

EDUCATIONAL NEEDS AND EXPERIENCES OF NOMADIC PASTORALISTS .................................................... 45

GENDER NEEDS FOR THE TURKANA GIRLS ................................................................................................. 47

THE ROLE OF GOVERNMENT IN EDUCATION PROVISION ............................................................................ 50

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THE ROLE OF DEVELOPMENT PARTNERS AND THE LOCAL COMMUNITY IN EDUCATION PROMOTION......... 54

CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS ....................................................................................... 57

THE COMMUNITY ...................................................................................................................................... 57

POLICY AND GOVERNMENT RESPONSIBILITY ............................................................................................ 58

PARTNERSHIPS WITH NGO, FBO AND OTHERS ......................................................................................... 60

APPENDIX 1: KENYAN MAP SHOWING THE LOCATION OF TURKANA ................................. 61

REFERENCES ............................................................................................................................................ 62

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Introduction

The Development Question

The development question this study tackles is what combined factors contribute to the

high school dropout rates of girl children from the Turkana Pastoralist families of North Western

Kenya? The study identifies five factors that impact girls’ education in Turkana. There are

those that pertain to the education system as provided by the Ministry of Education some of

which include: inadequate secondary schools located too far apart, understaffing, a curriculum

that does not consider the nomadic lifestyle and the ministry’s policy on pregnant school girls.

The other factors are economic, social, and geographical and the manner of intervention which

will be explained in the following paragraphs. The hypothesis this study makes is that if the

Turkana families are more involved in the process of putting up educational infrastructure, in the

intervention process and in identifying the role that women can play in poverty alleviation, the

community will have more motivation to ensure that girls complete school.

Currently, fees are mainly paid by various Christian missionaries such as groups of

Catholic nuns and priests who work in Turkana. There are also NGOs, faith-based and

otherwise, such as World Vision, Share International, individual expatriates and the Ministry of

Education which gives some money to schools for bursary awards to needy students. Oxfam GB

deals mainly with general education programs. The one thing that all these groups do in

common is to ensure education is accessible for children in Turkana. On the whole, boys and

girls seek sponsorship from these organizations either by presenting their case either by paying

them a visit and/ or through showing an official letter from a school within the district proving

that they have been selected to join there. Depending on the knowledge the sponsor has of

boy’s/girl’s family’s poor financial status and the above average marks scored, the individual

boy/girl would be listed for sponsorship. On many occasions, parents do not feature anywhere

in this process. Most organizations enter into an agreement with the student in which the student

promises to work hard and surrender his/her academic report card every end of the school term to

the sponsor for monitoring purposes. Sometimes the beneficiaries are asked by the sponsor to

meet them and do a group activity during holiday time. Other than this, the boys and girls are

free to do what they want and stay with whoever they choose when they are not in school. This

poses many challenges to the girl child.

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Fee payment alone is not enough to ensure a child stays in school. There has to be

family support to provide other basic needs for the child to feel safe and comfortable being in

school. The cost of educating a girl is higher than that of a boy. As girls mature and reach

puberty, their needs increase. They need sanitary towels, body lotions, oil for their hair and more

under garments. Sponsors only pay fees but do not take care of these other essentials that

contribute to girls feeling safe and confident while in a group. Due to poverty, parents do not

provide these needs. It becomes very difficult for girls to stay in school when these are unmet.

Since all primary schools in Turkana are mixed (co-educational) except one and almost all

secondary schools are boarding, girls are at risk of dropping out as they reach puberty due to

pregnancies. When this is coupled with parental disinterest, the majority girls are vulnerable to

men who appear to be ready to cater for their needs. In the process, they become pregnant and

have to leave school. This came out clearly as many of the cases of girls who dropped out of

school during the author’s time as a teacher and principal in Turkana were due to relationships

girls had established with men who had promised to take care of their needs. Based on the

author’s experience, it would seem that many families are waiting for someone else to do what

they ought to be doing. Education has been something that someone else does for them instead

of doing with them as a result parents lack the authority to challenge and discipline their

daughters. The researcher, in her capacity as principal, often invited parents to visit the school

so that they get involved in their daughters’ schooling. Some parents would complain that their

daughters did not take them seriously when they urged them to work hard in school or if they

inquired about their whereabouts citing the fact that they did not pay their fee so they had no

business questioning them. This made some parents feel helpless.

Many girls lack motivation to excel and the ambition to aim high. From the researcher’s

interaction with them, she had heard many girls in primary school express their fear of not

making it to secondary school if they passed due to lack of fees and the struggle to get in a

school. Those in secondary sometimes feel that it is a waste of time pursuing education because

they know they may not go beyond that level. Families would never consider selling some of

their animals to pay for their daughters’ education because their pride as pastoralists lies in the

number of animals a father possesses. Parents fear that if their daughters go to school, they may

not be very willing to marry the men they choose for them, ones who are ready to pay the highest

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number of animals in pride price. For this reason, most girls are brought up to think mainly in

terms of being marriageable and to aim at achieving this.

The Study

This case study is about education for girl children in the Turkana district of northwest

Kenya which as earlier stated, has been hampered by educational, economical, geographical and

social factors including the manner in which intervention is done. At independence, the

founding father of the nation, Jomo Kenyatta, cited illiteracy, diseases and poverty as the three

biggest enemies of the young nation. From that time onwards, the biggest government

expenditures have been on efforts to increase the country’s literacy rate, together with the fight

against diseases and poverty. This notwithstanding, there are regions in Kenya that have suffered

marginalization for as long as Kenya has existed as a nation. Turkana is one of these areas that

has not quite benefited from the expenditure invested in education (International Fellowships

Fund 2009, pg, 1). Whereas many parts of Kenya are benefiting from the introduction of free

primary education (FPE) of 2003, Turkana is not. The government did not increase the number

teachers and since Turkana is not the most popular destination for most teachers, primary school

committees (PSCs) have had to levy parents in order to hire extra teachers. Many cannot pay

and those who can opt to pay for boys rather than girls.

Turkana is an expanse of mainly shrub land found on the floor of the Great Rift Valley.

It shares international boundaries with north-eastern Uganda and the volatile Sudan and Ethiopia,

and is home to the 520, 490 Turkana people. This district (before division) was the largest in

Kenya; it covered an area of 77,000 square kilometres. Its immense size necessitated its division

into three districts about two years ago, resulting, for administrative purposes in Turkana Central,

Turkana South and Turkana North. With all the educational facilities and government services

concentrated in Lodwar town in central Turkana, the other parts of the region suffered even more

due to lack of road network and phone services.

This arid and semi-arid land characterized by erratic and unreliable rainfall and

constantly ravaged by famine, is a harsh environment with temperatures that range between 240C

(75.20F) and 380C (100.40F) with a mean of 300C (860F) (Kenya Food Security Steering Group

(KFSSG) 2009, pg. 1). The severe weather conditions make working in Turkana a real challenge

as afternoons are usually too hot to accomplish much. Turkana people are nomadic pastoralists

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whose main economic activity is livestock keeping. They are one of Kenya’s communities who

through marginalization by one government regime after another, lag behind in everything. The

people pay little attention and attach no importance to the district boundaries as they strive to

access services. Occupying all three districts and sharing a common lifestyle, they face the same

social, economic and ecological challenges. Other groups, who came in from other districts, are

better off in many ways than the Turkana because they have connections with their original

home base.

Missionaries first built primary schools and later on introduced secondary education in

the area but the Turkana embraced education at a very slow pace so there are few literate

members who can take up leadership roles. Over the years, people from other districts accepted

government posts and settled in the region. Many more set up businesses. The relationship

between the locals and outsiders has evolved from normal to hostile as the Turkana began to

refer to them as ‘emoit’ a term which means enemies/strangers/outsiders. Feelings of resentment

have worsened with job shortages so that people who are posted in Turkana by the government

are viewed as invaders. In an effort to ease tensions the government as well as NGOs, opt to

employ locals even when they lack the experience and the qualifications for certain positions.

Because of Turkana’s weak human capital base, the region suffers from understaffing in schools.

This contributes to the lack of female teachers to act as role models for girls.

Turkana Central district is the pivotal point of education in the whole Turkana region.

This is where the two first secondary schools were constructed in the region by Catholic

Missionaries in the late 1970s. Lodwar town, which is the headquarters of all government

offices and other services, is more vibrant as it is cosmopolitan in nature. It has a small tar

macadamized airstrip which comes in handy for those who can afford to fly in or out of Turkana

and do not want to endure the pain of travelling by one of the most degraded roads in the

country. It is a dusty town and the main business hub of the area.

It also serves as the main stop-over for the many NGO personnel based in Lokichoggio, a

border town between Kenya and the southern Sudan as well as most trucks transporting supplies

into southern Sudan. As such, it has proved fatal for the Turkana girl children who, attracted by

some of these people’s money, end up in sexual relationships in exchange for favours. Available

data put adult HIV prevalence rates in Turkana Central at 6.7 per cent (equal to the national

14

average) as of July 2007, with rates increasing to 14 per cent in Lodwar town. Antenatal care

reports indicate that 3.5 per cent mothers attending care were tested HIV-positive. Few people,

particularly women, know the dynamics of the disease (Overseas Development Institute, 2007,

pg. iv).

This study is targeting the education of Turkana girls of school-going ages, examining all

possible factors that have contributed to their high drop-out rates from both primary and

secondary school resulting in low retention rates among girls. To address this problem, the study

will look at the role of the major stakeholders such as families and the community in the context

of culture; the leaders, the girl children, parents, the district education officers and the roles

played by major religious groups. The main NGOs working in the area and individual

expatriates who support girl child education in the district will also be examined. With all these

groups supporting the agenda of girls’ education, there is hope for success. However, it is feared

that as long as help keeps coming from outside all the time without the full support of parents

and the community, girls’ education will lag behind.

Contribution to the Development Field

This study will provide valuable feedback to the Ministry of Education regarding the

inadequacy of infrastructure in Turkana and the high dropout rates among girls. Most of those

who sponsor education are unwilling to pay fees for students who go to schools outside Turkana

district. The existing schools cannot absorb all the girls who graduate from primary school and

so only those with high scores from primary get places in the local secondary schools in order to

get sponsorship. Sponsors insist on paying for students who get admitted in schools within

Turkana because fees are purposely kept lower compared to schools outside the district. They do

this in order to pay for as many students as possible. Due to this, even students who get called to

outside schools must try to secure a place in one of the local ones in order to get sponsorship.

The lack of adequate girls’ secondary schools in the region locks out many girls.

The study will also highlight the effect that severe weather has on learning. It is difficult

for anyone to remain highly motivated in such a harsh environment, but for girls who lack

parental support, the severity of the weather becomes a de-motivating factor for girls who

already lack parental support and basic needs. Whereas the ministry cannot do anything about

the weather, it can revise the curriculum bearing in mind the arid regions of the country. To have

15

to follow the same curriculum, sit the same exams and to be graded in the same way as those

who study under more favourable conditions, is an injustice that the ministry of education has to

address.

This study argues that education for the girl child among the Turkana community should

be seen as a fundamental undertaking. Failure to complete school for any child is failure to

accomplish many other essential things in life, particularly, in the context of globalization. From

the perspective of MDGs, “Education is essential to every child’s ability to thrive, to become a

productive adult, to contribute to society – and it is every child’s right” (Lake 2010, pg. 38).

From the point of view of children’s rights and gender equality, this study identifies the need for

the government and the Turkana community to provide support for girls transitioning from early

childhood education centres to primary, from primary to secondary school and from secondary to

training institutions.

From the author’s experience there is an element of expectation among most members of

the community of educational aid coming from elsewhere; some demand it as they gradually

realize the importance of education. Whereas they were able to meet their needs before

education was introduced in the area, the introduction of new needs has resulted from increased

contact with different systems both economic and social. As pastoralists, they did not need their

children to go to school. Now there are few social opportunities for those without education so it

is vital for strengthening people’s agency. Amartya Sen writes ‘“With adequate social

opportunities, individuals can effectively shape their own destiny and help each other; they need

not be seen primarily as passive recipients of the benefits’” (1999, pg. 11). It is important to

foster peoples’ agency because it expands their freedom. Education can expand girls’ freedom

and therefore broaden the space for them to participate in development because “’greater

freedom enhances the ability of people to help themselves and also to influence the world, and

these matters are central to the process of development’” (Ibid. pg. 18).

