Urban Education Differentials and Marginalization: The Case of Educating the Youth in Nairobi's Informal Settlements

Abstract

In this chapter, I will discuss an array of issues; the most pertinent being the disillusionment of many of Kenya’s urban poor who, like the majority of rural-urban migrants, moved to the city with the hope of finding jobs and improving their economic wellbeing as well as achieving new optimized opportunities. I will also look at how this hope for improved lives has been elusive for the parents and now for the children through a process of unrealized education objectives, massive drop-outs or push-outs, un-conducive learning environment due to area violence, dirt and filth, and lack of family support. This will provide some understanding of the plight of the many poor in urban areas and particularly in the informal settlements (slums) of Nairobi, Kenya. Other questions to be dealt with here include how the informal settlements themselves came about in a city that was originally planned for Europeans; how has the presence of these informal settlements perpetuated socio-economic inequalities in Kenya’s urban areas, and particularly in Nairobi, Kenya’s largest city; and what is being done and what should be done to bring about some form of social justice in the goals of “education for all” especially the youth from poor families – most of them in the large informal settlements of Kibera, Mathare, Korogocho, Mukuru? I will argue that a holistic approach to the problem of the youth in poor areas need to be addressed going beyond the recently celebrated “free education for all” introduced by President Kibaki and his National Rainbow Coalition (NARC) government in 2003. Whereas this introduction of free primary education is a welcome partial solution to the issue of differentials and marginalization of city youth in the informal settlement as pertains to their search for modern education, there are still many socialhistorical problems that need to be addressed. I will discuss how, for example, one non-governmental organization, the Undugu Society of Kenya, has been dealing with this problem, well before the government gave it as much serious thought. There are some lessons to learn from the example of the Undugu Society, particularly because