The achievement of independence was a final blow to the entrenchment of higher Islamic education in coastal Kenya. After Independence, the government set up a commission to develop the fundamental values, philosophies, aims and objectives to govern the educational system in the country. This commission was called the Ominde Education
Commission. This commission had 14 members with three staff in the secretariat. There was only one Muslim member in the commission, Dr. Mohamed Hyder. The other members were Simeon Ominde, Jeremiah Nyaga, A. J. Pandya, Taita Towett, J. K. Ndile, Ruth Habwe, J. B. Wambugu, J. D. Ochieng, Thomas Lung‟aho, Paul Fordham, Alderman Israel, David Michuki, and C. P. Vivian.
The terms of reference for the commission were to express the aspirations and cultural values of an independent African country; to take account of the need for trained manpower for economic development and for other activities in the life of the nation, to take advantage of the initiatives and service of regional and local authorities and voluntary bodies; to contribute to the unity of Kenya; to respect the educational needs and capacities of children; to have due regard for the resources both in money and in personnelto become available for educational services and finally to provide for the principal educational adults (Otiende & Wamahiu, 1992).
The commission presented its report and from the report the government came up with the following as educational aims and objectives for independent Kenya: to foster a sense of nationhood and promote national unity; to serve the people of Kenya and the needs of Kenya without discrimination, to be an instrument of the secular state in which no religion is privileged and to respect the religious convictions of all people; to respect the cultural traditions of the people of Kenya as both expressed in social institutions and in relationships; to restrain an excessively competitive spirit in schools which is incompatible with our traditional beliefs, to ensure that education is regarded and used as an instrument for the conscious change of attitudes and outlook by modern methods of
productive organization; to serve the needs of national development; to promote social equality and remove divisions of race, tribe and religion; to pay special attention to training in social obligations and responsibilities and ensure adaptability to change (Otiende & Wamahiu, 1992, pp. 79-80).
This comprehensive policy document did not provide for the recognition and nurturing of Islamic higher education. In fact, it denounced giving room to religious education in a secular state. In the colonial era, the British colonial administrators marginalized Islamic education because it undermined Christian values which were the basis of western education. In Independence Kenya, Islamic education and other forms of religious education was not given recognition because Kenya was a democratic state where religion had no role to play in the political and economic organization of the state.
One of the independence education policies that continued to undermine Islamic higher education was the question of training manpower to serve in different positions in the public service. After independence, the government introduced the policy of Africanization (African personnel was to take over positions in public administration from the European colonial civil servants). Higher education was given the mandate of producing man power to achieve Africanization. Islamic higher education could not play this role because the values and philosophies of Islamic higher education were different from those of independent Kenya under African majority rule.
In 1976, another commission was appointed to fine tune aims and objectives of education in Kenya. This Commission was called Gachathi Education Commission. The
commission produced another report that continued to relegate Islamic higher education in the background of public life. The report called for effective coordination and control of industrial and vocational training centers. It went further and proposed the establishment of polytechnics from national level to village level.
On higher education, the report proposed the need to have a permanent commission on higher education with a mandate to advice the government on planning, developing curricula and also staffing needs and financing of higher education. The permanent commission for higher education was to be part of the proposed bill on higher education. The Report also set limits and basic requirements for admission and or enrolment in higher education institutions‟, colleges and universities (Bakari, 1998).
The above report simply made it clear that higher education was in the control of the state and thus Islamic higher education which was under the management of religious institutions could not survive. In any case, Islamic higher education could not meet the rigorous legal requirements of higher education as defined by the proposed higher education bill.The independent government of Kenya from the onset did not recognize the value of higher Muslim education. In 1964 the state took over Mombasa Institute of Muslim Education and converted it into a government Polytechnic. The institute had all along been eaermarked in the colonial period to become a pioneer Islamic University in Eastern Africa but it never was (O‟Brien, 2003, p. 104).
The Muslim community was extremely disappointed by the policy and legal framework that operationalised higher education in Kenya. The Muslims in coastal Kenya had to circumvent this policy by seeking Islamic higher education in the Middle East. Young
Muslims who were yearning for higher Islamic education had to travel to Iraq, Pakistan, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Syria to get this type of education (Bakari, 1998). Unlike independent Kenya, Middle Eastern countries and South Asia established Islamic universities because of the cultural and religious revivalism that was witnessed in countries such as Iran in the late 1970‟s. These Islamic universities critically study Islam and challenge interpretations of Islam that is presented by the non Islamic societies and even that of liberal Muslims. For instance in Malaysia, an international Islamic university was established during the 1970s and its teaching of Islam is focused on nurturing the ethical and moral lifestyles of students. This objective of the university is not just to impart Islamic knowledge but strengthen the Islamic faith among students (Muborakshoeva, 2013, p. 161). It is these values that young Muslim students aspired to acquire as they proceed for their studies in the Middle East and South Asia.
The other area in which the independent regime of Kenya did not augur well with the Muslims was in the area of law. Islamic law, sharia, was the driving force for expansion of Islamic higher education over centuries. The independence constitution had recognized the sharia but subordinated it to serve Muslims specifically in the sector of marriage, inheritance and succession. Yet the Jomo Kenyatta regime began interfering with this sector in 1972 when parliament passed the law of succession Act Cap160.
This law had the objective of harmonizing all existing laws in independent Kenya that gave jurisdiction on mariage, inheritance and sucession. The constitution recognised marriage, inheritance and succession based on African customary law, sharia law and Hindu law. As early as 1967, Muslims had objected to plans by the government to set up
a commission to review the laws relating to marriage, divorce and succession. However, the state did not listen to the grievances of the Muslims (Mwakimako, 2003, pp. 74-75).