Lastly, since the study will examine the Turkana’s way of life as nomadic pastoralists, it

will bring to the attention of policy makers the need to put in place a policy that takes their

reality into consideration. The nomadic lifestyle characterized by high mobility impacts greatly

on education, particularly, on girls’ education because they are more vulnerable than boys. This

study will not only contribute to gender studies but will also help establish better policies and

16

programs on gender, education and pastoral peoples all over the world by pointing to obstacles

these groups of people may also be facing.

Context of the study

Information used to address the issue under study was drawn from four major sources.

These included relevant literature of studies done on similar topics, main interveners, some

Turkana members and the author’s own educational and professional experiences and

observations. For example, similar studies done on education for pastoralist communities in

other countries and other parts of Kenya such as the Maasai, the Borana and Rendile of north-

eastern Kenya have been incorporated. These are communities with similar characteristics and

lifestyles and so some of the reasons that hamper girl education in those communities might be

similar to those that impact on girl education among the Turkana.

Records from key interveners in education in Turkana district such as the Catholic

Diocese of Lodwar, Mama Mzungu Foundation and World Vision Kenya were accessed to

obtain relevant information. Information was obtained from the district office of education in

Turkana on enrolment, dropout rates and causes of this. There was also interaction with Turkana

educators who shared their views on education in the district, on what they thought had been

done wrong and on their suggestions on the way forward. Of importance too, is the researcher’s

own personal experiences and observations after schooling and teaching in Turkana for twelve

years which will form a major part of the information in this study.

The researcher’s four year interaction with Turkana girls when she was a student in

secondary school in Turkana was the first time she became aware of the hurdles girls from this

nomadic community had to overcome in order to access education. Later on her eight years of

teaching in the district in the only provincial girls’ school available and her engagement with

families as they copped with challenges of pastoralism, made her appreciate the complexity that

surrounds girl child education in Turkana. She strongly believes that girls’ education will help

the overall improvement of life for the community because there is enough evidence from those

who successfully pursued it. It is important to look beyond enrolment because data on this can

be deceiving. Enrolment is important but it is crucial for those who enroll to complete the course

and sit the national exam for which they can receive a certificate that can facilitate their equal

participation in the development field.

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Background and Problem Statement

Turkana is the least developed district and one of the most marginalized regions in

Kenya. Ninety four percent of the population lives in poverty (Oxfam 2008, pg. 1). With the

severity of climate change, increasing and prolonged droughts have made dependence on

pastoralism a near impossibility, forcing the people to over depend on relief services from the

government and NGOs (Ibid. pg. 2). If the community is to avert poverty traps for future

generations, education for every child in this region is important. This paper seeks to identify the

most effective strategies and approaches that various stakeholders can efficiently employ to

involve the Turkana community in efforts to retain of girl children so that they successfully

complete primary and secondary school. Failure to address the high dropout rate of girl children

among this community perpetuates poverty traps because it limits the community’s ability to

cope with economic shocks and therefore leaves it to continue to over-depend on donor aid. It

has been observed that families where both parents are educated tend to educate both sons and

daughters because both have seen the value of education. They also find it easier to meet family

needs and when older children complete school and are employed, they in turn help their siblings

and their parents.

The Turkana region has 155 schools, 124 of them are sponsored by the Catholic Diocese

of Lodwar (CDOL 2009). There are 352 early childhood development centres with a total

population of 122, 331 pupils. All the early childhood development centres include a school

feeding program provided by World Food Program (WFP) (Turkana District Long Rains

Assessment Report 2009). There are a total of 15 secondary schools, only three of which are

girls’ schools; seven are mixed while the remaining five just for boys’. Out of the seven mixed

ones, three are day and are located in Lodwar town. Due to low population sparsely distributed

over an extended area, schools require a large catchment area. This leads to huge distances

between schools. There are cases of girls who, in the process of pursuing an education, live

away from home with people who are neither family members nor relatives. With such cases

there may be no supervision and the girls are left to fend for themselves.

The Turkana nomadic lifestyle, their cultural attachment to livestock, high levels of

poverty that make them passive recipients and marginalization have all contributed to their

tendency to undervalue formal education (education in school) particularly for girls. It was not

18

until Christian Missionaries arrived in the area in the 1960s and invested in schools that

enrolment of the first girls in primary school took place at the beginning of 1970 (Catholic

Diocese of Lodwar (CDOL) records 1978). Since then, however, embracing education for girls

has been and still is a slow process; one which most parents are not motivated enough to invest

in.

Destitute parents are often more concerned about how much dowry their daughter is

worth than the value of her education because culturally, a girl is only seen in terms of how

marriageable she is and so going to school is seen as interfering with this. During the sixties,

some parents asked missionaries to pay them a dowry for asking their daughters to go to school

(CDOL1972)! For them to allow their daughter go to school was equivalent to missing out on a

dowry. Parents are inclined to earmark their daughters from childhood so that they bring them

up traditionally in preparation for customary marriage. This is often reflected in the way they

would insist that the daughters wear traditional attires which consist of the dry animal skin, beads

worn round the neck and waist. Girls who are brought up in this manner are trained to become

wives to any of the men who pay the most number of camels, goats, and cows. At times, girls

who are already enrolled in school are withdrawn by parents to groom them for early marriages.

In spite of government efforts to introduce free primary education in 2003 and partly

subsidizing secondary education, the Turkana region registers some of the lowest gross

enrolment, retention, and completion rates in the country. A mere 33 per cent of children in the

age group 5-10 actually start school and 70 per cent drop out before finishing primary school.

With the announcement of free primary schooling enrolment in many parts of the country shot

up but in Turkana it was not sustained (Kenya National Bureau of Statistics, 2008).

Immediately, School Management Committees began to levy parents to hire extra teachers and to

expand infrastructure in order to cope with the upsurge. The result was that parents were unable

to raise money, so children, particularly, girls, dropped out for lack of payment as parents

already lack the incentive to invest in their education (Sifuna, 2006). Illiteracy is considerably

higher in females with only 15 out of every 100 women being able to read and write in any

language (Comboni Missionaries, 2008). Elsewhere 26.6 per cent males aged six and above

attended school while only 2 per cent female aged above six years ever attended school (KNBS

2008). Completion rate for girls stands at 3 per cent and boys 4 per cent (Johannes, 2010).

19

Apart from an attachment to livestock sometimes at the expense of their children’s right

to education there are high levels of poverty. Dependence on livestock does not always

guarantee livelihood. Droughts can wipe out a whole herd leaving families with no source of

food and income. Faced with such acute need for survival, education is relegated to the last

place. In addition to this there are other factors that contribute to children dropping out of

school. There is a prevalence of alcoholism in the region. Local brew is mainly done by women

and girls and so sometimes girls are forced to leave school to assist their mothers to brew the

beer. Children are exposed to alcohol at a very early age and for girls, this also exposes them to

sexual activities, which has its own implications like early pregnancy and HIV infections.

High mobility levels means that sometimes parents move to places with enough water

and pasture but not schools. Children are forced to travel long distances to school or drop out of

school altogether. This is risky for girls due to insecurity in some areas of Turkana caused by

life-long cattle rustling practices that exist between the Turkana and their fellow pastoralist

neighbours, the Pokots with whom they share the border. Sometimes this forces them to stay at

home until it is safe again or until the family relocates to another place. Whereas boys can

venture to school at an older age, unfortunately girls have too many forces working against them

so they may end up choosing to get married.

Girls also lack relevant information and awareness on issues which are important for

growing up. There are instances where girls join secondary school straight from a small primary

school in the remotest part of the district. Such girls have no information on their sexuality, self-

esteem, health, teenage pregnancy, abortion, contraceptives or social skills to enable them mix

with other children from different ethnic backgrounds in a boarding school set-up. It should be

understood that boarding schools have rules and regulations which when broken could result in

expulsion or suspension. It could be a shock for any child who is used to moving with parents

from place to place to be confined to a compound and be expected to abide by the many rules

and regulations that are laid down as well as the boarding aspect of secondary schooling. As a

result, many of the girls bump into life unprepared and make irresponsible and drastic choices

which might cause them to lose their place in school impacting severely on their lives.

What might be considered minor could easily cause a girl to drop out of school. From

talking with the Turkana girls, the author has heard them express the discomfort and the lack of

20

ease that they experience when they have their menses. Traditionally, women coped with this

without using modern sanitary towels and girls would do the same when they are at home in their

environment. They minimized movement by sitting on the ground so that the sand absorbed any

flow. Again, the skin, the traditional attire that women generally wear is not easily soiled during

menses. It therefore becomes difficult for them in a school situation where they have to move a

lot, wear a uniform and sit in close proximity with boys. When they soil their uniform for lack

of sanitary towels, boys make fun of them which makes some leave school due to

embarrassment. The pressure of trying to match their colleagues from other communities, who

have all their needs catered for, leaves some Turkana girls uncomfortable. Sometimes with the

hope of attaining some of these things, girls get into relationships with men.

There are many cases of sicknesses in Turkana and since people move a lot, community

ties tend to be loose. In such situations, it is the girls who are asked to stay at home and take care

of sick ones. From experience, there were many cases of girls who reported to school many

weeks later than the due date because they were taking care of a sick member of the family.

Another factor that contributes to girls dropping out of school is pregnancy. The current

policy on school pregnancy is fuzzy and does not leave much room for girls to resume schooling

in the same school after giving birth. In other parts of the country where there are many schools

to choose from, girls transfer to other schools after having the baby. The options for the girls in

Turkana are very limited due to the inadequacy of schools. Also they would not be able to

continue with education even if they wanted to if parents do not offer to take care of the child

while they go to school. Getting a place in another school involves traveling there to inquire,

and if parents are not interested in supporting the girl in this, she may just stay at home and

eventually get married.

Transition trends from primary to secondary are extremely low for all but more so for

girls as can be seen in the two tables below. Only 44 per cent of school going children were in

primary school while 56 per cent who were of school going age were out of school. The

following two tables show the Turkana District’s enrolment rates by gender between 2002 and

2007 and in 2009.

21

Table 1: Turkana District Enrolment 2002-2007

YEAR ECD PRIMARY SECONDARY

BOYS GIRLS TOTAL BOYS GIRLS TOTAL BOYS GIRLS TOTAL

2002 13623 10585 24210 20432 14628 35060 1838 1005 2843

2003 14460 11225 25685 21968 15743 37711 1912 998 2910

2004 10325 10102 21287 22153 16402 38555 2154 887 3041

2005 14016 12181 26196 27770 18550 46320 2164 1233 3397

2006 21991 18873 40864 27445 20987 48432 2524 1504 4028

2007 25180 21599 46779 30159 23123 53282 2771 1498 4269

Turkana District Education Brief, 2007

Table 2: Enrolment rates by gender: Turkana District 2009

Enrolment Boys Girls Total

Early Childhood Dev. 30,297 28,037 58,338

Primary School 35,679 28,318 63,997

Secondary School 4,760 1,821 6,581

Total 70,736 58,176 128,912

Turkana District Long Rains Assessment Report 2009

From the above tables, it is clear that there is disparity between boys and girls in

enrolment as well as in transition from one stage to another. Many girls are lost after primary

and do not transit to secondary. It is also important to note that even those who transit to

secondary do not complete due to pregnancy-related causes, fees and due to the reasons

discussed above. After the introduction of free primary education in 2003, the picture should

have changed, but it does not due to the introduction of levies mentioned earlier in the study.

The Turkana community has to find ways of gradually weaning itself of dependence on

NGOs. There are many educated men and women who have benefited from one or the other of

the NGOs operating in the area. Many of these people live in the district while others live in

cities. There is potential for a home-grown solution to girls’ dropout in Turkana.

NGOs working in the area must start dialoguing with parents, and encouraging them to

participate in their daughters’ school life. Instead of bypassing parents and dealing directly with

22

the girls, NGOs could engage parents in the process to empower them in order to demand

accountability from their daughters. Most organizations enter into an agreement with the student

in which the student promises to work hard and surrender his/her academic report card every end

of the school term to the sponsor for monitoring purposes. In this way, parents become

spectators without an active role to play. The study does not disregard the efforts being made by

these NGOs, but highlights where a weakness may arise in such a manner of intervention.

The government has not been very encouraging in bringing the Turkana and other

pastoralist communities on board. Policies on education disregard the nomadic way of life

which antagonizes them because they think they are being forced to abandon their way of life.

