Higher education in pre-independence Kenya begun late and also, developed at an extremely slow pace. This is because in shaping the path of education in colonial Kenya, the colonial government was guided by the fear that higher education would enlighten the Africans and make them demand greater freedom and equality.
The first Kenyan higher educational institution was the Royal Technical College of East Africa in Nairobi, established in 1956. In 1961, the Royal Technical College was renamed the Royal College of Nairobi and turned into a university college. In 1963, when Kenya attained independence, the Royal College became the University College of Nairobi. In 1970, the University College of Nairobi was renamed the University of Nairobi. Kenyatta College, a teacher training institution situated in the outskirts of Nairobi, became a constituent college of the University of Nairobi in 1972, and was elevated into a full-fledged university in 1985. The government has since then established five other universities.
It has never been easy for Kenyans wishing to pursue education, ever since the colonial times. This is because during this period, both the missionaries and the colonial government financed the kind of education in which they had vast interests. Since they aimed at the African soul, the missionaries financed religious education. Similarly, the government and settlers financed industrial education for Africans because they needed the local workforce to exploit the vast resources of Kenya. A local scholar, Sifuna (1980), observed that;
“Christian missionaries dedicated themselves to the provision of literary education as it was seen as a most powerful instrument for Christian propaganda, while the government, like the missionaries was committed to providing Africans with an industrial curriculum, allegedly, to prevent them from migrating into urban areas and also maintain the high status, brought about by education, to only be enjoyed by the whites.”
There was an acute shortage of skilled manpower immediately after independence. Thus, the main function of the University of Nairobi, the only university in the country by then, was to train in human resources needed for the country’s post independence development strategy.
The university was expected to train manpower for development; its professors were expected to conduct research and provide policy makers with relevant development advice so that appropriate policies could be adopted. It was also expected to train the new breed of researchers, who were expected to both teach and conduct research that was of interest and relevance to the Kenyan situation.
Jobs were abundant then, and graduating from the university assured the graduate a well paying job in the public sector. This led to an attitude whereby Kenyans attached a particular value to university education. Most of them believed that higher education was the key to economic and social mobility; and that such training necessarily leads to higher level employment in the public sector. This increased the demand for higher education, which led to an increase in admissions and later, an increase in the number of graduates.
With the stalled economy jobs were not being created and thus, the public service, where most graduated were well prepared to work, was unable to absorb all the graduates. Ever since then, the number of unemployed university graduates has risen, and they are questioning the system that has led to significant unemployment among highly trained individuals.
The education system needs to be changed. Other than being seen as a passport to lucrative civil service jobs, it should begin training individuals as entrepreneurs and effective managers of private sector businesses. With the rise in the number of graduates, government agencies cannot possibly absorb all of them. Thus, instead of searching for administrative positions in the civil service, university graduates should be trained how, and encouraged to, start their own businesses or seek employment with existing firms in the private sector.
Unemployment problems in Kenya today are also ironic. While arts based graduates are either unemployed or underemployed, there is a serious shortage of manpower in science oriented fields. Kenyan policymakers should push forward policies that encourage the education system to invest more in pure sciences, where the manpower is lacking, so as to balance it with the social sciences.
Development encompasses social, economic, political, religious, environmental, physical and technological dimensions. Kenyan society, like any other society in the world, requires well balanced individuals; and an integrated educational system should be promoted, which allows graduates to be well informed on both the social and pure sciences. It is important to have policymakers who understand the pure sciences; and doctors, engineers, physicists, as well as other pure scientists who understand and appreciate the importance of the social sciences to the nation's development effort.
Thus, the government should opt for a more integrated university curriculum, one that prepares students to solve Kenya's problems by providing them with the skills to function effectively in both the public and private sectors. University graduates currently look forward only to jobs in the public sector. Reforms should concentrate on making university education relevant to the private sector, which is the impetus behind genuine economic growth and development.
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