Kenya has experienced widespread disparities in primary educational attainment across
its different ethnic groups, whose geographical concentration retains the hallmarks of
colonial administrative legacy. By investigating the co-ethnicity of Kenya’s primary
school children with the country’s sitting presidents from 1963 through 2005, this study
measures the effect of ethnic favouritism on educational attainment by drawing on data
from the Kenya Demographic and Health Survey (KDHS) and the official population
census. Results indicate that while ethnic favouritism occurs, the disparities in
educational attainment are largely due to early exposure to education during the colonial
era; moreover, co-ethnicity is not the sole defining factor of favouritism, which was
found to operate at the district level (i.e., the greater the share of the co-ethnic
population, the greater the favouritism and disadvantage of non-coethnics). Conversely,
co-ethnics in non-dominant districts do not benefit from co-ethnicity with the president.