Nomads are highly mobile, and having schools in one location is not in their interest. Again,

having a curriculum that does not reflect their lifestyle and values does not encourage them to

participate in education. Greater attention should be paid to the reality of pastoralism and

nomadic lifestyles, their implications on education and the best strategy to facilitate learning for

children from these communities.

As this paper will focus on how to raise retention rate among girls and reduce gender

disparity, recommendations made at the end of it are hoped to enrich the education sector in

Kenya. It is imperative to ask what future possibilities are available to increase the number of

women educated households in the region.

Methodology

There were four main methods used in the study to collect information, analyse it and

draw conclusions. These were a literature review, personal experiences and observations,

collection of relevant data and informal conversations with key persons whose views informed

the study.

Review of relevant literature

Literature on education among nomadic pastoralists dating from 2000 to date was

reviewed. This consisted of online articles, journals, relevant master theses and books. What I

discovered was that there is very little written about girls dropping out of school or retention in

school of girls from any pastoralists community, either in Kenya or elsewhere. A lot has been

written about education in general among pastoralists. I will be reviewing what they say has

23

worked and has not as well as the gaps in policy about education and girls in pastoralist

communities.

What has boosted opportunities for girls’ education among the Turkana in the case of

boarding schools, was the fact that girls were able to stay in school and concentrate on their work

instead of returning home every evening where they were expected to assist in household chores.

They were also less exposed to the risks of meeting men who are less interested in their welfare

and so this helped them both perform better and complete the course. On the other hand, the

introduction of free primary education did not help girls because as schools tried to cope with

high enrolment rates, they were forced to levy parents in order to hire teachers. Most parents

chose to pay for their sons rather than daughters which led to more girls dropping out of school

(Johannes 2010).

Gaps in policy governing education among pastoralist communities not just in Kenya but

in other parts of Africa have been identified as the rigid education system which does not allow

children to attend school as they are required to provide labour at home and in herding, the

centrally planned and controlled curriculum which stresses formal academic achievements rather

than knowledge and practical skills relevant to pastoralists and the use of mainly permanent and

immovable structures for conventional classrooms and schools, which are unsuitable for nomads

and have contributed a lot in girls dropping out of school (Osman 2009).

Personal experience and observations

The researcher’s four year experience as a student of Turkana Girls’ Secondary School

between 1978 and 1981 which enabled her to interact with girls from the Turkana community

was the first time she became aware of the hurdles girls from this nomadic community had to

overcome in order to access education. Through sharing teenage issues, personal ambitions and

aspirations and family struggles, the researcher learnt that parental support and the little things

that she took for granted were not enjoyed by many girls from Turkana. Later on between 1998

and 2009 as a teacher in the same school, the only provincial girls’ secondary school available in

the district, the researcher came face to face with the few parents who have taken the initiative to

educate their children, both boys and girls amidst the challenges of pastoralism. As the head of

the Guidance and Counselling department of Turkana Girls Secondary school, the researcher

further had the privilege of learning through individual girls’ stories of how they were forced to

24

marry men chosen by their parents, how their parents did not provide basic needs because they

thought the girls should not have been wasting time in school, how some were cohabiting with

men who were catering for their needs in return and in the process, were infected with sexually

transmitted diseases over and over, how girls resorted to abortion when they became pregnant

and the men denied having ever known them and worse still, how girls lost their places in school

due to pregnancy. While as the principal of the school, the researcher again witnessed Turkana

girls dropping out of school because of lack of fees or due to family obligations such as taking

care of sick parents or assuming the role of parents when AIDS struck. There were other times

when girls who were interested in pursuing education had to be turned away because the school

had over-enrolled and could not take any more. These experiences made the researcher

appreciate the complexity that surrounds girl child education in Turkana. With this knowledge

and experience, this study will be able to make recommendations that should create more

opportunities for girls to complete school. This will help in identifying what is the ministry’s

responsibility, what is the community’s and how all the stakeholders can work together to bring

about change in the education for girls in Turkana.

The researcher also interacted with the various organizations such as World Vision

Kenya, Share International, the Catholic Church and individuals like Mama Mzungu who strive

to see that children from this community access education just like their counterparts in other

parts of Kenya. These groups pay fees for both boys and girls who approach them after

qualifying to join secondary school. There are many others, particularly girls, who fail to reach

either of them, and as a result, never start school or end it after primary level.

Informal conversations with key persons

There are many regions in Kenya that are hard-to-reach and Turkana is one of them. The

government tends to invest little in areas such as Turkana which results in lack of educational

infrastructure. This explains why the first schools in the region are due to Church initiatives. It

was not until the 1960s that Christian missionaries began to invest in girls’ education and that

saw the enrolment of the first girls in primary school take place at the beginning of 1970

(Catholic Diocese of Lodwar (CDOL) records 1978).

Parties other than the government have been more in the forefront to ensure education is

accessible for the people of Turkana; the researcher took time to get the views of the Catholic

25

missionaries who have been working in the area. They have been involved in sponsoring

education and have tried to negotiate with parents to encourage them to send both their sons and

daughters to school. They have a good understanding of people’s lifestyle, their cultural values

and the importance of dialogue and community participation. The other people whose views

were sought through informal conversations included two members of the Board of Governors of

Turkana Girls Secondary School who are from the area, an education officer from the District

Education Office, three successful former students from Turkana, an individual expatriate who

sponsors girls’ education in the area, a program officer working with Oxfam GB to spearhead

Turkana education for all (TEFA) as well as advocating for investment in more mobile schools.

The researcher also held conversations with three young girls whose education was cut short due

to pregnancy as well as five parents. Most important, the researcher held a dialogue with a focus

group of six parents that she was able to gather whose input could be seen as being fairly

representative of majority of the parents in the region. In recruiting members of the focus group,

the researcher ensured that there was at least a pastoralist family which has never sent any of

their children to school. There was also a family that is semi-pastoralist whose mobility is

restricted to the husband while the wife and the children stay in a permanent place as the boys

went to school. The other family consisted of husband and wife both educated, depending on

salaried employment and educating all their children.

The above conversations were motivated by the need to know people’s sentiments

regarding education in general for all the children, the current educational trends in Turkana and

what they thought had gone wrong. They were also aimed at gathering views on what they think

has worked well, what they would like to see happening, how to bring about the desired change

and who they think has been left out that should be engaged in new efforts to facilitate

improvement of education, particularly of girls.

Data

All the secondary data used in the study are gathered from three main sources, namely,

the Catholic Diocese of Lodwar (CDOL), the Education Office in Turkana and retrieved online

from the Ministry of Education (MOE). From these sources, information on the number of

schools, enrolment figures, dropout rates and transition rates were obtained. They also provided

some of the reasons for dropout among students. From the district’s education office, the

26

researcher was able to learn of some of the recommendations made regarding curbing girl

dropout.

Limitations

One of the limitations faced was the lack of the most recent data both at the local as well

as the national level to show the current situation of education in Turkana. This would have been

vital in order to compare the local and national rates of girl enrolment, transition from primary to

secondary and onto tertiary institutions. Due to this, the study relied on data that may be a little

outdated to reach conclusions.

Another limitation was the fact that the researcher was not able to converse with as many

parents as she had hoped because of the inaccessibility of the region due to the heavy rains.

Turkana has little or no roads and those that are in use are easily washed away whenever it rains.

It is very common to have bridges washed away in flash floods or whole sections of the road

destroyed which takes a while before they are eventually fixed. For example, some of the

families the researcher had hoped to meet and talk with had relocated to the hills by the time she

finally reached their ‘manyattas’ (traditional homesteads).

Literature Review

As the study of sustainable international development proved that development is

multifaceted, the researcher chose to examine the role that education plays in the development of

a person and the society. Based on the researcher’s previous work experience as a teacher, she

opted to narrow down her topic of study to girl child education among the Turkana pastoralist

families of North Western Kenya. Four key aspects were identified as contributing to low

enrolment and retention rates not only among the Turkana but among most nomadic pastoralists

across in the world. Policies on education, cultural practices that blind the nomadic communities

from seeing the value of education, particularly of girls, the way current intervention strategies

are implemented and, the irrelevance of the education curriculum on offer are some of the key

factors leading to low enrolment and completion rates among these groups. With low literacy

levels nomadic people have continued to live on the margins of their societies, hardly partaking

of their countries’ major decisions. Living on the periphery, they have remained largely poor

and disenfranchised. This literature reviewed tries to bring to the fore how nomads everywhere

27

are in transition and how it is proving difficult without adequate education to access the kind of

opportunities other people may readily enjoy. It has also highlighted how women find it doubly

difficult to cope with life due to decades of being denied education by their communities. This

has accentuated the disparity between these women and those from other sections of society.

Goals of Education

With the growing need for education worldwide in the 20th century, and the numerous

challenges faced by individual governments to meet these needs in their countries, the

International Community initiated an approach on basic education for all that was future-

oriented. Hosted by UNESCO, the first world conference on education for all was held in

Jomtien, Thailand in 1990 (UNESCO 1990 pg. 4). It was the beginning of many conferences on

education for all that were to follow, but the Jomtien one was important because it was to serve

as a reference point for future action and follow-up. At that conference, the international

community publicly affirmed its commitment to ensure that basic education was accessible by all

and also to emphasize the primacy of education as a tool for transforming people’s lives. After

Jomtien Conference, there was ‘extensive evaluation’ (Ibid.pg.4) that was conducted in which

each country assessed the progress it had made regarding the goals set out at the conference. The

findings of those evaluations were reported at the following six regional conferences held in

1999 and in 2000 as follows:

Sub-Saharan Conference on Education for All (Johannesburg 1999)

Asia and Pacific Conference on the EFA 2000 Assessment (Bangkok 2000)

The Arab Regional Conference on EFA (Cairo 2000)

The Third Inter-Ministerial Review Meeting of the E-9 Countries (Recife 2000)

Conference EFA in Europe and North America (Warsaw 2000), and

Regional EFA Conference in the Americas (Santo Domingo 2000) (Ibid. pg. 4)

The World Education Forum in Dakar was held in April 2000 (UNESCO 2000. pg.4)

after the above six regional conferences. The Forum adopted “the Dakar Framework for Action,

Education for All: Meeting Our Collective Commitments” (Ibid. pg.4) based on the evaluation

carried out which came to be known as “the Education for All 2000 Assessment” (Ibid. pg4).

The core message from the Dakar forum summarized in six goals aimed at sending a reminder to

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all countries to try to reach those who are missing out on educational opportunities. The

message came five years later as a way of follow-up to see how individual countries were

performing and also as a way of reminding those who committed themselves to support

developing countries to achieve targets. Two of the goals are:

Ensuring that by 2015 all children, particularly girls, children in difficult circumstances

and those belonging to ethnic minorities, have access to and complete, free and

compulsory education of good quality, and, eliminating gender disparities in primary and

secondary education by 2005, and achieving gender equality in education by 2015, with

a focus on ensuring girls’ full and equal access to and achievement in basic education of

good quality (UNESCO 2000 pg.8).

These goals drawn directly from the outcomes of the regional Education for All (EFA)

conferences and the international development targets which constitute the “Framework for

Action” (UNESCO 2005 pg.3) were designed to enable all individuals to realize their right to

learn and to fulfil their responsibility in order to contribute to the development of their society

(Ibid. pg.5). The goals did a lot to highlight education for girls by urging governments to ensure

that by 2015 that special attention is paid to gender issues in education. Governments were also

urged to strive to achieve 50 per cent improvement in levels of adult literacy by 2015, especially

for women, and equitable access to basic and continuing education for all adults (Ibid pg. 2).

It is important to look beyond mere enrolments because numbers can deceive. In most

cases, governments and evaluators look only at figures on paper without considering the

contexts, geographical differences, survival rates, achievements and the quality of education.

Enrolment is the first step but one which should be followed by that of ensuring successful

completion. If for whatever reasons girls drop out, everything must be done to help them resume

schooling so that they complete the course. That is why UNESCO recognizes the importance of

“encouraging and intensifying by appropriate methods the education of persons who have not

received any primary education or who have not completed the entire primary education

course…” (UNESCO 2005 pg. 4). In order to achieve the goal on gender parity, education for

all girls including those who did not complete the course, is essential.

