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Crisis and Student Protest in Universities in Kenya: Examining the Role of Students in National Leadership and the Democratization Process

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 May 2014

Maurice N. Amutabi
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Abstract:

The aim of this article is threefold: to interrogate the crises that have afflicted public universities in Kenya over a period of thirty years, starting in the 1970s and intensifying in the 1980s and 1990s; to examine the impact of student activism and protest on education policy; and to investigate the role of current and former university students in national leadership and the democratization process in Kenya. University students are destined to be the intelligentsia who one day will take over the reigns of power. Students also constitute the largest reservoir of technocrats in Kenya's development milieu, providing highly trained manpower in many sectors. To many they are also the vehicles of ideological dissemination and are often regarded as the representatives of the left and sympathetic to the cause of the common man. As such, to engage the students is to engage the common man. Yet there are lacunae in the research and academic knowledge in this area. Commentators have largely ignored student protest in Kenya despite the fact that universities have a long history of student activism in which students often have engaged authorities in running battles, some of them violent. In the national political arena, university students often rally behind radical politicians and former university students. The political course in Kenya would not be the same today without university students. This article seeks to interrogate their multiple roles.

Résumé:

Résumé:

Cet article a trois buts: se pencher sur les crises qui ont accablé les universités publiques du Kenya sur une période de trente ans à partir des années 1970, et qui se sont intensifiées dans les années 1980 et 1990; examiner l'impact des manifestations et de l'activisme étudiants portant sur la politique en matière d'éducation; enfin, d'examiner le rôle joué par les étudiants d'université anciens et actuels dans la direction de la nation et dans le processus de démocratisation au Kenya. Les étudiants des universités ont la réputation d'être des précurseurs importants de l'intelligentsia, destinés à reprendre les rênes du pouvoir. Les étudiants constituent également la plus grande réserve de technocrates dans le milieu du développement au Kenya, car ils offrent une main d'œuvre hautement qualifiée dans de nombreux secteurs. Ils sont considérés comme les véhicules de la dissémination idéologique et sont souvent vus comme les représentants de la gauche et comme sympathisants à la cause de l'homme du peuple. Ainsi, impliquer les étudiants revient à impliquer l'homme du peuple. Pourtant, la recherche et le savoir universitaire présentent des lacunes dans ce domaine. Les commentateurs ont largement ignoré les manifestations étudiantes au Kenya, bien que les universités aient un long historique d'activisme étudiant pendant lequel les étudiants ont souvent engagé les autorités dans des batailles persistantes, certaines d'entre elles marquées par des violences. Sur la scène politique, les étudiants d'université se rallient souvent aux hommes politiques radicaux et aux anciens étudiants d'université. La ligne politique du Kenya ne serait pas la même aujourd'hui sans ces étudiants des universités. Cet article essaie de se pencher sur ces rôles multiples vis-à-vis de la démocratie.

Type
Research Article
Information
African Studies Review , Volume 45 , Issue 2: African Universities in Crisis and the Promotion of a Democratic Culture , September 2002 , pp. 157 - 177
Copyright
Copyright © African Studies Association 2002

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