Adult and Continuing Education in Kenya: The Need for Transformative Leadership

Abstract

As a multidisciplinary process, Adult and Continuing Education (ACE) is meant to foster efficient lifelong learningthroughout life. To achieve this, it should be geared towards providing knowledge, skills as well as attitudes thatensure equal opportunities to life, meeting the needs of individuals of all ages so as to understand the world and thechanges being experienced. In a bid to attain a newly industrialized status, Kenya’s Vision 2030 development planendeavours to develop the relevant human resource base through, among others, ACE. However, the provision ofACE in Kenya faces such challenges as inappropriate learning environment, inadequate instructional materials andthe inability to balance career and family demands. This is partly due to inept leadership, non-adherence to therelevant policy guidelines and pieces of legislation. In this paper, it is asserted that in order to achieve the aims ofACE, embracing transformative leadership is paramount. Thus, this piece of work is informed by the theory oftransformational leadership which lays emphasis on how leaders, in various fields, can actually impact and ortransform their subjects positively, and vice versa. In addition to exploring the policy and legislative frameworksconcerning the provision of ACE in Kenya, this paper provides some intervention measures to the outstandingchallenges.