Gender Differences among Principals in Corruption Prevention Strategies in Public Secondary Schools in Kenya: The Case of Schools in Nyandarua and Nakuru Counties

Abstract

The gender differences among principals regarding corruption prevention strategies in education particularly in secondary schools in Kenya is not clearly demonstrated and documented. The menace of corruption continues to ravage secondary schools in Kenya. The differences among principal's in respect to their corruption prevention strategies is not clearly established and documented. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the gender differences among principals in corruption prevention strategies in public secondary schools in Nyandarua and Nakuru Counties in Kenya. The study was guided by the following specific objectives, which were to; examine the principals' corruption prevention strategies in public secondary schools in Nakuru and Nyandarua counties and compare the principal's corruption prevention strategies by gender from Nakuru and Nyandarua in Kenya. The study tested the null hypothesis that, H0: There is no statistically significant difference among principals by gender in corruption prevention strategies in public secondary schools in Nyandarua and Nakuru Counties in Kenya. The study adopted the descriptive survey research design. The target population comprised of 420 principals (162 male and 118 female). The sample size was determined using Cochran (1977) sampling formula which yielded a total of 321 respondents (162 males and 90 females). Data was collected using a questionnaire with 10 items in five-point Likert scale. Validity of the research instruments was ascertained by use of expert opinion while reliability was computed using Cronbach alpha coefficient which yielded a reliability coefficient of 0.791 which was higher than the 0.7 recommended by Kothari as the threshold of acceptance. Data was analysed using the descriptive and inferential statistics with the aid of Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) Version 20.0. The results of the study on a scale of 1 to 5, showed that female principals had relatively better corruption prevention strategies with a mean of 4.15 while male principals scored 4.01. To ascertain whether these means were statistically significant, t-test was computed which yielded p-value= 0 .041 which was less than α-value of .05. Hence the null hypothesis was rejected. The conclusion was that there are gender differences among principals in regard to corruption prevention strategies in Kenya. It is recommended that there is compelling need to provide capacity building especially among the male principals through psycho educational techniques like socialization and personality shaping in corruption prevention strategies in Kenya.