Much of Kilbride's data suggested that child abuse should not be viewed as a matter of individual pathology, but rather must be seen from a social systems perspective. It became quite clear that child abuse was rare in traditional times, particularly in rural areas where lineages or extended families were strong. This is understandable because people can rely on friends and relatives for support when life becomes stressful, and because these same friends and relatives can intervene before hostilities between parents and children get out of hand. Despite rapid urbanization in recent years, most Kenyans continue to maintain an agrarian lifestyle. Women and children remain the most important source of farm labor.
Children are highly valued and domestic violence and child abuse very infrequent.
The growing amount of child abuse in recent years in Kenya is seen as being directly related to what Kilbride calls economic delocalization . For most of the twentieth century, but particularly since independence in the 1960s, male Kenyans have migrated to cities such as Nairobi and Mombasa in search of wage employment so they could obtain money to pay for taxes, school fees, and consumer goods. This predominantly male migration has resulted in the radical transformation of rural communities, where it is estimated that one of every three households is headed by a woman. The upshot of these male migrations is that the strong kinship-based communities are breaking down. But in much the same way that Kenya is experiencing economic delocalization, it is also experiencing moral delocalization.