A Flower in the Mud: The Founding of Starehe Boys Centre and School and Its Growth

Abstract

This chapter demonstrates that whatever else Joseph Gikubu may have accomplished during his involvement in Kenyan youth education, his cofounding and development of Starehe Boys Centre and School (SBC) will forever remain his lasting contribution. It illustrates that the founding of SBC in 1959 is embedded in Kenya’s educational historical context. In the colonial period, SBC depicts the nature of colonial education, which was racial, segregative, and inadequate, and whose policies locked most Kenyan youths out of education. The postcolonial period presents the growth of SBC from 1963 to the present and its contributions to the development of Kenyan education. The chapter demonstrates in detail the role of Gikubu in these educational transformations in both the colonial and postcolonial periods through his work at SBC and the various roles he played that enhanced youth education. It shows that he was a far-sighted leader who used various transformative educational and administrative approaches in his work.