Experts blame domestic conflict, poor parenting for school unrest

Simon Katee, Prof Justina Mwang’ombe, Wahida Mohamed and Mohamed Hamisi at Sapphire Hotel in Mombasa on Monday / BRIAN OTIENO

A senior government official has linked the ongoing school unrest to domestic troubles at home.

Prof Justina Mwang’ombe, a senior superintendent of prisons and a psychologist at Shimo la Tewa Borstal Prison, said the unrest could be linked to parental situations at home, where learners see their parents quarrelling and fighting in front of them.

She said this later affects the learners psychologically and ends up manifesting in unruly behaviour.

“When you look at our children as the product of the environment they come from, yourealisee there are deep-lying issues that affect them in their later years," she said.

“The moment we follow our children in their schools and their family levels, that is the whole ecosystem that supports them. This is where we should start to help in child protection.”

Mwangombe said more harm is done to children at the family level than what is done at the school level, yet schools are blamed more.

“The child's behaviour is not an isolation of what happens at the family level. The children who are burning schools have been burning inside them courtesy of what we are doing as parents to them,” she said.

The phones that children are allowed to use are meant to bridge the gap created by parents in parenting or their lack of.

She said at the community level, there are no spaces where children can interact physically, including parks, football pitches, among others.

“Children today are playing football through phones. School unrest relate to what is happening socially,” the professor said.

She spoke on Monday during a youth talk by Search for Common Ground, a non-profit that works to end violent conflict and build healthy, safe and just societies.

During the talk, stakeholders, including education officials, peace-building organisations and child protection experts, called for a national dialogue to address the underlying issues that are now manifest through the learners.

So far, more than 70 schools across the country have sent their learners home following unrest over various matters.

These include top schools like Alliance High, Nakuru Girls High, Loreto High Limuru, Kaumoni Boys High and Moi Forces Academy Lanet.

The most infamous one was the Utumishi Academy in Gilgil, where 16 learners died after some of their colleagues set their dorm on fire while they were asleep.

Police have arrested and charged nine suspects in court.

On Monday, SFCG’s Wahida Mohamed said youth need to be empowered with skills and exposure to lead and manage changes in their spaces so that they can be problem solvers.

Some 94 youths aged between 13 and 18 will be trained on problem solving in society under a programme called Youth Talk.

“From these trainings, we hope they can go back to the community and conduct community engagements and dialogues. We hope they are not only going to bring change among their peers but to all the community members as a whole,” Wahida said.

Mohamed Hamisi, National Cohesion and Integration Commission principal programme officer at the Coast region, said the commission has established peace clubs in schools, in collaboration with the Education ministry, so as to help channel grievances in the right manner.

Hamisi said most of the schools that are experiencing this unrest do not have peace clubs yet.

“That is why we are working in overdrive to have the peace clubs commonly known as Amani clubs in schools so as to have learners able to manage their grievances and have them addressed in a structured manner,” Hamisi said.

He said the juvenile crimes that are also being witnessed in the streets and villages are also a manifestation of the lack of guidance that these young people are suffering from.

“We are looking to engage these young people so that they are not triggers of crime because if they continue this way, without guidance, they will be vulnerable to manipulation by people, like politicians, especially as we head into the 2027 general election,” Hamisi said.

Wahida revealed that they have a memorandum of understanding with NCIC to access schools through the Amani clubs so as to reach the learners and train them on problem-solving skills.

INSTANT ANALYSIS:

A severe wave of student un rest is sweeping across Kenyan secondary schools, marked by riots, walkouts, and devastating dormitory fires. Over 70 schools have closed indefinitely in recent weeks following escalating tensions, raising urgent national concerns about learner safety and the condition of boarding facilities.