Old Wine" and "New Wine Skins"": De-colonizing Kenya's University System

Kenyaâ¿¿s political landscape has gone through various shifts. Conspicuously, these political shifts do not seem to have produced concomitant changes in the education system. Specifically, suppression of discourse in higher education that characterized the colonial education system continued to thrive during Kenyatta and Moi regimes and the culture of silence lingers on despite the unprecedented opening of democratic space by the Kibaki administration. Granted, this study investigates why political changes in the country have not led to commensurate changes in discourse patterns in the country's university system. The study also looks into how Kenyaâ¿¿s higher education could be de-colonized so the university system is able to reclaim its role as an agent of social change more so that of nurturing the nascent democracy. The study raises issues that educators, especially those interested in critical pedagogy, postcolonial scholars, and people interested in the democratization of developing countries, especially Africa, will find interesting.