Few deaths in 2025 generated the kind of anguished national conversation that followed the killing of Albert Ojwang, a teacher who died in circumstances that brought into sharp focus a set of questions about Kenya’s schools that many people had preferred not to face directly.
Ojwang appeared in Kenya’s trending deaths search list, a place that his family and colleagues would certainly not have wished for him. His death, connected to violence within a school environment, prompted searches that reflected both grief and a determination to understand how such a thing could happen.
Kenya’s education system is one of the largest in Africa, with approximately 18 million students enrolled in primary and secondary schools and over 300,000 teachers serving those students across the country.
The system has achieved remarkable expansion since the introduction of free primary education in 2003, which dramatically increased enrollment and substantially reduced gender disparities in access to schooling.
Within this system, however, significant tensions exist. School violence is not a new problem in Kenya. It has been documented for decades in forms ranging from bullying and hazing to more serious physical confrontations.
Student riots, which have periodically resulted in property damage and injuries, reflect the pressures that school environments generate when overcrowding, inadequate facilities, strict discipline regimes, and the high stakes pressure of examinations combine in environments where student mental health support is minimal.
School safety concerns
The power dynamics between teachers and students in Kenya’s schools are shaped by a history in which physical punishment was normalized and authority was exercised through control rather than relationship.
The formal prohibition of corporal punishment in Kenyan schools, codified in the Children’s Act, has not been uniformly implemented, and practices that were once considered normal continue in many institutions despite being illegal.
Teacher welfare is also a significant issue. Teachers, particularly those working in public schools, have consistently raised concerns about inadequate pay, poor working conditions, large class sizes, and insufficient professional support.
The Teachers Service Commission has been in periodic dispute with teacher unions over these conditions. Teachers who feel undervalued and under resourced are less well positioned to manage the complex social dynamics of a large classroom.
Student mental health has become an increasingly acknowledged concern, particularly following the pandemic years, which disrupted education, isolated young people, and created new forms of social and psychological stress that many schools were not equipped to address.
Ojwang’s death prompted calls from educational administrators, civil society organizations, and politicians for a review of school safety protocols, student welfare support systems, and the mechanisms through which concerns about dangerous situations can be escalated and addressed before they become catastrophic.
The broader question that his death raised, about the social contract within schools and what it means for a community when that contract breaks down, is one that Kenya’s education system must grapple with seriously. Schools are not just sites of academic instruction.
They are communities in which young people learn how to navigate authority, manage conflict, and develop the social skills that democracy and civil society require.