UNHCR in its Education Strategy 2010-2012 states that “every child, youth and adult of

concern to UNHCR has the right to education” (UNHCR 2009 pg.4). It further says that without

29

education, “children, including adolescents, are less likely to be healthy, grow strong, be safe or

fully participate in the communities” (Ibid pg. 4). Without an education, people are less likely to

achieve their other development goals. It is of utmost importance to educate females because, as

the saying goes, educating a woman is educating the society. Since education is every child’s

right and a vital process to which no child should be denied access, the topic this study is

addressing is very relevant because it is trying to bring to the attention of policy makers and all

educators the fact that girls in the Turkana community are falling by the wayside due to factors

that can be looked into. Losing girls from school in this community is losing vital contributors to

social welfare. It is also failing to achieve the goal of enabling girls enjoy their right to

education.

Girls’ education also plays a big role in reducing fertility rates, improving health and

survival rates for infants and children. There are several compelling benefits associated with

girls’ education, which include the reduction of child and maternal mortality, improvement of

child nutrition and health, lower fertility rates, enhancement of women’s domestic role... (Laad

2010 pg.1)

Women with some formal education are more likely to seek medical care, ensure their

children are immunized, be better informed about their children’s nutritional requirements, and

adopt improved sanitation practices…Women with formal education tend to have better

knowledge about health care practices… and seek pre- and post- natal care (The World Bank

2009 pg.1).

According to the Kenya Demographic and Health Survey of 2004, girls who are educated

are more likely to use family planning services (GoK 2004 pg. 34) and those who are “the highly

educated women are more likely to delay marriage” (Ikamari 2005 pg. 3). For this reason,

educating girls is a step closer to achieving the goal of improving women’s and children’s health

through combating disease. Delaying marriage means that they start having babies much later

which means fewer babies for whom health care can be provided.

With not much most recent data available, the 2004 Behavioural Surveillance Survey

(BSS) report on Turkana showed that a “high percentage of the population had low levels of

knowledge about HIV/AIDS and about 88 per cent and 89 per cent of 15-24 and 25-49 year olds

respectively reported engaging in unprotected sex” (ODI 2007 pg.13). For this reason,

30

education is also key to fighting and reducing HIV/AIDS for the girls in Turkana. As evidenced

in research, there is an indication that HIV infection is more prevalent among people who are

illiterate than among those with some level of literacy. Literate people are more likely to access

and understand information on HIV and gain awareness which is unlikely to happen with those

who are illiterate. This is why “education has been cited by several well-respected sources,

including the World Bank, as one of the most important factors in helping to prevent” (WFP

2006 pg. 2) the spread of HIV/AIDS among young people of aged between 15 and 24 years. In

this regard, education is absolutely essential in attaining the goal of reducing the impact of

HIV/AIDS.

Preparation for sedentary lifestyle as an alternative

Pastoralists are among the most vulnerable people in society regardless of where they are

due to their dependence on livestock, a lifestyle which is currently greatly challenged by the

effects of climate change and resource depletion.

Pastoralists in most parts of the world can be considered highly vulnerable to disaster,

pre-eminently drought but also floods and large-scale outbreaks of animal disease,

livelihood shocks related to government policies, such as closure of meat market, armed

conflicts within and between countries (Morton 2010 pg. 10).

The pastoralists’ high mobility leaves them more at risk; it is difficult to track them

making it a challenge to even determine their size even approximately (UNESCO 2005 pg.14).

Pastoralists may not only be poor and exposed, they are also marginalized as they are generally

found far from national capitals and regions that form the economic hub of society. Some of

them belong to minority groups with little or no political voice. Their susceptibility, poverty and

marginalization is even made acute because of the fact that most of them regularly move across

national borders in search of pasture and water, “which further renders them marginalized and

vulnerable in the political cultures of nation states” (Morton pg. 11).

Elsewhere, the slow pace at which nomadic pastoralists embrace education for girls is

highlighted. Negev Bedouin are defined today as “Arab nomads who live by rearing livestock in

the deserts of Southern Israel” (Givati-Teerling 2007 pg.2). According to the Central Bureau of

Statistics and the Ministry of the Interior of Israel, in the year 2002 there were 138,000 Bedouin

31

residents in the Negev, while the Regional Council for Unrecognized Bedouin Villages claims

there were 159,000 (Ibid, pg.2). This is a community that lives a conservative lifestyle that is

guided by values based on their traditions. As nomadic pastoralists, school dropout rates are

very high. Enforcement of mandatory education for them has been weak, particularly in the case

of young girls. According to the study carried out in 2006 by the Centre for Bedouin Studies and

Development in Cooperation with the Konrad Adenauer Foundation for a period covering 6

years between 2000 and 2005, there were “only 5 Bedouin female graduates compared to 21

males at the Ben-Gurion University” (Agbaria and El-Sana 2006, pg1). The number had not

grown much in 2005 with that of females standing at 39 while males stood at 59. In their follow-

up of female Bedouin students at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev who did not complete

their studies for a degree, the authors refer to the situation facing women as “‘double

discrimination’”(Asbah, Karakra & Arar 2007 pg. 5), the fact that the Bedouin women belong to

a minority group that was predominantly patriarchal in nature.

According to a range of studies including one by the Centre for Bedouin Studies and

Development at Ben-Gurion University carried out in 2007, Bedouin women had “lost their

traditional sources of power within the family as they transited from self-subsistence agriculture

and animal husbandry” to a settled semi-urban lifestyle that was forced upon them by the

government of the time (Asbah, Karakra & Arar 2007 pg.2). Previously, the women participated

in tending animals and farming but by being urbanized, they were left only with housekeeping

resulting in loss of social power; since they had no access to education, they also remained

illiterate and therefore had no skills for formal employment. The Bedouin missed the

opportunity for education under a new Israeli government when a new law was passed –

“Compulsory Education Law of 1949” – which formally guaranteed free compulsory education

for children between ages 5 and 13 and established state responsibility for the provision of

trained teachers, their salaries, facilities and the curricula (Givati-Teerling 2007 pg. 5). The lack

of interest on the authorities’ side which was matched by a general lack of interest in education

among the Bedouin; “student enrolments remained low and the government considered it

inefficient to open schools in scattered settlements” (Ibid. 2007 pg. 5). This reflects a lot of what

has been happening in Kenya with regards to the education policies and trends. Even when the

government introduced free primary education in 2003, and on paper made it compulsory, there

32

was no visible enforcement of it and so communities such as the Turkana have not benefited

much from it where facilities are available.

Out of 72 million Ethiopians (Eyasu and Abdi 2010 pg.3), approximately 7 million are

nomadic pastoralists (Flintan 2006 pg.1). Some of the challenges that they face include

marginalization that results in an inability to access social and economic opportunities, threats

posed by repeated droughts and a never-ending cycle of poverty. Because these people are poor

and mainly illiterate, they do not participate in decision-making even in matters concerning their

lives. Flintan aptly summarizes the reality of most vulnerable people in reference to the

Ethiopian nomadic pastoralists when she says, “people who live in poverty and are largely

illiterate are easy to ignore and exploit, and remain isolated from services and local government

institutions and support” (Ibid. pg.1). When a community is vulnerable, women and children are

doubly vulnerable and become more prone to wrongful manipulation and exploitation.

Marginalization is enhanced by illiteracy and women can remain this way within their own

societies due to lack of education.

Elsewhere in Africa challenges faced by Nigerians whose nomadic lifestyles are

becoming increasingly unsustainable compelled educators and state authorities to find more

sustainable ways to remedy the situation (IRIN 2010 pg.1). This was necessitated by “shrinking

grazing reserves, blocked grazing paths” (Ibid. pg.1) and increased tensions that grew between

pastoral nomads and farmers as a result of scarce land resources which eventually forced many

young men and women to give up the herding lifestyle in exchange for city life. When

pastoralists lose their animals due to a catastrophe, they are easily reduced to “destitution and

sometimes cause a large-scale exodus from pastoralism (often only to low-grade urban

employment or long-term relief dependency)” (Morton 2010 pg. 10). Although the report does

not mention the high risks, it can be concluded that the illiterate girls who make their way to

urban areas are more exposed to all forms of exploitation so for them transition from pastoral

nomadic to urban life that demanded wage employed was often difficult.

The story of nomads in Niger is not different from that of the Nigeria. Threatened by

drought, pastoralist families are sometimes forced to sell their “weakened livestock at a fraction

of its normal value” (IRIN 2010 pg. 2). It would then take two to three years for them to recover

from their loss. Pastoralists experiencing the greatest losses may be forced to change livelihood

33

and find work in urban areas as cities have more wage employment opportunities than rural

areas. To do this, they would need some formal education in order to compete with fellow

literate Nigeriens. It is very easy for a community to be left out of the economic struggle

because of low or no formal education. Education becomes extremely important as a tool for

creating platforms on which individuals and whole communities put their skills to use and in

doing so, contribute to development.

The role of supportive policy on inclusive education

Nomadic communities represent more than 10 per cent of the population in Djibouti,

Eritrea, and Ethiopia, Kenya and Tanzania and 5 per cent in Uganda (UNESCO-IIEP 2005 pg.

13). Their level of participation in formal education is known to be low, partly due to the

weakness of the school network, partly because some, or all, of the members are mobile and

therefore difficult to make provision for, and partly because it is assumed by most of the

nomadic communities that the content and programming of the education being provided may be

inappropriate (Ibid pg. 13).

A UNESCO publication outlined the role of policy-makers, national and international

NGOs and other development partners. It also urges governments to take practical steps towards

meeting the educational needs of those who are hard to reach. It acknowledges the fact that

nomadic people posed a real challenge to both national and international efforts of achieving

Education for All (EFA) by the year 2015. The implication this has for policy-makers in Kenya

is that they discontinue the trend of making uniform education policy for the whole country with

total disregard to nomadic pastoralist communities (Ibid. 2005 pg.2). Whatever form of

education, it should be sensitive to the cultural differences as perceived by the nomads

themselves and must ensure discussions are held with representatives of nomadic groups.

Concerns for barriers to girls’ education are expressed in different forums across the

globe. A conference held in April 2008 in Washington, DC, by NAPE/Women Work discussed

alternatives that girls have if they happen to be pregnant such as allowing them to go back to

school to complete their education by assisting them with child care. This conference addresses

a very challenging factor that most girls face in developing countries due to education policies.

The alternatives discussed at the conference such as making it possible for girls who have babies

to continue schooling by offering child-care services, are non-existent for girls in Kenya, and the

34

girls in Turkana whose social challenges contribute a lot to their becoming pregnant while in

school, are even doubly disadvantaged due to the strict education policies that still lock them out

of school. Kristina Gupta, one of the three authors who have contributed to the article about

helping pregnant girls stay in school, makes a passionate appeal to support girls’ education by

saying, “When girls don’t graduate, we all fail” (Gupta 2008 pg.5). Relating this to the Turkana

community, this study argues that improving graduating rates for girls who become pregnant

while still in school is essential for them and crucial for their community. Girls dropping out

impacts severely on the community because lack of a high school education leads to higher

unemployment rates, lower earnings, suffering from health problems, and over-dependence on

government and donor organizations:

Female dropouts are at economic risk. As compared to their male peers, girls who fail to

graduate from high school have higher rates of unemployment; make significantly lower

wages; and are more likely to need to rely on public support programs to provide for

their families (Ibid. pg.5).

Studies done among the Native Indian American students on ways of “study orientation,

preference and retention of native students,” document a high dropout rate from school by native

students (Hurlburt, Kroeker and Grade 1991 pg.3). It was important to establish the study habits

of this group because these habits are vital in explaining the attitudes that native students form

which help to determine whether they view the education system as relevant or not. Study habits

also influence the education standards and students’ motivation to aim high or to simply accept

mediocre performance. Their attitudes therefore shape their preferences which directly impacts

on whether they remain in school or drop out. Sealey (1980 as cited by Hurlburt, Kroeker and

Grade 1991) reported that in a 12 year period 1951 to 1962, 8441 Indian students out of 8782 in

Manitoba did not complete high school. Coladarci’s 1983 study cited the reasons for the high

dropout rates as “poor teacher-student relationship (the students believed that the teacher didn’t

care about them), trouble at school, content of the school (not important for what they wanted to

do in life), and school didn’t reflect American Indian culture as the causes for dropout”

(Hurlburt, Kroeker and Grade 1991 pg, 3).

The authors of the above article recommended “confluent education as a means to

enhance student retention among the native population” (Hurlburt, Kroeker and Grade 1991

35

pg.2). Among the things that this system of education was to address was student identity,

personal worth, relationships and the social demands that contributed to higher student dropout.

