Editorial Introduction

We are pleased to present Volume 7 of Education Tomorrow for the year 2020. This volume is organized around a dual thematic focus that reflects the journal's evolving intellectual trajectory: first, the persistent challenges of girls' education in marginalized regions of Kenya; second, a special tribute to the life and work of the late Prof. Chris Lukorito Wanjala (1944-2018), a towering figure in Kenyan literary studies, oral literature, and cultural documentation. The volume thus bridges rigorous empirical research on contemporary educational inequality with reflective scholarship on the intellectual giants whose methodological innovations continue to shape how we study Kenyan cultures.

The year 2020 was marked globally by the COVID-19 pandemic, which disrupted education systems worldwide and exacerbated existing inequalities. In Kenya, school closures disproportionately affected girls in marginalized counties like West Pokot, where the socio-economic barriers documented in this volume were amplified by the pandemic's economic shock. The research presented here, conducted before the pandemic, thus takes on additional urgency as a baseline for understanding the compounded challenges facing girls' education in the wake of COVID-19.

Thematic Overview

Christine Apakoreng's "Socio-Economic Factors Influencing Performance of Girls at Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) in West Pokot County" analyzes secondary data from the 2017-2018 KCSE examinations to document the persistent underperformance of girls relative to boys in mixed-day secondary schools in West Pokot County. Apakoreng identifies key socio-economic factors driving this disparity: low family income limiting access to learning materials and leading to fee-related absenteeism; the disproportionate burden of domestic chores on girls, reducing time for study; large family sizes diluting parental support and supervision; and limited parental education and involvement. The paper recommends targeted interventions including enhanced bursaries and scholarships for girls, community sensitization programs on the value of girls' education, school-based guidance and counseling, and strengthened parent-teacher partnerships. The research provides an evidence base for policymakers seeking to address gender disparities in one of Kenya's most marginalized counties.

Isaac Mafuel shifts the focus to literary studies with "Finding a Cause Worthy of Fighting For: The Dilemma of the Modern African Writer." This reflective essay examines the central dilemmas facing contemporary African writers as they navigate the legacy of pioneering authors like Chinua Achebe and Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o, the pressures of the global literary market, and the quest for a sustainable creative identity. Mafuel identifies four key challenges: the constraining influence of Western-defined genres and critical validation; the economic unsustainability of writing in Africa due to poor reading culture and weak copyright enforcement; the distorting effect of competition and award-driven writing on artistic innovation; and the problematic, externally imposed definitions of "African literature." The paper proposes that African writers embrace futuristic and innovative themes, leverage digital media for local language publication, and build sustainable ecosystems through local workshops and fairs to reclaim agency and define their own literary traditions. Mafuel's intervention is timely, coming at a moment when African literary production is expanding dramatically even as the economic conditions for writers remain precarious.

The issue then turns to a special tribute section honoring Prof. Chris Lukorito Wanjala, who passed away in 2018. Joseph Wangila Makhakha's "Prof. Chris Lukorito Wanjala: Walking, Working but Mourning – A Personal Tribute" offers an intimate, autoethnographic account of the author's relationship with Wanjala as a student and research assistant. Makhakha reflects on Wanjala's pedagogical style—teaching through immersion and experience, leading students not just to texts but to the living culture of literary festivals, book launches, and community events. The tribute documents Wanjala's collaborative research methods, his dedication to documenting Kenyan lives through biography and oral history, and his generous mentorship of a "gang" of young scholars. The paper also reveals the etymology of Wanjala's middle name "Lukorito"—derived from the English word "recruit," referencing the forceful conscription of his father into the King's African Rifles—and traces how this legacy of recruitment was mirrored in Wanjala's own practice of bringing young scholars into the literary family. The tribute is at once a personal memorial and a scholarly reflection on the nature of intellectual inheritance.

