The Influence of Perceived Post Election Violence on Emotional Well Being among Secondary School Students in Nakuru County, Kenya

Violence has a negative influence on people’s wellbeing. The emotional wellbeing of people is of great significance if they are to remain healthy. This is particularly so with the secondary school students who require to be emotionally fit in order to achieve their academic goals. In 2008, Kenya experienced post election violence (PEV) and Nakuru County was one of the areas affected by this violence. The post election violence claimed about 1200 lives, maimed others and about 350,000 were displaced. The secondary school students were not spared either, some schools were destroyed and others closed down. The study investigated the influence of perceived post election violence on emotional well being among secondary school students in Nakuru County in Kenya. The study adapted ex post-facto research design.  Njoro, Molo and Kuresoi were some of the districts adversely affected by post election violence. The three districts have 82 secondary schools and a population of 6,380 form four students and 75 teacher counsellors. Proportionate sampling was used to select the number of schools per district, the number of boys and girls, and teacher counsellors per school. A total of 30 teacher counselors, 187 boys and 173 girls constituted the sample size. Two questionnaires were used to collect data from the students and teacher counsellors.  The instruments were pilot tested using 30 students and 6 teacher counselors from Naivasha District which experienced similar events. Cronbach’s Alpha formula was used to determine the reliability coefficient of the research instruments. The instruments were considered reliable after they yielded a reliability coefficient of 0.722 All the hypotheses were tested at a 0.05 significance level. Statistics included descriptive statistics such as frequencies, percentages and inferential statistics such the use of Pearson’s product moment correlation. Data was analysed with the aid of Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) version 17.0 for windows. The findings indicated that there was a moderate positive influence between perceived post election violence on emotional wellbeing among secondary school students, r=0.468, p<0.05. The study recommended the need to enhance counseling services to promote emotional wellbeing among secondary school students. There is need to allocate more resources for effective implementation of guidance and counseling programmes in secondary schools.