It aimed at adopting a ‘holistic philosophy’ to address all aspects of the individual native student

so that together with the teacher, they could achieve “a mutually empowering learning

experience” (Ibid. 1991 pg.2). This is the kind of approach that education policy makers should

adopt when laying down guidelines on education for nomads in Kenya.

Another study paints what the ideal situation for native students should be like.

Historically, education has often been equated with assimilation for American Indian

students. Today many students seek education in the helping professions where they can

take the best of Western ways of helping back to their cultural communities without

losing the best of their own traditions (Weaver 2000 pg. 1).

The American Indians lived with the constant fear of being wiped out and of being

swallowed up in the bigger communities and losing their identity. Many felt that if they adapted

formal schooling, they would run the risk of accelerating the process of absorption into the larger

modern American community which was something they felt was being forced upon them.

Perhaps the Turkana view education as a tool that is being used to push them to be assimilated

into dominant society of sedentary life style to which they are not used. This was echoed by

some of the informants who expressed their fear of being “forced to abandon the life they are

familiar with” in order to do what “other communities do”.

Nigeria has taken steps towards addressing the educational needs of its nomadic

communities. Accessing education is important because it acts as back-up to nomadic

pastoralism. Nigeria’s National Commission for Nomadic Education (NCNE) works to adapt

teaching methods and materials for nomadic communities (IRIN 2010 pg.2) which involves

Translating course materials into languages spoken by nomadic groups as well as

selecting nomadic teachers to accompany and teach children on the move with schools

being established along nomadic grazing paths (Ibid. pg.2).

For pastoralists and other indigenous learners and their parents to value formal education,

it needs “to be relevant and meaningful and grounded in the realities and perspectives of learners,

their communities, practitioners and policy makers” (Aikman 2009 pg. 5). It needs to empower

36

learners to be able to realize their human rights and extend their capabilities (Ibid. pg. 11).

Another educator from the Maasai community says that “pastoralists have complex and changing

needs for education, reflecting the complex, and rapidly changing social, cultural and physical

environments and globally linked localities in which they live” (Ibid pg. 7). He brings out an

important fact that for many pastoralists, the educational opportunities available are insufficient

so they are unable to realize their potential and their rights. Institutionalized education based

entirely on schooling is unable to equip them with appropriate skills relevant and valuable for

their lives today as pastoralists and citizens (Ibid. pg. 13). For example,

Maasai women viewed their lack of formal education as hindering their participation in

the management and decision-making of development projects which was dominated by

men (Ibid. pg.8).

This point to the fact that there are women who would have liked to participate in the

wider society but for their lack of access they do not succeed.

When the Dakar Forum set 2015 as the year to achieve EFA, “it acknowledged that the

goal could not be achieved through formal education delivery channels alone” (KESSP 2005 pg.

53). It therefore advocated for the “third channel” approaches, that is, “informal and non-formal

education delivery models” (Ibid. 2005 pg. 53). The proposed policy on education for nomads

(MDNKOAL Workshop Report 2010 pg. 1) will be an example of the “third channel” because it

will be a strategy based on open distance learning centred on community radio as well as mobile

schooling. This will eventually form the basis for policy formulation on nomadic education for

all the nomads in Kenya (Ibid. 2010 pg. 2).

The government has tried to address youth vulnerabilities such as skills acquisition and

unemployment by initiating two youth programs that receive national budget allocations under

the umbrella of the “Kenya Youth Empowerment Project” (KYEP) (GOK 2010 pg. 5). These

are the “Youth Enterprise Development Fund” (YEDF) and the “Kazi Kwa Vijana” (KKV)

(Kiswahili for employment for the youth) Program (Ibid. pg. 5). The Fund focuses on increased

community participation by Kenyan youth in nation building with the aim of realizing greater

sustainability. This however may not benefit the Turkana youth, particularly girls who have no

education as they cannot compete on equal footing with their fellow females elsewhere.

37

It must be realized that for the youth to benefit maximally from above policy, they need

some education and girls can be left behind because they lack education. Girls from Turkana can

only benefit from this initiative if they have had education that enables them to be self-employed.

Under the “Kazi Kwa Vijana” which is designed to “accord immediate relief to young people by

way of providing them with income through employment such as in public works” (Ibid. pg. 5) is

very competitive. Through this policy, young people, “male and female, are employed under

labour contracts in selected public works projects such as in the agricultural sector, in

environmental conservation and management and in the transport sector” (Ibid. pg. 49). Clearly,

most of these jobs will be taken by the literate but in Turkana it is mostly the males and educated

women from outside the district which further emphasizes the importance of education for both

boys and girls from the community.

Value of education

The Turkana are one of Kenya’s forty-two tribes. Like the Maasai, the Turkana are still

very traditional and tend to put cultural practices before modern conveniences. They have a

strong attachment to livestock and take a lot of pride in the number of livestock they possess;

they would never consider selling any of their animals in order to pay fees for their children,

particularly, not for the girl child (Ruto, Ongwenyi and Mugo 2009 pg. 2). Elsewhere, the

authors say, “Statistical analysis points to marginalization of the north in all aspects of

enrolment, retention, participation, completion and even achievement, more so for girls” (Ibid.

pg. 25). Although statistics show that there has been gradual growth in the enrolment figures for

boys many of whom complete school, it has not been the case for the girl children. Girl

enrolment remains low and their retention in school poses even a greater challenge. For

example, in 2007, Turkana District recorded the lowest retention and survival rates among girls

registering 19.9 per cent dropout rate, the worst in the country (Ibid. pg.28).

There has been limited study done on the subject of how to retain girl children in school

among some of the pastoralist communities of Kenya. Whatever work that has been done, it is

either a general study of their way of life, or other aspects of life but not on how to devise means

and ways of incorporating girls into the education system of the country so that they are not

locked out of economic and social opportunities. In her case study Amina Osman (2008)

identifies the “overall attachment to cultural practices and the remote, often harsh environment

38

that they inhabit” (Osman 2008, pg. 2) as the persistent hurdles to the effective provision of

formal education. If girls’ education is continually neglected, the Turkana community risks

condemning girls to a bleak future where they are continually cut off from having choices.

Oxfam has made strides towards making education in Turkana a reality by being pioneers in

mobile education and for its “campaign on the right to education for all children, especially girls”

(Oxfam 2009, pg, 2).

It is universally acknowledged that education benefits not only individuals but also

promotes national development. Educating females and males is beneficial and expands future

opportunities and choices for both of them. However, educating girls produces many additional

socio-economic gains that benefit not only the individual but entire societies (USAID 2008

pg.1). The global consensus is that “education is an absolute essential good for individual

females themselves as well as the economic development of the local and national communities

in which they live” (Switzer 2009 pg.1). If girls are enabled to access education, they are better

able to contribute to economic productivity as well as contributing to higher family incomes.

It has also been proven that depending on available opportunities, “education can be

instrumental in the attainment of relatively secure, salaried employment and can increase

chances of individuals accessing resources outside the pastoral circuit” (Kratli 2001 pg.21). He

says “education is meant to enable income differentiation by qualifying the youth for

employment outside the pastoral economy” (Ibid. 2001 pg.21). In many parts of eastern Africa

pastoral households with higher levels of education-usually where girls have been given equal

opportunities as boys-generally are better off in terms of income and food security because

working members of the family bring in wages. Being in school allows girls time to enjoy

growing up, to nurture their ambition of turning into businesswomen, lawyers, judges,

professors, physicians and much more.

The Turkana cultural values often differ from those of other communities. Some of those

values include more emphasis on marriage in return for bride wealth and ownership of livestock

as a mark of social status from which immense pride is derived, rather than in the level of

education one has, upholding age-old practices of treating illness such as drinking raw blood

instead of receiving a blood transfusion and introducing children to locally brewed alcoholic

drinks at a very tender age. Consequently, the best approach is gradual creation of consciousness

39

and socialization rather than blind pressure which they perceive as an imposition. Although

these are social values among the Turkana, they intrude on education in that most families

socialize girls solely for marriage and in cases where families could afford to sell some of the

livestock to enhance the education of their children, they fail to see it as an investment that could

have economic returns. Exposing children to alcohol may also increase exposure to other risky

activities such as casual sex which can lead to pregnancy and result in the end of a girl’s

education, as has been discussed above. The older generation of the Turkana may feel that their

whole way of life as pastoralists is threatened if they sense that many young people are departing

from it and embracing education. If girls get education, chances of marrying a traditional rich

man who would pay a big dowry are slimmer.

Sometimes parents from pastoralist communities fear the changes that result in their

daughters when they get formal education. For example,

Formal education for girls among the pastoralist Samburu of northern Kenya imparts

new knowledge and skills, but also inculcates ideas and attitudes that clash with cultural

understandings of female capabilities, sexuality, and gender roles (Lesorogol 2008 pg.1).

As a result, formal education has created heightened differences between literate and

illiterate females. The author says that when this happens, it sets educated girls and women apart

and most community members view this as a negative thing, which is a further impediment to

girls’ education. With enough dialoguing about the advantages of educating girls, rather than

just in terms of personal growth, communities will realize that education by its very nature

imparts knowledge and sharpens people’s skills. The role of education in personal growth and

development is a valuable process that is necessary.

Children in the arid districts like Turkana face additional social challenges such as poor

communication, low literacy in their communities, lack of social role models, and lower

valuation of girls’ education (Ruto, Ongwenyi, and Mugo 2009 pg. 12). Limitations of basic

schooling resources like teachers and adequate infrastructure is acknowledged by the

government (Government of Kenya (GOK), 2007 pg. 34). Ruto, Ongwenyi and Mugo also

discuss Affirmative Action that is pro arid districts like Turkana, highlighting the role played by

the international community through international organizations such as Oxfam, the UN,

particularly, UNICEF and WFP and the World Bank.

40

There are also the examples that both children and parents see of people who have had

education and seem not to be successful. On the one hand education for all has been advocated

by “people throughout the world…” as a means to “self-fulfilment financial freedom” (Aboh

2006 pg. 606). On the other hand, there is evident frustration witnessed by the same people

resulting in unemployment after completing education. Whereas education is seen by some

learners as well as parents as a process that makes one “become somebody”, when jobs fail to

come by for those who invested in it they may not be seen as “somebody” and yet others who

may not have invested in education end up being “somebody” (Ibid pg. 606), it discourages both

children and parents. Sometimes the reasons that parents have for choosing to educate their sons

over their daughters are based on individual family experiences rather than simply general

cultural practices. Attitudes “are often complex and involve a variety of contingencies but, on

balance, they typically favour sons over daughters (Knodel 1997 pg.61). This was voiced by one

parent from Turkana who said he had no problem sending all his children to school but he was

disappointed by his first daughter when she became pregnant after completing only the first year

of secondary school. His confidence was further eroded when the next one got married outside

the Turkana community, something he considered “unbeneficial to his tribe”. After those two

experiences, he said “never again would I sell another animal to waste on girls’ education”.

When such experiences are shared by community members, they influence the continued

widening gender gap in education.

Findings and Substantive Discussion

This section comprises of six parts which are as a result of researcher’s observation,

direct experience, input from relevant key informants with whom dialogue was held, and

evidence that was gathered from the literature that was reviewed. These include confirmation of

overall low school enrolment and retention rates among nomadic pastoralists in the world; the

acknowledgement of the importance of education in development; the feasibility of nomadic

pastoralism in Africa; educational needs and experiences of nomadic pastoralists; gender issues

in Turkana; the role of government in education provision; and the role of development partners

and the local community in education participation.

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Low Enrolment and Retention Rates among Nomadic Pastoralists in the world

One of the major findings of this study has been the overwhelming documented evidence

of the vast number of nomadic pastoralist children of school going age who are either out of

school or who once enrolled but did not complete the primary or secondary school course. In

2005, for example, it was estimated that there were between “25 and 40 million children of

school going age from the nomadic or pastoralist families with only a small percentage of

between 10% and 50 per cent actually attending school” (Oxfam 2005, pg.1). As earlier stated in

this paper, it is vital to look beyond enrolment figures and focus attention on completion rates.

On the whole, there are high levels of school dropout among nomadic pastoralists with the rates

among girls being far higher than boys (Ibid. pg. 1). Other than cultural reasons, other factors

contributing to such low participation include the nomadic pastoralists’ view of the relevance of

the curriculum offered, inadequate infrastructure, habitual marginalization of nomadic

pastoralists and the conventional mode of schooling in most countries which can only be

modified by the central government. For example, despite the Kenya government declaring free

primary education in 2003 leading to high figures in enrolment countrywide, the semi-arid

districts which are mostly inhabited by pastoral nomads still recorded very low enrolment

percentages, ‘32% of boys and 19 per cent of girls in 2003’ (MOE 2006, pg. 13).

