Friends of Dagoretti Children

Congratulations to Lydiah Wachira on her PhD

We are so proud to congratulate FDC committee member, Lydiah, on attaining her PhD after almost five years' hard work taking a part time degree at the University of Nairobi - whilst working as well! 

Her topic was - PUBLIC SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS' ATTITUDE ON THE ROLE OF CHRISTIAN RELIGIOUS EDUCATION ON SOCIAL COHESION IN NAIROBI COUNTY, KENYA -  a degree of the University of Nairobi.

Lydiah explains it in her own words: "As you must have realized while living in Kenya, social cohesion is a pertinent issue in a country divided along so many different ethnic groups. At attaining independence, the government realized there was need to unite a country which had been broken through the colonial policy of Divide and Rule. One of the vehicles to be  used to bring this unity was education - indeed one of the goals of education is EDUCATION FOR NATIONAL UNITY. The way this was to be done was by incorporating into the curriculum elements that would help Kenyan children be united within their diversity. The idea was to create Kenyans who would nevertheless respect our diversified inheritance.

However 50 years on, the 2007/2008 post election violence happened which was purely based on ethnic diversity.This is what motivated me to carry out the study to find out students' perception and attitude towards promotion of cohesion in Kenya. I used Religious Education, because as a subject, it is naturally geared towards human brotherhood - inspite of differences.

The study involved 25 Secondary Schools in Nairobi and a sample of 550 students. Nairobi was chosen for its cosmopolitan nature where different ethnic groups have lived together for years but, nevertheless, Nairobi was affected by the violence. The main tool of the study was a questionnaire for the students, but I also interviewed a few teachers and Education Officers.

These are some of the findings:  Students' age and the type of school they attended influenced their perception and attitude towards people of other ethnic groups. For example, it was found that the younger the student was, the more positive they were towards relating to other groups. Students attending National Schools were also more positive. It was also found out that the parents' level of education was significant. The higher the educational level of the parents, the more positive students were. Other variables that were tested, such as gender and parents' occupation, did not have any significant influence".