Uncertainty has gripped the education sector following weeks of violence triggered by disputed presidential election results.

The post election chaos has not only put the lives and property of Kenyans at risk but also put on hold aspirations of pupils keen on joining secondary schools. The obviously most vulnerable are the girls who may end up into early marriages and possible lure into prostitution.

Then there are students who sat the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) who up to now, though qualified, do not know when they will be joining Form One as school heads await detailed guidelines on how to implement the government proposed free secondary education.

Recently while releasing the results last month, then Education Minister George Saitoti had maintained that the government would put everything in place to ensure the programme succeeds. But not much has been forthcoming from the government as all attention is focused on the political crisis.

Media reports recently indicating that young girls in Naivasha and Nakuru were threatened with sexual harassment and are have become potential targets for men in the regions complicates the already bad situation and further heightens the fear that indeed many school going pupils and students may not return to school.

Meanwhile there are women working as education providers- either as school teachers or providers of baby day care services who are currently domiciled in Internally Displaced Camps (IDPs) across the country and who can not be in their places of work in due time. This situation should compel the protagonists in the just-ended elections to find an amicable solution to the current political crisis and restore peace in the country. Only then would players in the education sector be able to meet their objectives.

Another of the most heartrending things for anyone as they I travel across Kenya is to see that so many schools have been charred with everything including learning and teaching materials especially in the Rift Valley. What this means is that children learning in these schools have been effectively locked out of there schools while there life truly depends on it.

The skirmishes are not only threatening the education of the girl child but also the boy child in clash torn areas where there have been reports that young boys of school going age are being recruited into militia groups. Media reports indicated that a number of young boys were shot dead by police while participating in war-like activities with rival ethnic groups in Burnt Forest in the Rift Valley.

The information released to media by the Education ministry a couple of weeks ago indicating that more than 60,000 students from primary and secondary schools in the Rift Valley Province had been displaced following post-election violence and about 660 primary and secondary school teachers having been temporarily transferred to safer areas, while about 10,000 had lost their jobs due to the violence, paints a vexing reality. And the ministry further predicts that thousands of children will miss primary and secondary school exams this year.

In western Kenya, the town of Kisumu just a few weeks ago, the New York Times reported that a mob had cleaned out a school that was hosting displaced families. They took desks, chairs, books, doors and even windows. Kenyan television stations showed dozens of terrified children running out of the school, some holding hands, as the mob closed in. Inevitably, the psychological impact of such violence will haunt the next generation for years to come.

Though relief agencies are setting up tents in camps and bringing in school teachers in the affected regions, the educational needs in Kenya remain great and it's expected that many children will fall through the cracks.