The Importance of Education in Development

It has been widely accepted that in order for most developing countries to achieve the

Millennium Development Goals, special attention has to be paid to populations whose main

source of livelihood is pastoralism because they often have high levels of poverty and their

overall participation in education is low (Muhammad 2008, pg.7) as well as other social

indicators including health. For most countries in economic transition, concrete practical steps

towards investing more in girls’ education are in order as this has been ‘identified as the most

effective investment in order to promote the development goals that we all share’ (Farmer 2010).

Paul Farmer gives three justifications for why it is necessary to spend on girls’ education:

development, economic growth and the rights-based aspect. He says that communities/countries

will never be able “to break the cycle of poverty or disease without educating girls” (Ibid. 2010)

so he emphasizes the role of education in the overall development of a society. In his own way,

42

one of the Turkana parents the reseacher spoke to concluded that the reason why they could not

work and earn the kind of money that other Kenyans who lived among them earned was because

they were uneducated. He referred to development in terms of “enlightenment” as he lamented

that they have been “left behind” by the rest of Kenya (Ekalale, personal communication,

Lodwar, Turkana, 2010).

The second justification, that girls’ education is closely linked to economic growth of a

community/country (Farmer 2010), is also supported elsewhere by the findings drawn from the

studies carried out in sixteen countries from Latin America on inequality and the family. The

studies revealed that the “key variables that make the difference between the personal

characteristics of the rich and the poor are fertility, female participation in the labour market and

education” (Haussmann & Szekely 2001, pg. 260). It has been demonstrated that women’s

participation in the labour force is greatly dependent on their level of education and that “while

only 40 per cent of women with four years or less of schooling take part in the labour market,

over 78 per cent of those with higher education do participate” (Ibid. pg.271). The higher the

mother’s education the higher the chances of the household having two salaries (Ibid. pg.278).

A Turkana lady emphasized the fact that if she had not persistently gone to school every

time it opened, she would not be living the kind of life she had. Her situation compelled her to

live with a man who promised to look after her but who, exposed her to sexually transmitted

infections making her frequent the nearby mission health centre for treatment every time she

returned to school. Being in a boarding school, she talked of “hating herself for not being able to

break away from him” because she knew that she would have had to go back to the man during

school holidays for lack of family. At the time of the conversation, she was happy because

“education finally saved” her because with her training as a teacher, she earns her own salary and

hopes to educate her own children. Theirs was an arrangement that several other girls in

Turkana find themselves having to live with especially if they are orphaned and there are no

relatives forthcoming to take them in. Although he had told her that after she completed school

he would formalize their relationship, he still had intimate relationships with other girls (Akai,

personal communication, Lodwar, Turkana, 2010).

The third and final justification for girls’ education as expressed by Farmer is the ‘rights-

based argument’ (Farmer 2010). As stated earlier in this paper, every child has a right to

43

education and therefore girls from nomadic pastoralist communities whose education has been

hindered and neglected due to social factors, poverty or unfavourable policies, have had their

right violated. This resonated with one of the Turkana girls who shared the anxiety she had

about eight years ago when she discovered that she was pregnant and knew that she would lose

her place in school. Her fear turned to helplessness as she could not find a supportive source in

school to help her cope with the situation. She said she was “in a dilemma” because if she came

out open and told the principal, she would be asked to leave and if she turned to her parents they

would only have “encouraged me to leave and get married”. She thought she was lucky because

she secretly had an abortion that was undetected by the school. Another one expressed her wish

to get a second chance to go back and continue her secondary education so that she fulfils her

“dream of being a nurse”. These are some cases of girls whose right to education was curtailed

due to lack of a clear supportive legal system in operation. Due to social stigma and ridicule

from teachers and fellow students, school girls who become pregnant have little motivation to

continue with education. In addition, a secondary school girl who is in a boarding school has

very little support to remain in school till she is ready to have the baby. They are expected to

follow the school routine, eat the same food offered to the rest of the students and they receive

no sympathy from anyone as they are constantly reminded that it was their own doing. On the

whole, girls who become pregnant leave school.

The Feasibility of Nomadic Pastoralism in Africa

In the light of “climatic change and restrictions on pastures” (Muhammad 2008, pg.19)

nomadic pastoralists face severe shortages in terms of community pastures, water and open space

for their temporary quarters. Fierce droughts are more frequent now than ever before and each

time, more prolonged. Often after such long dry spells, floods strike which are commonly

associated with outbreak of diseases that sometimes wipe out whole herds. In 2010 the

desperation in pastoralist regions in Africa was described in the following words:

Perhaps nowhere on earth are natural disasters deadlier than in areas inhabited by

pastoralist communities in the Greater Horn of Africa. Floods that have swept across

Kenya have grounded pastoralists’ normal life to a halt in Turkana East district of

northwest Kenya. The hazardous floods have caused more harm than good to the

44

already vulnerable Turkana community. The Turkana people are still recovering from

previous disasters, ranging from persistent droughts, livestock diseases and cholera

outbreaks (OCHA 2010 pg. 1).

One of the parents said that he regretted that he did not go to school when he was young

because he saw no value in education then thinking that livestock was all he needed. He

expressed his anxiety and vulnerability saying “I worry a lot when they get sick and die before

my own eyes and I cannot stop it” (Lokaale, personal communication, Turkwell 2010). Since

pastoralists depend majorly on animal products, they are at risk of being infected when the

disease breaks out. If pastoralism as a livelihood becomes less reliable, young people will be

forced to seek alternatives elsewhere. It is this undependability of pastoralism that was mirrored

by some of the parents as they unanimously wondered how “will our children survive if the

situation worsens instead of improving?” Trends show that most young people end up in urban

areas in search of employment. This poses a real challenge for them if they have no formal

education as competition for employment, both formal and informal, is stiff.

Feasibility of Africa’s nomadic pastoralism is also being confronted with the “new

globalization” because of the move by governments to centrally manage environmental resources

(Klay 2008, pg.139). On the Chapter on “The Environment and the New Globalization in

Africa” Mbaku (Ibid. pg. 129) refers to the fact that “African societies have become dynamic and

complex and as a result the population is no longer stable” (Ibid. pg.42). This has led to

migrations and sometimes forced displacements of vast groups of people due to human conflict

or natural disasters. Nomadic pastoralism may not be very viable in the face of such movements

and for young people who may find themselves faced with the possibility of settling in other

parts of the world, life might be rather difficult without other skills to rely on. This may also

come about as a result of governments enforcing laws and regulations that restrict the use of land

that nomadic pastoralists once considered tribal or community land as was in Tanzania:

Over the last several decades, Maasai people have lost vast amounts of their ancestral

lands to the creation of national parks, including the Serengeti National Park, the

Tarangire National Park, the Manyara National Park, and the Ngorongoro Conservation

Area (Anaya 2010 pg. 1).

45

Educational Needs and Experiences of Nomadic Pastoralists

Most nomads want education but it is important for states to acknowledge that their

educational needs are specific to the reality of their existence. The nature of their lifestyle poses

several challenges to service provision.

Mobility, sparse population, harsh environmental conditions and remoteness are clearly

technical obstacles to the provision of formal education through systems that are

designed for sedentary people in well-connected and densely populated areas (Kratli

2001 pg. 28).

The most common response of many governments has been to introduce boarding

schools in regions that are thinly populated, particularly by nomads (Ibid. pg.28). One girl who

had dropped out of school because of consistently scoring low marks, talked of how she felt

every time she went back home during the school break knowing that it would be difficult to

have a conducive place to revise her school work. She lived in constant fear of finding that the

parents have moved from what she called “home” and would take several days to track them

down. When it was time to return to school she said she dreaded “the low scores she obtained

compared to other girls from steady homes” because she hardly had the opportunity to revise her

school work. There were no school mates or neighbours to discuss school matters with. Her

parents’ regular relocations impacted on her attendance of boarding school which eventually led

to her dropping out (Leah, personal communication, Lorugum, Turkana, 2010).

Another challenge is the fact that nomadic pastoralists are often sparsely populated. This

contributes to poor or no infrastructure and welfare services (Muhammad 2008, pg.19).

Governments seem to relegate regions occupied by nomadic pastoralists to the last place on their

list of priorities. There seems to be a frequent slow pace at which implementation of any

educational reviews and recommendations are made in favour of nomads which points to a

general lack of clear country-specific policies and guidelines to ensure education for nomads.

Several forums have been held in Africa (de Souza 2006) with the purpose of reviving interest

and investment in education for Africa’s minority groups such as the nomads whom research

estimates to number close to 13 million in Africa (Muhammad pg.8). Even when governments

46

agree to implement, the lack of sustained commitment to such agreements, eventually leads to

loss of momentum (Garcia, 2005 pg. 1).

Among the many suggestions made by researchers as the more appropriate options for

making education accessible to nomadic pastoralists include distance learning and mobile

education but so far “there are a few examples of mobile schools and distance education using

radio broadcast” (Kratli 2001 pg.28 . The Kenyan proposed policy strategy on education for

nomads (EfN), (IIED 2010 pg. 1) will be piloted in Turkana and Wajir through strengthening of

boarding and mobile schools as well as introducing distance learning (DL) through radio

broadcasts (Ibid pg.3). One of the newer elements to this strategy is the stress on “family

involvement in education”, which encourages “parents to enrol with their children”, with the

intention of “providing learning materials for adults” (Ibid pg.3). Family participation in

education will be a great boost to the learning process and may help reduce the rate of girl

children dropping out of school. One of the parents said that he “did not know how to talk to his

children when they are in school” and suggested that those who help should try to visit him and

see where he lives, talk to his school-going children to respect him because even if he is

“uneducated” he was still “the parent”. He agreed that education was important but asked “Can’t

they bring that education here in the village so that I still talk to my children even as they go to

school to get it?” (Matayo, personal communication, Turkwell, Turkana, 2010).

The above policy strategy on education for nomads (EfN) is a splendid step but one that

would need a lot of commitment in “creating legitimacy, building constituencies, accumulating

resources, modifying organizational structures, mobilizing resources and actions and monitoring

impact” (Brinkerhoff & Crosby 2002 pg. 36-37). It also calls for real “political will and

indigenous leadership which are essential for sustainable policy reform and implementation”

(Ibid pg. 6). For this reason, challenges to its implementation and the risks that this will falter

sound enormous. Firstly, while the Ministry of State for the Development of Northern Kenya

and Other Arid Lands (MDNKOAL) is among the lead stakeholders driving this policy, it is not

an implementing ministry. It is “a technical ministry that was created after the coalition

government in 2008 to provide direction and leadership in the planning, implementation and

coordination of development in northern Kenya and other arid districts” (MDNKOAL 2008

pg.1). As a Ministry, it can only recommend to the Ministry of Education what its findings are

47

after consultation with various stakeholders and wait for the long bureaucratic process before it

can be implemented. Secondly, given the government’s previous trend of commitment to

pastoralist areas, there is a likelihood of this policy being shelved. Thirdly, the people’s high

mobility will be a real challenge when they cross national borders in search of pastures and

water. Movements will also pose security concerns both to learners and teachers unless security

personnel also become mobile.

Gender needs for the Turkana girls

There are certain experiences and realities that are typically gendered and impact on

girls’ education in Turkana. These include teacher-student relationships, attitude, and lack of

female role models, early marriage and workloads, school facilities and the impact of puberty.

In October 7, 2010, one of the headlines in the media read over a thousand “teachers fired

in Kenya for sexual misconduct” (Leposo CNN 2010). Although the report said that there

prosecutions, the secretary general of the Kenya National Association of Parents (KNAP) told

CNN that despite some cases having made it as far as the courts, “no prosecutions were taking

place” (Ibid). In addition, a senior government official told the BBC that most of the victims

came from poor families and the parents were bribed, sometimes for as little as $10 to let go of

the accusations. The victims were as young as between 12 and 15 years of age. Most people

hold teachers in high esteem and poor parents think that their daughter will be well-looked after

is she is married to a teacher. When a teacher is responsible for making a school girl pregnant, it

takes the enlightenment of the parents/guardians and the firmness of the school’s principal to

follow up the case in order for prosecution to take place. From experience in Turkana, there

were cases of teachers bribing the girls, the parents or both to change the story and implicate

another man or to hush it up. Other times if a case was raised by a principal who was not from

the Turkana community, it was seen as an outsider interfering with the affairs of the community.

