Educational Gender Party: Challenges of the Kenyan Girl

This paper based on a critical analysis of official reports and related literature, focuses on girls’ education in Kenya within the context of a larger development paradigm that centres on the importance of their education for both economic and social development. It asserts that a country that does not invest enough in educating and empowering girls is undermining its socio-economic resilience, productivity and competitive potential. Investing in girls’ education is investing in development. Girls’ education has significant multiplier effects; in particular, as resources shrink, investing in girls should be recognized as a high-return investment. Despite the strides that Kenya has made in expanding the educational opportunities since independence in 1963, the access of girls to educational opportunities continues to be limited due to various socio-economic and political barriers. The paper contends that, until all vestiges of these inequities are eliminated, gender equality in education and in the larger development paradigm remains but a pipe dream. Measures to level the educational playing field remain critical for girls, families, communities and the nation as a whole, which cannot afford to be dispossessed off the full potential of over half of its population women.