Education for Girls with Visual Impairments in Kenya: A Historical Perspective

Until recent years, girls and women have been trailing behind in terms of educational access in Kenya just like in many other African countries. This situation is even aggravated when it comes to girls with special needs such as those with visual impairments. Whereas much has been documented concerning development of girls? education in general, there seems to be little documentation that concerns education for girls with visual impairments. It is in this regard that this paper sought to trace and document the historical development of education for Girls with Visual Impairments (GWVI) in Kenya. The research employed the use of the historical research design in data collection, analysis and interpretation. Data was collected from both primary and secondary sources. Data collected was analyzed qualitatively through triangulation and emerging themes were deduced. The research findings present a slow progress of special education for the GWVI in Kenya. Having been started in the year 1954 at the Thika Institute for the Blind, education for GWVI would later be introduced in to other schools such as St. Lucy School for the Blind. As at 2015, the number of GWVI in both the specials schools and special units across the country was almost equal to that of visually impaired boys. The study concludes that even though the journey of education for the visually impaired girls in Kenya has been slow, the progress has been steady to the level of achieving parity in comparison to visually impaired boys. The number of visually impaired girls in school is however low compared to the total population of the visually impaired girls in Kenya.