Holding teachers accountable for their behaviour is something that has not been seen to happen

much in Kenya with regard to sexual relationships that result in girls losing their places in

school.

It is a common attitude that both teachers and students have that sciences are a boys’

domain and that girls should concentrate on languages, arts subjects and Home Economics. This

is sometimes instilled in them from primary school and emphasized in secondary. As a

48

principal, the researcher had to keep revisiting this issue as students expressed their

discouragement communicated by male teachers concerning the fact that they should not bother

to struggle with sciences as they are not meant for them. There were times when students

complained that male teachers disparaged them, implying that they were wasting time and should

go home and get married. It took outspoken characters to voice such experiences but there could

have been a lot more than was reported. The researcher remembers hearing school girls talking

about what was going on in their school. They said they “hated” the way they were ridiculed by

male teachers and pupils when they did not get their answers right. Sometimes the teacher

would call them “cow” and that they were just filling the desk that should be vacated for a boy to

occupy (Akuwom, personal communication, Lorugum, Turkana, 2010).

Inadequate and ill-equipped schools had been cited as one of the major factors impeding

girls’ education in arid regions (Kakonge, Kirea, Gitachu and Nyamu 2001 pg. 18). A study

carried out in Wajir, a district in North Eastern province of Kenya that is inhabited by nomadic

pastoralists like Turkana, highlighted the kinds of school level constraints that hinder girls from

fully participating in learning. They include inadequate facilities for girls like toilets which left

them embarrassed (Ibid). They were poorly constructed so they provided no privacy as the girls

“discovered that sometimes boys used to peep through the cracks when they would be using

them” (Apua, personal communication, Turkwell, Turkana 2010). Later on, boys would make

fun of the girls in class, referring to the colour of their undergarments and make references to

their body parts in a derisive manner. Apua expressed how they got no support from teachers

because they would not “take them seriously” so she said, she could not face that every time so

she left school. The study also referred to the fewer desks in classrooms that the schools in

Wajir had which were used by boys while girls stood or sat on the floor. It is like girls are

discriminated against at three levels, at the family, at school and at the national level (Kakonge,

Kiriea, Gitachu and Nyamu pg. 18). Most of the primary schools in Turkana are day, so pupils

go in the morning and stay the whole day and return home in the evening. Girls do not have any

support in these schools during menstruation because schools lack bathroom facilities, many do

not even have water nearby and there are certainly no sanitary supplies. Talking with two of the

girls from a school the researcher visited, they expressed how impossible it was to stay in school

so they often missed school during the days they had their menses. Teachers “do not

49

understand” so they would be punished for missing school (Natty, Akai, personal

communication, Kitale, 2010).

Turkana has very few female teachers from the Turkana community that could act as role

models for the girls to look up to as there are

Fewer pastoralists or nomadic women with the appropriate formal qualifications, which

means that there are few examples of pastoralist and nomadic women in different and

challenging roles (Oxfam 2005).

The lack of female mentors and animators from the community as teachers has also

impacted negatively on girls’ completion of education. One of the girls said, “there is hardly any

highly educated Turkana woman for me to look at and be proud of so I can aim at being like her

in future” (Lydia, personal communication, Lorugum, Turkana, 2010).

The roles that girls are expected to play in their households also contribute to their lack of

participation in school.

Domestic labour continues to be characterized by a sharp gender-based division, with

men and boys making minor contribution. From a very early age, girls are socialized

into roles in which they prepare and cook food, collect water, and look after the young

and the sick. The dependency of the household on girls’ labour thus represents an

opportunity cost of their attendance at school according to Colclough et al. (2000 as

cited by Leggett, 2001 pg. 129).

When girls are in primary school, they have to cope with heavy workloads when they

return home after their day in school. They hardly get time to do study or complete their

homework which contributes to poor performance and subsequent dropping out of school.

In Turkana, there are girls who, due to orphan hood, have had to enter marriage early but

because they want education, they have to juggle both marriage and student life. The researcher

had several cases that she had to encourage because they had to travel to a district hospital in

order to access family planning services to avoid getting pregnant while in school. Such girls

had courage to explain their situation to avoid speculation and to get moral support. They were

weight down by anxiety because there was no way of knowing how their children were doing

back at home and when they went home during school holidays, they had to assume their role as

50

mother and wife. Often they had no time to revise their school work which led to lower

performance and sometimes they ended up dropping out.

The role of Government in Education Provision

The government has the role of ensuring that appropriate policies are formulated,

monitored, implemented and evaluated to see if the objectives are being achieved. In order for it

to sustain commitment to the implementation of any policy on education, the government has to

maintain budgetary allocation that would enable the planned activities and the specific strategies

to be carried out on time. It is also one of government’s roles to ensure policy guidelines laid

down to protect specific interests of students are adhered to and enforced by schools. For

example, the Kenyan policy on pregnant school girls which remains unclear has not been

explained for all stakeholders to know how they are expected to act.

Such seeming lack of commitment is one of the barriers to achieving gender equity in

education in Africa (UNICEF 2003 pg. 1). With regard to the Kenyan context, for example, there

is an “Education Act” (Oyaro 2011) which she argues has not been properly and effectively

implemented. From my experience as a teacher and principal of a girls’ school, I know that this

Act is vague and has not been well-explained at the national, community and school level what it

actually entails. This Act provides a “Return to School policy” component which is meant to

give girls who become pregnant the opportunity to resume schooling after having the baby.

Because of its lack of clarity, individual schools handle the issues of pregnancy in their own way

with some principals of schools deciding to expel girls immediately their pregnancy is

discovered and not allowing them to resume studies in those schools (Ibid). On the other hand

“ignorance of the re-entry policy’s existence - even among some head teachers who are supposed

to implement it – frustrates its success” (Ibid). This hurts girls more than boys and for those

from nomadic families like the Turkana who already lack full parental support, their chance of

ever recommencing schooling after giving birth is almost nil. This is indicated by what some of

the parents considered “waste of resources to educate girls because they often disappoint us by

becoming pregnant” so if they become pregnant, “the best thing is for them to get a husband” to

compensate for the loss” (Charles, Atiir and Acharait, personal communication, Lorugum,

Turkana, 2010). From my experience, while girls are forced to drop out of school due to

pregnancy, school boys, who are sometimes responsible, continue with school thus widening the

51

gender gap in education. If the “Return to School Policy” had been effective, some of the

Turkana girls that I talked to would not have been forced to discontinue their education due to

pregnancy.

It is due to such ambiguity that many girls lose their place in school as was evident in the

story of one of the girls who spoke bitterly remembering the reason why she dropped out of

school. Out of fear of being discovered, another girl who opted for an abortion afterwards she

experienced complication nearly killing her. She was thrown out of school when it was found

out. She expressed anger at the man whom she said “lured her with nice things” and at the

principal of the school “for expelling her from school because carrying out an abortion was

against one of the school rules” (Suzy, personal communication, Lorugum, Turkana 2010). As it

turned out this girl could not pursue her education elsewhere in the district for lack of a vacancy

and for the fact that her sponsor had “already deleted her name from the list of sponsored

students” (Ibid). Turkana district, like many other in remote parts of Kenya, has very poor health

care services. In North Eastern Province which inhabited mainly by pastoralists with the same

kind of terrain like Turkana “the use of modern contraceptives is as low as 4 per cent” compared

to 37 per cent and 47 per cent in rural and urban areas respectively (KDHS 2008-2009 pg. 5).

The fact that abortion is illegal in Kenya, coupled with the lack of medical facilities and qualified

staff, there were several cases of girls who carried out abortions using the crudest methods such

as drinking detergent, drinking concentrated juice, taking an overdose of painkillers or using

traditional methods of vigorous massaging of the abdomen until the fetus is forced out.

It is the government’s responsibility to create conditions that would enable its citizens to

acquire education even if it seeks assistance from its development partners. The Kenya

Education Sector Support Program (KESSP) is “based on the rationale of the overall policy goal

of achieving Education for All (EFA) and the government’s commitment to the attainment of

Millennium Development Goals (MDG)…” (KESSP 2005 pg. 2) with the broad objective of

giving “every Kenyan the right to quality education and training” regardless of the individual’s

social economic status” (Ibid). This objective is to be realized “through the provision of an all-

inclusive quality education that is accessible and relevant to all Kenyans” (Ibid). To this end, the

government has tasked the Ministry of Education to ensure there are enough adequately staffed,

adequately equipped public schools to absorb the country’s children of school going age. There

52

is, however, skepticism by some people towards the government’s efforts to make education

affordable for most Kenyans even when it announced “Free Primary Schooling for the third time

in 2003 since independence” and the step it took to commit “itself to Free Secondary Schooling

from 2008” (Ohba 2009 pg. vi).

Studies show that “the education sector has been one of the top consumers of the national

budget across the years” (Hakijamii Trust 2010 pg. 11). In comparison with Uganda’s 15 per

cent, Tanzania’s 8 per cent, Kenya’s was 26 per cent (UNDP MDG Report 2010). The table

below shows the amounts spent in different years starting 2005.

Table1. Total budget vis-à-vis allocation to education (amount in billions)

Year Total Budget (Projections)

(Millions Ksh)

Allocation to Education

Sector (Millions Ksh)

Allocation of total budget

2005/06 508.5 96.7 19.0 per cent

2006/07 550.2 101.7 18.5 per cent

2007/08 693.6 119.7 17.3 per cent

2008/09 759.8 140.09 18.43 per cent

Source: Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) 2008

Despite the huge spending on education “Kenya’s education system is fraught with

persistent challenges that affect access, equity, relevance and quality” (IPAR 2008 pg.3). In the

past, the government made efforts to rectify the situation by setting up commissions of inquiry

and task forces. Unfortunately, findings from a number of such ““Commissions”” and

“Ministerial Task Forces” that were initiated to review the education sector policies” (Ibid) were

not used as expected and “recommendations were either ignored completely or implemented

only in part” (Ibid) and “most of the projects implemented are not well deliberated” which led to

a haphazard way of their execution (TI 2010 pg. 5).

One of the objectives that KESSP’s program implementation was to actualize was the

“construction/renovation of physical facilities/equipment in public learning institutions in

disadvantaged areas, particularly in Arid and Semi-Arid Lands (ASALs)…by 2008” (KESSP

2005 pg.3). However, this did not take place because even at the national level, insufficient

physical structures such as schools and over-stretched staff have been some of the main

challenges facing the free primary as well as free secondary education initiatives. Expansion of

53

existing schools or construction of more would have been one of the primary steps undertaken

prior to the implementation process. For ASALs, it intensified the already existing shortages as

many children who showed up to be enrolled missed places in school. Some of the people I

talked to said they “felt that the leaders and the government had forgotten them” (Ekadeli, Louse,

Lolelia, personal communication, Lodwar Turkana 2010). Some said that nobody was interested

in them except “people of the Church” like the missionaries and “other white people who come

from far to assist” them like ‘Mama Mzungu’-Veronique Kerssemakers (Nadio, Kaituko,

personal communication, Lodwar Turkana 2010). The Mama Mzungu Foundation was begun in

the mid-1990s by Veronique Kerssemakers, an expatriate from the Netherlands, to support the

education of poor Turkana boys and girls.

A long-time education missionary, who has served in Turkana, explained that one factor

that contributes to low participation in education in the area is low educational standards due to

the poor quality of service. Apart from the inadequate facilities in the existing schools, a

centrally-controlled weighted curriculum is another major reason demotivating students,

particularly girls. Students are expected to take two Science subjects, Mathematics, two

languages and two other subjects to make a total of seven subjects for which they sit a national

exam. Most of the students in Turkana would have had a poor foundation from primary school

so teachers find themselves going at a slower pace in order to get them ready to sit the national

exam. This is done under harsh conditions such as temperatures that rise as high as 1040 F while

teachers as well as students are expected to have a full day’s work like their counterparts in the

rest of Kenya. From experience, no learning can take place between 1p.m and 3p.m because it is

usually too hot and they need some rest. Other difficulties faced in boarding schools include the

lack of a reliable supply of electricity, water, road network and availability of food.

