The Kenya Private Schools Association (KPSA) is fragmented into four: fully paid up members, members who stopped annual subscription, members drifting to regional clusters and non paid up members. Within these fragmentations are factions influenced by different directors. Having concluded national elections during last April AGM in Mombasa, the new leadership must move with speed to address the cracks within KPSA. This matter must be treated with the urgency it so deserves.
The new leadership of the Kenya Private Schools Association now carries a responsibility far greater than winning elections. Elections come and go, but leadership is tested by what happens after victory. The celebrations have ended. The campaign posters are gone. What remains is the difficult assignment of rebuilding relationships, restoring trust, and uniting a fragmented private school sector.
Over the past few years, divisions within KPSA gradually widened. Some school directors became disillusioned and stopped paying membership subscriptions. Others began gravitating toward alternative formations such as the Private Schools Cluster-Kasarani and similar regional caucuses. Some members supported rival candidates during elections and may now feel sidelined after losing. There are also thousands of private schools across Kenya that have never joined KPSA at all because they either do not see its value or feel disconnected from its leadership.
The new national leadership must intentionally reach out to all these groups. If ignored, the divisions will deepen further. If engaged wisely, however, KPSA can emerge stronger, more respected, and more united than ever before.
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Reaching out to schools that stopped paying membership fees
One of the clearest indicators of dissatisfaction within any association is when members stop paying subscriptions. In many cases, schools do not stop paying because they are unable to afford membership fees. They stop paying because they no longer believe the association serves their interests effectively.
Many school owners quietly withdrew support after feeling neglected, excluded, or disappointed by previous leadership structures. Some felt KPSA had become too political. Others believed communication was poor, transparency was lacking, and member concerns were ignored.
The new leadership must not treat these schools as enemies or rebels. Instead, they should see them as disappointed stakeholders who still matter. Condemnation will only push them further away. What is needed now is humility and dialogue.
The leadership should organize listening forums and reconciliation meetings across regions. School directors who disengaged should be invited back respectfully. Their frustrations should be acknowledged honestly rather than dismissed defensively. Rebuilding trust will require patience, sincerity, and visible reforms.
When people feel heard, they are more likely to reconnect.
Engaging those drifting toward regional clusters
The emergence of regional formations such as Private Schools Cluster-Kasarani did not happen accidentally. Such caucuses often emerge when members feel that national leadership no longer understands or represents grassroots realities.
Regional clusters provide school owners with belonging, faster coordination, and localized support systems. In many cases, members find them more responsive than national structures.
The new KPSA leadership must therefore avoid treating these clusters as competition or threats. Fighting them openly would only create deeper divisions within the private school sector. Instead, KPSA should seek collaboration and dialogue.
The association must ask itself difficult questions. Why are schools drifting toward smaller caucuses? What gaps are these formations filling? What lessons can KPSA learn from them?
A mature leadership does not fear alternative voices. It listens to them. KPSA should work toward building partnerships with regional clusters while strengthening its own structures nationally. The goal should not be domination but unity.
Private schools face enough external challenges already. Internal fragmentation only weakens the sector further.
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Extending a hand to those who lost elections
Elections naturally create camps, emotions, and disappointments. During campaigns, different candidates mobilize supporters passionately around competing visions and interests. Once results are announced, however, the association must move beyond campaign politics.
One of the biggest mistakes victorious leaders make is surrounding themselves only with loyalists while isolating those who supported rival candidates. Such exclusion creates bitterness and resistance that can quietly cripple an organization from within.
The new KPSA leadership must therefore intentionally reach out to those who contested and lost, as well as their supporters. Losing an election should never mean losing one’s voice within the association.
Some of the people who lost elections still possess valuable experience, regional influence, networks, and leadership skills that KPSA desperately needs. Excluding them would be wasteful and politically immature.
Unity does not mean everyone agreed during campaigns. It means people choose collaboration after competition.
The new leadership should create inclusive committees, involve different voices in decision-making, and avoid revenge politics. Members are watching carefully to see whether this administration will govern inclusively or operate as a closed circle.
Healing post-election divisions is essential for organizational stability.
Welcoming schools that have never joined KPSA
Perhaps the greatest untapped opportunity for KPSA lies among private schools that have never joined the association. Across Kenya, thousands of schools operate independently without affiliation to KPSA because they either lack information about it or doubt its relevance.
Some school owners view KPSA as distant, elitist or Nairobi-centered. Others simply do not understand the benefits of membership. Some believe the association only becomes visible during elections or crises.
The new leadership must actively change this perception.
KPSA should embark on a nationwide membership outreach campaign focused not on collecting subscriptions first, but on building relationships and demonstrating value. Schools must see tangible reasons for joining the association.
If KPSA positions itself as a genuine support system offering advocacy, professional development, networking, policy guidance, and institutional empowerment, many schools will willingly join.
Growth will not come through pressure. It will come through relevance.
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Building a shared future
At this moment, the private education sector in Kenya needs unity more than ever before. Schools are navigating curriculum reforms, economic pressures, increased operational costs, staffing challenges, digital transformation and changing parental expectations. These realities require collective strength and coordinated leadership.
KPSA cannot effectively advocate for private education while internally fragmented. A divided association loses influence nationally. Policymakers take fragmented sectors less seriously because they lack a unified voice.
The new leadership must therefore rise above factionalism and prioritize reconciliation. This requires emotional intelligence, humility, diplomacy and strategic thinking.
Leadership is not merely about occupying office. It is about bringing people together around a common purpose.
The future of Kenya Private Schools Association will largely depend on whether the new national leadership chooses inclusion over exclusion, dialogue over arrogance and unity over factionalism.
Schools that stopped paying subscriptions must be listened to respectfully. Regional caucuses like Private Schools Cluster-Kasarani should be engaged constructively. Rival candidates and their supporters deserve inclusion rather than isolation. Schools that have never joined KPSA should be welcomed through meaningful outreach and visible value.
If the leadership successfully brings these groups together, KPSA can regain its strength, credibility, and national influence. But if divisions continue unchecked, the association risks becoming weaker and increasingly irrelevant.
The private education sector in Kenya deserves a united future. The responsibility of building that future now rests squarely on the shoulders of the new KPSA leadership.
By Ashford Kimani
Ashford teaches English and Literature in Gatundu North Sub-county and serves as Dean of Studies.
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