Effect of Transactional Leadership on Students’ Unrest in Public Boarding Schools in Bungoma County in Kenya

Incidences of student indiscipline in public learning institutions in Kenya have been rising sharply over the past decade culminating into many cases of school unrests. Consequently, loses of property and lives, insecurity and compromised quality of education have taken root in the schools raising questions as to whether Principals of the institutions undertake appropriate practices that can enhance order in leadership of public Secondary Schools under their jurisdiction. The study therefore sought to determine the influence of transactional leadership on student unrest. The study adopted a descriptive research design. The target population was 76 deputy principals, 152 teachers and 3,040 form four students in public boarding secondary schools. Multistage sampling was used in this study where schools were clustered into two categories. A simple random sampling technique was used to select 12 schools and 480 form four students from the categories. Purposive sampling was then used to select 12 deputy principals in charge of administration, 24 heads of boarding sections and teachers in charge of guidance and counselling departments in the schools. Questionnaires and interview schedules were used to collect data from the respondents. Reliability of the instruments was determined through test-retest method and a Cronbach Alpha coefficient of 0.734 was computed, which was considered sufficient for use of the questionnaires in the actual study. Research instruments were availed to supervisors who ascertained the relevance of items hence the validity of the instruments. Data was analysed using frequencies, means and the independent samples t-test statistics were conducted to compare differences between the two independent groups of schools. The study however did not establish a significant effects of transactional leadership style on student unrest.