The Unrest in Kenyan Schools: A Complex, Perennial Challenge

News headlines in recent weeks have once again drawn attention to a long-standing concern in Kenya’s education system, school unrest. Some schools were closed indefinitely in the month of July 2025, because of unrest. This wave of school unrest has sparked conversations both in mainstream media as well as on social media.

The persistence of student unrest in Kenyan boarding schools is not new, and calls us to reflect on why this challenge continues to recur. It is has become an almost predictable occurrence, particularly during the mock exams period. The students’ reasons for going on strike usually vary from quality of meals, treatment by teachers, and other boarding concerns. It is strange that these concerns only become particularly urgent during this period, to the extent of causing students to go on strike. This timing and the number of schools going on strike in a given period, indicate that there might be more to it than these concerns.

A Divided Debate: Root Causes of Unrest

Some have stated that the cause of school unrest is academic pressure, particularly surrounding national examinations. It is no coincidence that many of these strikes occur during the second term, usually around mock examinations. Informally dubbed as the “fear of mocks,” school unrest is attributed to anxiety over the mock examinations, which are a mock of the national exams that occur in the third term. This cause of school unrest explains why the issue is cyclical, occuring only at a particular period of the school year.

Another reason given for school unrest is the structure of boarding schools which have been characterized to taken an almost militarized approach. Here, the reasoning is that boarding schools taken on a very strict nature, sometimes imposing draconion rules that might not be relevant to today’s crop of students. These include manual labour, shaving of hair (sometimes as punishment), limited communication with the ‘outside world’ among others. Those who attribute school unrest to this argue that boarding institutions, as they currently exist, fail to support students evolving needs today.  

A Guardian’s Perspective

The situation of school unrest is deeply concerning. This year, our attention was particularly drawn to recent incidents because a school attended by one of our schools was affected. On one Tuesday morning, we received communication from the school that scholar was released from school due to unrest. This is not the first time we are facing such an incident. About two years ago, a fire incident broke out at Kakamega High School which was sparked by school unrest. The outcomes of such incidents are also concerning especially when unrest escalates to property destruction. In the Kakamega incident, the aftermath was not just the loss of infrastructure but a heavy financial burden placed on parents. A new dorm had to be built and the rebuilding and repair costs were passed down to families. When students gp back to school, property loss is what is on the focus, with much of the students concerns remaining unaddressed.

Moving forward

The issue of school unrest is not isolated. It is systemic issue that calls for more than the reactive band-aid measures that are often employed. There needs to be a discussion on why this issue persists, why it happens at the particular time it does and what solutions should make sense. Perhaps then we can move from treating school strikes as mere annual disruptions, and instead start addressing the root cause of these strikes.