The Cultural Language of School Unrest in Kenya: Reframing a Wicked Problem

The problem of school unrest has persisted in Kenya despite nationwide concerns and several national inquiries and interventions. This raises questions about whether prevailing approaches adequately capture the nature of the problem. Drawing on historical accounts, inquiry reports and contemporary discussions, this paper groups the recurring causes of school unrest into three broad categories-the welfare, institutional and societal issues. Their recurrence across historical periods suggests a cultural system. The paper argues that this system exhibits the characteristics of a wicked problem and concludes that understanding the problem as a cultural system provides a conceptual basis for applying systems design in place of interventions directed at isolated causes.