Recent incidents of arson involving secondary school girls have understandably generated concern, anger, and calls for stronger disciplinary measures.
While accountability and justice remain important, we must resist the temptation to view these incidents only through the lens of punishment. Because before a fire breaks out in a dormitory, something may already have been burning within the emotional lives of the students involved.
The real question is not simply “Why did they do it?” The deeper question is “What conditions make such actions thinkable in the first place?”
As an executive coach and emotional intelligence practitioner who works with leaders, institutions, parents, and young people across Africa, I have observed a recurring pattern. Human beings rarely destroy environments where they feel valued, heard, respected, and connected.
Whether in organizations, communities, families, or schools, destructive behavior often emerges when frustration accumulates faster than healthy avenues for expression. This does not excuse wrongdoing. But it helps explain it.
Many of today’s young people are growing up in a world that places unprecedented pressure on them in five areas. (a) Academic expectations are rising. (b) Economic uncertainty is growing. (c) Social media has intensified comparison, anxiety, and the fear of not measuring up. (d) Family structures are changing. (e) Identity questions are becoming more complex. At the same time, many young people feel less understood than ever before.
When emotional distress is not identified early, it can manifest in surprising and sometimes dangerous ways. That is why Kenya’s school arson challenge should not be viewed only as a disciplinary issue. It is also a leadership issue, a parenting issue, a culture issue and ultimately, a human capital issue.
The conversation must extend beyond security cameras, stricter rules, and harsher penalties. We must ask five uncomfortable but necessary questions:
- Are our schools creating enough opportunities for students to feel heard before frustration becomes rebellion?
- Are teachers equipped to identify emotional distress before it escalates into crisis?
- Are parents having meaningful conversations with their children beyond grades, examinations, and performance targets?
- Are we developing emotional maturity with the same seriousness that we develop academic excellence? And perhaps the most most important question:
- Are we truly committed to developing human capital with the same urgency, investment, and political will that we devote to developing physical infrastructure?
Because a nation can build roads, railways, airports, and technology parks. But if it neglects the emotional, psychological, and character development of its young people, it risks creating modern infrastructure populated by emotionally overwhelmed citizens.
The future of Kenya and by extension Africa, will not be determined solely by the quality of its physical infrastructure. It will be determined by the quality of the human beings who occupy them.
For female students in particular, the conversation requires even greater sensitivity. Adolescent girls today face unique pressures relating to identity, belonging, self-worth, appearance, expectations, safety, and future aspirations. Many are navigating emotional battles that adults neither see nor fully understand.
This is why women leaders have a particularly important role. Kenya needs more female mentors, educators, executives, entrepreneurs, and public servants who can help young girls see constructive pathways for expressing frustration, exercising leadership, and finding their voice.
The lesson for parents is equally important. Children do not merely need supervision. They need connection. A child who feels emotionally safe is often more likely to seek help before reaching a breaking point.
The lesson for policymakers is equally clear. We must invest not only in educational infrastructure but also in emotional infrastructure. Schools should be places where students learn mathematics, science, and language. But they should also be places where they learn self-awareness, emotional regulation, resilience, empathy, conflict management, and responsible decision-making.
A dormitory can be rebuilt. A laboratory can be reconstructed. A classroom block can be replaced. But rebuilding trust, hope, belonging, and emotional stability after they have been damaged is far more difficult.
That is why this moment demands more than outrage. It demands reflection. Because every crisis carries a message. And perhaps the message from Kenya’s schools is that young people are not only asking to be educated, they are asking to be understood.
-The writer is Worldclass Performance strategist and author.
