Civic Education Impact on Socio-Economic Developments in Kibera slums

Abstract

This study is a significant addition to the study of international development in Kenya as a lack political civic education leads to the following economic and social challenges, poverty, poor governance, education and health, inequality, unemployment and high mortality rate. Civic education is important as it has an impact on Socio-Economic development. Given my case study of Kibera slums, lack of this education has reflected negatively within Kibera community. According to Chege (n. d), majority of the population is uned ucated especially the youth estimated to be around 60%. The residents live below poverty l ine that is below a dollar a day, there is high insecurity, poor living standards, exploitation , poor health, infrastructure, lack of social amenities, unemployment, prostitution and rape Chege (n. d).The lack of awareness in civic matters is the biggest contributor of the l ifestyle they are l iving. Not having proper education in school and political civic education from the government makes them prone to harsh conditions of life. If they lack knowledge on simple social rights like freedom of expression and assembly, they wi ll general ly keep qu iet in case of an injustice and are not able to neither determine their pol itical status nor pu rsue their economic, social and cultural goals. When it comes to labour laws, they wi l l have no idea of how to fight for their rights or who to report to if they are exploited, mistreated, tortured, forced labour, discriminated or sexually harassed. Not knowing their labour rights will make them vu::erable to exploitation which creates a big gap between the few who are rich and the majority who are poor.