Of Youth and Foreign driven youth agenda for Kenya

Watching keenly the recent developments with regard to making clear the youth agenda for this country it must be well said that there are way too many forces pulling from each end trying to make headway with the largest demographic group in the country.

It must be well recognised that over the years there has been very little focus in ensuring that youth target policies are driven by youth and instead the policy map is drawn by both local and foreign bureaucrats and implementation baggages so associated lumped upon the youth. Of course then we have become experts at implementing donor driven agendas and not really shaping the overarching policy frameworks.

The story has twists. Two prongs cross my mind. The first being the overwhelming amounts being thrown at the youth for processes that can be well termed on the verge of political. It must be said that the Yes Youth Can Scheme has been the epitome of credible intervention by a foreign player in youth empowerment but in the same breathe it is quite unnerving that the same chooses to bypass conventional channels that would allow for coherent monitoring and transparency especially by the constitutional appointed guardians of the people of Kenya, the Government. The rhetoric will always play loud of how the Kenyan Government is corrupt and incapable of fully addressing the question of youth empowerment but what is evident is such an intervention by anyone that does not look towards strengthening the Government to commit to its duty to serve the youth of Kenya should always be looked at with an eye of suspicion. As mentioned aptly before, the Government through the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports as well as YEDF, have been at the forefront promoting youth empowerment through enterprise as well as other very credible channels. Notwithstanding the qualms that may be raised about both bodies, why not then ensure that these processes are strengthened and streamlined because the opposite, as carried out, would only intimate that one power seeks to subvert the efforts of the other and the subverting power doing so at the home of the subverted.

The second prong is one that touches highly on changing the conceptual framework of addressing youth targeted development. For the longest time, due to the subsisting mentality of the political players of the day, the youth have only seen that true youth development can only be driven by the west through their various funding schemes. In this wake, all trust that the youth had in their Government as a driver of change was frowned upon. Instead, our government considered the enemy. This inherently is a big problem in itself and greatly helps to shape the new colonialism with the subjects being the vibrant young who for all intent and purposes are far drawn from the spirit that led the founding fathers to fight for self governance way back in 63. But this has began to change and indeed should keep changing. That is why on the 24th of November2010, the youth began critically engaging with their Government to shape and find solutions to the problems affecting them. The Youth Prime Ministers Roundtable although viewed in some quarters as a political gimmick is inherently what the new constitution espouses, the people of Kenya working together with their Government to make collective strides in development. You then can see in this paradigm therefore that the process is not driven by any other force except the youth and their Government. The same cannot be said when a foreign government seeks to fund its own processes, implant leaders and fund them while bypassing the Government. In my mind this is a travesty on Sovereignty.

In finality, I would encourage that any foreign actor should not seek to directly engage the people of the country without due consent from the Government. We are a sovereign state and our Government should be esteemed. Secondly, it should be stated that the Government of Kenya has to indeed act with speed in ensuring accountability and good governance not for the sake of pleasing the money pipers but to please its masters, the People of Kenya. It is imperative upon the Government to recognise that the youth are a very important factor in the future of this country and we shall not baby sit incompetency in Governance. However, it should be made clear that we are more than willing to support the Government in all manner of ways and we are doing so as a united front and we will commit all our energies to doing so. I love my Country and the love of it comes first and trust must we all build in the one and only Government that we have because every other belongs to its own.

Over to you...