Paul Kipchumba's "Prof. Wanjala in Culture Work: A Reflection on Pokot and Marakwet Socio-Cultural Profiles Through a Clan-Based Lens" applies the methodological framework of clan analysis to the study of the Pokot and Marakwet communities, building directly on the ethnographic tradition Wanjala championed. Kipchumba argues that shared totemic clans—such as the Talai clan, identified by the pied crow totem—reveal a deeper, pre-colonial kinship between the Pokot and Marakwet that is obscured by modern ethnic classifications. Drawing on fieldwork conducted in Elgeyo Marakwet County (2013) and West Pokot County (2018-2019), the research identifies 36 clans among the Pokot and 14 among the Marakwet, documenting the complex social structures beneath ethnic labels. The paper demonstrates that the clan approach successfully transcends arbitrary ethnic boundaries, revealing a historical and cultural continuum between communities often studied as distinct. This work extends Wanjala's commitment to systematic cultural documentation while applying the more granular clan-based methodology advocated by B.E. Kipkorir.

The issue concludes with Philip Puyaka's "The Enduring Legacy of Prof. Chris Lukorito Wanjala: Scholar, Public Intellectual, and Custodian of Kenyan Culture." This synthetic overview examines Wanjala's tripartite legacy: as a literary critic and creative writer who championed African literature and decolonized critical standards; as a pioneering ethnographer who led the District Socio-Cultural Profiles Project, systematically documenting indigenous knowledge across Kenya; and as a public intellectual who democratized knowledge through newspaper columns and national committee work. Puyaka argues that Wanjala's career offers a model for engaged scholarship that bridges academic rigor and public accessibility, and that his work provides an indispensable foundation for contemporary studies of Kenyan ethno-linguistic cultures. The paper positions the other contributions in this volume as continuing Wanjala's unfinished work of documenting Kenya's oral and written traditions, particularly in the North Rift region that was central to his research agenda.

Synthesis and Future Directions

Taken together, the articles in this issue reveal several cross-cutting themes that extend the conversations begun in previous volumes:

First, the persistence of socio-economic barriers to educational equity. Apakoreng's research demonstrates that despite decades of policy attention to girls' education, material constraints—poverty, domestic labor, large family size—continue to limit girls' academic outcomes in marginalized counties. The pandemic has likely exacerbated these barriers, making the need for targeted interventions more urgent than ever.

Second, the economic precarity of African literary production. Mafuel's analysis reveals that while African literature is enjoying a global renaissance, the economic conditions for writers on the continent remain unsustainable. The tension between writing for external markets (where payment is possible) and writing for local audiences (where cultural impact may be greater but economic reward minimal) remains unresolved.

Third, the importance of intellectual biography and tribute. The contributions on Prof. Wanjala demonstrate that understanding the history of African scholarship requires attending not only to published works but to the lived practices of mentorship, collaboration, and cultural engagement that transmit knowledge across generations. The personal tributes in this volume are themselves contributions to intellectual history.

Fourth, the continuing relevance of the clan-based methodology. Kipchumba's application of clan analysis to the Pokot and Marakwet demonstrates that this approach—first articulated in Volume 1 of this journal—continues to yield new insights about pre-colonial connections and the artificiality of modern ethnic boundaries. The finding that the Talai clan is shared across ethnic groups that are now politically distinct has implications for understanding conflict and cohesion in the North Rift.

Closing Remarks

Volume 7 arrives at a moment of global crisis and local challenge. The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted education, exacerbated inequality, and tested the resilience of literary communities. Yet the research presented here—on girls' education in West Pokot, on the dilemmas of African writers, and on the legacy of Prof. Chris Wanjala—offers resources for thinking through these challenges. The empirical findings provide evidence for targeted policy interventions; the literary reflections offer strategies for building sustainable creative economies; and the tributes to Wanjala remind us of the intellectual traditions we inherit and the responsibilities we bear to continue the work of documentation, preservation, and engagement.

We extend our gratitude to the peer reviewers whose expertise ensures the scholarly quality of this journal, and to the Kipchumba Foundation for its continued support of open access publishing. By making this research freely available, we contribute to a global commons of knowledge that can inform both academic understanding and public policy in Kenya and beyond.

We invite readers to engage critically with these articles and to join the ongoing conversation about how to achieve educational equity, sustain literary communities, and honor the intellectual legacies that make our work possible.