In addition to the above, understaffing, the non-existent teacher development

opportunities and lack of teacher incentives contributed to low quality of schooling. She said her

twenty-five year service in the area first as a teacher and later as principal in a girls’ secondary

school, enabled her to interact with other teachers in the district and so she knew how

challenging it is to serve there. The countless trips she made to the capital, Nairobi, to request

for more teachers, most times to no avail, the frustration that her staff experienced for lack of

opportunities to advance in their subjects or in their career and the lack of modern

54

communication like the use of fax, internet and proper road network, all contributed to low

morale. This always resulted in high rates of teacher turn-over which eventually impacted on

education (Missionary/teacher, personal communication, Nairobi, Kenya 2010).

She also talked of the many letters she wrote accompanying national examinations

explaining how unfair it was for the Ministry of Education to have a uniform practical exam in

Sciences (Biology & Chemistry) involving experiments with the use of fresh plants that could

not be found in Turkana or could not survive long enough to give desired results. These letters

and recommendations she made were ignored because year after year, the same exam trends

were followed. This impacted negatively on overall performance in Science subjects

demoralizing girls. Those who would have liked to pursue science-related careers such as

nursing or medicine lost interest after a while. This missionary summarized her experience of

working in Turkana as “a continuous uphill task” because being in Turkana is like “being locked

away from the rest of the world and forgotten by the government” (Missionary teacher, personal

communication, Nairobi, 2010).

The Role of Development Partners and the local community in Education promotion

Although “education is generally perceived as the prerogative of the government”

(Genevois 2008 pg.5) very often governments do not meet the educational needs of their

countries due to financial constraints or mismanagement. Most governments rely on

partnerships with donor agencies in order to implement educational programs. Such programs

include funding training for teachers to improve the quality of education, construction of

infrastructure to make up for deficiencies and nutrition (Ibid). There are also efforts made by

Public Private Partnership such as UNESCO’s partners with regard to the MDGs, particularly,

Education for All, with the main aim being to ensure “equitable access to primary education for

all children by 2015” (Ibid). So it is important to acknowledge the big contribution to education

in most countries in Africa made by such organizations as the UN Millennium Project Task

Force on Education and Gender Equality (2005) which was commissioned by the UN Secretary

General to:

Identify strategies that low and middle income countries can adopt to achieve universal

primary school completion; and to then make recommendations to the international

55

community on how best to support countries towards that end (Commonwealth

Secretariat (2007 pg. 196).

As a result of this, the UN has supported education in areas where governments do not

reach including breaking the gender gap.

When Kenya declared that primary education would be free in 2003, there is no way it

would have undertaken this step without donor support. It received a total “external support of

about 4.5 billion shillings (equivalent to $56 million): from the World Bank (3.5 billion

shillings), the Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA) 0.47 billion, the Canadian

International Development Agency (CIDA) 0.48 billion” (Sifuna 2008 pg. 104).

Kenya’s partners in educational development have not only been supportive financially,

they have also been vocal on issues of accountability and transparency with regard to

expenditure of donor funds. The “World Bank, UK’s Department for International

Development, UNICEF and the Canadian International Development Agency” who are some of

Kenya’s international partners in education development (The World Bank Group 2011) were

rightly concerned at the end of 2010 and urged the government to investigate and subsequently

prosecute the alleged Ministry of Education staff implicated in the loss of funds that were meant

for educational programs. Their disappointment was obvious in the words of the Canadian High

Commission to Kenya when he said:

It is important to Canada that our development funding be used for its agreed purpose,

such as improving educational opportunities for the most vulnerable children.

Accountability is a key pillar of our work, and we look to the Government of Kenya to put

in place mechanisms to prevent a repeat of cases such as this (Ibid 2011).

There are several international and national NGOs working in Kenya and contributing

immensely to educational development. They include The Aga Khan Foundation, CARE Kenya,

Save the Children, World Vision, Action Aid, Catholic Relief Services, Christian Children’s

fund, Oxfam GB and World Concern (Ngumuta 2008 pg. 1). World Vision, Oxfam GB,

Catholic Relief Services, CARE Kenya and Action Aid work mainly in ASALs. One of World

Vision’s goals of helping to transform communities is being realized through ‘child sponsorship’

(World Vision 2009 pg.14) which is very evident in Turkana. The organization’s highlights in

56

Kenya include the “Development of Girl Child and Eradication of Female Genital Mutilation

Project” (Ibid pg.4). As the organization celebrated its “35 years of service to humanity” in

2010, there were “145,326 children registered in 50 areas of development of programs” in Kenya

(WV 2010).

A special tribute is to be paid to the Churches’ role in education in Kenya. “Missionaries

have been credited with introduction of schools in colonial Kenya and most prestigious schools

today are former mission schools” (Ruto, Ongwenyi and Mugo 2009 pg. 11). From my

experience and observation, most of the education initiatives in ASALs are due to missionary

efforts. In Turkana, Catholic missionaries have been in the forefront in constructing and

equipping schools. The Catholic Church has been involved in paying fees for numerous students

as well as offering financial and technical training to staff and sometimes networking with

people to volunteer service in schools to fill teacher shortfalls. The Church has come to the

rescue of the schools it sponsors when they needed vehicles, generators for electricity and for

pumping water, and on many occasions, food supply. It has also been in the forefront of giving

input on emerging issues such as HIV/AIDS prevention and adolescent support. Due to its

efforts, there are resources centres equipped with libraries, computers and other social amenities

where the youth benefit from.

While development partners play a vital role in education, some of the views of those

Turkana educationalists working with NGOs in Turkana felt that it was like being “handicapped”

because of relying too much on external support for everything. They expressed the need to find

a more sustainable solution and stressed the need for government to invest in mobile schools,

local capacity and human capital. They also wished for more “tangible” support from “the

political leadership from the area”. Some referred to the importance of “challenging the way the

Constituency Development Fund (CDF)” was used in the district with the hope of seeing more

results in terms of “educational investments for the people of Turkana” (Ekiru, Atot, Loote

personal communication, Lodwar, Turkana 2010). The Constituency Development Fund (CDF)

was an initiative of the National Rainbow Coalition (NARC) Government of Kenya that came to

power in 2002. It was a move to bring funds to the grassroots so that the local people in each

constituency get the opportunity to decide what projects to be implemented depending on their

57

needs. Unfortunately, it faces challenges of accountability and transparency, especially where

the citizens have low educational levels and do not know what is going on.

Conclusion and Recommendations

One of the greatest findings that results from this study is the affirmation of the

importance of education in poverty reduction and in general improvement of life for families as

confirmed by those interviewed. Despite some hesitation on the part of some, there was an

overwhelming desire to have an education that answers their needs while recognizing their

lifestyle. The part on conclusion has three small sections divided into suggestions for the

community, for the role of the government and the partnerships with organizations and

individuals.

The Community

The notion of one’s right to education hardly featured in the informal conversations held

with the various people from Turkana. One cannot demand for what one does not know to be his

by right. The girls whose views are reflected in this paper did not even realize that it is their

right to insist that their parents take them to school. Due to culture, they believed that to do that

was tantamount to disrespect for parents. In the same way, the adults hardly referred to the fact

that their local leaders such as the Member of Parliament whom they elected on the premise that

he would represent them at the national level was probably failing to champion their course.

Internationally, there are a host of people who have remained in the dark regarding what their

rights are either because they do not know the process of demanding or because they have been

conveniently left in the dark by their leaders. For this reason, this study suggests that the

community be made aware of its rights and duties.

The study also discovered that other than few enlightened people, most people did not

make any suggestion regarding the possibility of local philanthropy as one of the sustainable

ways to help address the issue of fees for schooling and training. It does not always have to be

people coming from outside with large sums of money to support poor students. There are

several rich enough individuals who have been beneficiaries of other people’s generosity. The

study therefore suggests local philanthropic venture based on the example of “A Small Act” be

58

practiced. Parents might eventually see it as a worth course when they see their own people

investing in girls’ education.

There is great need to educate the community on what climate change is, its

manifestations so that they begin to interpret current happenings and get a clearer picture of

trends-that it might get worse or even severer with time so that they are not completely left at its

mercy. They need to know the predicted trends and what this implies for their way of life as

pastoralists so that they make informed and voluntary decisions to move away or attempt to

embrace education as preparation for an alternative lifestyle. Knowledge and information is a

powerful tool for change.

The study also suggests a needs assessment of Turkana education system to see the

existing infrastructure, how far apart they are and their quality. In so doing, the girls and boys

will express what they see as their needs and priorities.

There is need to raise community awareness so that members have a say in the general

behaviour of teachers in the schools in their localities. It would enable them object to acts of

teachers’ unnecessary absenteeism, drunkenness, and engagement in sexual relationships with

girl pupils and students.

It is also very important to raise the community’s and the public’s awareness of girls’

educational issues and their specific needs.

Policy and Government Responsibility

While the new policy on education for nomads sounds like the answer to the educational

needs of Kenyan nomadic pastoralists, the task of ‘creating legitimacy’ through raising

awareness and ‘identifying policy reform champions’ who will actively and visibly get press

attention will need to continue for many years (Brinkerhoff & Crosby 2002 pg.37). Also

‘building constituencies’ and ‘mobilizing stakeholders’ with potential resource base to drive the

policy will also need to be continued for a long time. In this respect, the study recommends

other additional ways that can be employed in order to keep nomadic education visibly on the

public agenda such as through documentaries and discussions on television.

With regard to the above policy, the researcher suggests an ongoing consultation between

all stakeholders. This process will help to break down barriers and allay the fear of being forced

to change or of ‘losing’ their daughters. It will also help the community realize the value of

59

education in itself because there is an underlying anxiety over the fact that after education, they

may fail to get employment.

It is strongly and urgently recommend the enforcement of the return to school policy for

girls who become pregnant through creation of awareness among the community, making it

public knowledge and holding principals who flout it responsible. Going hand in hand with this

policy is to enforce prosecution of teachers who are responsible for school girl pregnancies.

There is also a need to tackle the problem of harassment in school to ensure the safety

and confidence of girls.

Girls need to be educated to know that they are not just beneficiaries but active

participants in their education.

More research and pilot studies in the different channels of delivering education to

nomads should be carried out and results analysed for the way forward.

Build the capacity of schools to take care of specific children needs. There is need to

identify the different categories of girls with the kinds of needs they have that might increase

their chances of dropping out of school. The issue of orphan hood due to HIV/AIDS, raids and

other illnesses go unattended to. Due to limited resources, the needs of the girls’ as the school

level are unmet.

Vocational training institutions for girls who drop out of school should be built to enable

them to acquire practical skills such as dressmaking, cookery, art, and computer, small-scale

business management to be able to move and feel comfortable settling in any part of the country.

Instead of government leaving it to each constituency to come up with projects and

programs, it would be helpful for some mandatory ones such as on education and health so that

each Member of Parliament is required to ensure a certain number of schools and health centres

are constructed in his/her constituency.

There is also need to introduce complementary basic education in ASAL to provide basic

education for children, in particular girls and women from ASAL who had never had the chance

to attend or who had dropped out. This could take three years to complete implementing a

competency-based curriculum instead of eight years of conventional primary education.

It is also important to introduce incentives to encourage females from ASAL to train as

teachers to act as role models and promote girls’ education by example.

60

Finally, it is necessary to refine indicators to look beyond enrolments and ask what the

quality of education being offered is. It is important to ask the right questions such as at what

age girls do girl start school? How many survive and complete, and how many qualify for further

training that enables them seek employment in sectors that give them an income?

Partnerships with NGO, FBO and Others

This study recommends that strategies be put in place that provide opportunities to

engage private and public business owners both locally and nationally to offer in kind support

such as basic needs that girls need to be confident and comfortable in school. These could go a

long way in helping keep a girl in school in Turkana.

Missionaries began work on education, but there are fewer of them now and churches are

becoming predominantly local in their leadership meaning that past opportunities for fundraising

to accomplish some of the educational programs may not be readily available. While this is a

challenge, it also presents the opportunity for the community to look for home-grown solutions

in the form of local philanthropy which is more sustainable.

The policy on education for nomads (EfN) which is in its early stages of formulation left

out a big and potential stakeholder in its consultation process and view gathering exercise,

namely, the Church. This implies the government and or the MOE will have to make efforts

later on to involve them. The Church has provided resources in the form of personnel,

equipment and networks and can still do this during the implementation and evaluation of the

new strategy.

The study strongly suggests for the NGOs operating in Turkana to have a policy which

involves parents and guardians of girls that they support so that they can still play their role as

parents in order to avoid disconnection and alienation.

61

Appendix 1: Kenyan map showing the location of Turkana

62

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