The Catholic Church and Schools in Kenya: A Historical Perspec tive on Education for Holistic Development. Part I: From the Colonial period to Foundations of an Education dispensation for Independent Kenya

Abstract

This is the first of a two part paper which \nattempts a critical analysis of the success of the \nmission of the Catholic Church to educate holistically in Kenya. The milieus discussed are \nthe schools set up by Catholic missionaries, during the colonial period. The missionaries’ \nprimary goal was evang \nelization; the schools were increasingly recognized as a preferred \nforum and strategy for reaching it. Many benefits to the foundation of Christian \ncommunities in Kenya were reaped from these Catholic schools. Regrettable however, in \nCatholic education in \nthe colonial period, was the failure to mediate a concurrence of values \nbetween its missionary protagonists and the African families and communities, who, as \npartner educators of the recipients of Catholic education also had their own aims for the \neducati \non of their children. Very often, there was little regard for the latter. The missionaries \nwere recognized by the Africans as being distinct from the colonizers. Yet their attempt to \nplay into the advantages of collusion with the colonial government at the \nservice of their \nevangelizing goals led many Africans to a sense of betrayal for their course, and a \nfragmented approach to Christian commitment. While recognizing that the said \nfragmentation has other roots besides, the authors decry the shortness of vis \nion because of \nwhich the Catholic schools have played into this liability whose damages are experienced in \nmany other facets of the African community lives.

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