DOI: 10.36347/sjahss.2017.v05i07.005

Pages: 676-685

Education is very crucial to any society, mainly for the preservation of the lives of its members and the maintenance of the society structures. The Tugen education before the colonial period was informal, but with the Colonisation of Kenya by the British the system of education was changed to enable the colonialists to achieve their aim of Colonisation. The Tugen had evolved an indigenous education system which was suited to their varied environment. They introduced and developed western education which involved reading and writing. In the process, they subjected the Tugen education system to several changes and demands because they were dictated by the need to promote the overall colonial enterprise in Kenya. The study, therefore, examined the social impact of western education on the Tugen community if Baringo county during the colonial period. As a background, the study attempted to trace the education history of the Tugen in pre-colonial period.On the other hand, majority of the tugen who valued their indigenous system of education took initiatives and reacted negatively, for example establishing their own schools. In the study, the researcher used the underdevelopment theory of Walter Rodney who attempted to explain how the incorporation of peripheral economies has been influenced by metropolitan economies leading to their backwardness. The data was obtained from primary sources such as oral interviews, open ended questionnaires and archival materials. The researcher used secondary data from books and articles from the main libraries in the country. Two sampling techniques were used, that is, purposive and snowball methods. Analysis was done using qualitative and corroborative methods.