My Life in Kenya

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Aerobics and Injuries
Aerobics Happy-Healthy Hearts
Aerobics Workout
An Existence
Another Foreign Egg
A Righteous Fraction
Burning the Fat: Aerobics
Different Types of Penguins
Funny Alcohol Quotes
getOnlife.com
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NYSE New York Stock Exchange
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The Furtive Burden

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Education. Kenya's goal of free primary education was reached in 1979, and by 1995 over 5.5 million children, or 85% of the relevant age group, were attending primary schools. Despite even greater relative growth, however, only 620,000 students, about 24% of the relevant age group, attended secondary school. Some of those unable to attend government secondary schools went to self-help, or Harambee, schools of questionable quality, and others entered government training institutes. The remainder dropped out. A government-appointed committee on education in the mid-1970s criticized the educational system as being too oriented to the modern urban economy rather than to the realities of the dominant rural sector, where 87% of the people lived and worked. The committee urged technical and nonformal practical education by village polytechnics, Harambee institutes of science and technology, and agricultural training centers to overcome the slow rate of rural development and provide opportunities for the numerous school dropouts. The University of Nairobi had an enrollment of more than 13,600 in 1998; Kenyatta University, which became independent of the University of Nairobi in 1985, enrolled another 8,600. Other institutions included Moi University (founded 1984), with 5,300 students; Egerton University (founded 1939, acquired university status 1987), with 8,000 students; and Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (founded 1981, university status 1994), with 2,400 students. Cultural Life. Kenyan arts reflect both the modern and traditional components of national life. Literature has addressed themes of Kenya's colonial experience, its land hunger, and the experience and feelings of people caught between two cultures. Postindependence authors have been concerned with Kenya's neocolonialism, inequality, and the new African elite. A developing school of urban writers explores issues of new urban lifestyles, loss of values, and neotraditional outlooks. The Donovan Maule Theater, founded by a British actor and his wife in the 1950s, has had a company consisting of professional Western actors. The National Theater, opened in 1952, offers presentations by visiting artists and amateur groups. Plays written in Kikuyu have been produced in the countryside. In addition, traditional dances have been encouraged. Kenyan artistic expression is also found in weaving, basketry, carvings, and sculpture. Traditional jewelry includes beadwork, ostrich eggshell necklaces, bangles, and copper or iron bracelets. Paintings, batiks, and lithographs by African and Western artists are exhibited in business places, galleries, and public buildings in Nairobi; and an art museum has been established in that city. The National Museums of Kenya is one of the most important museum-complexes in sub-Saharan Africa. Formerly called the Coryndon Memorial Museum, it is internationally important for its natural history collections. Among Kenya's important historical sites is Fort Jesus in Mombasa, built by the Portuguese in the 16th century. The ruined and long-hidden city of Gedi, near Malindi on the coast, was an ancient Arab center destroyed in 1528. In the prehistoric site of Olorgesailie National Park, Stone Age axes can be seen. Mass Communications. The government-operated Kenya Broadcasting Corporation (KBC), successor to the Voice of Kenya (1959–1989), broadcasts in English, Swahili, and 14 other languages. KBC-TV broadcasts four channels in English and Swahili. There are also independent broadcasters. In 1997 the country had about 3.1 million radios and some 730,000 television sets. Kenya has six principal daily newspapers, four in English with a combined circulation of 280,000 and two in Swahili with a circulation of 63,000. There is also a thriving vernacular press.