Socio-economic factors affecting access to basic formal education among the nomadic pastoralists: A case study of the Samburu

Abstract

The study examines the socio-economic factors influencing access to basic formal education among the Samburu nomadic pastoralists. To facilitate the data collection, Samburu District was stratified into three clusters – Highland-Rural, Lowland-Rural and Urban. Multi-stage and random sampling were used to select from each cluster, one division, one location, one sub-location and then 200 household heads from all the villages in the sub-location. That is moving from the division down to the villages using random sampling. Data were collected and analysed using Excel and SPSS computer packages and further presented using descriptive and inferential statistics. The specific tools used were frequencies and cross-tabulations. There have been policy intentions to improve the accessibility of the nomadic pastoral communities to basic formal education. What has been lacking is the effective implementation of search policies. Government policies need to be driven. This is because if the future of education in Kenya looks bleak as foreseen, what hope will be there for the already disadvantaged people like the nomadic pastoralists?