Kenya: We Ignore the Youth at Our Peril

A unique feature of the “Occupy Parliament” protests at Parliament buildings on May 14, 2013 was the youthful faces that seemed undeterred by the heavy presence of the country’s security forces. Listening to the young people who were interviewed about the protests express their deep disappointment in the elected members of parliament stirred up a sense of foreboding within my heart. Kenya’s youth are getting frustrated, they are crying out for attention, they are pleading for help, for someone to stop and listen to them but we are all too busy to stop and listen to them. The nation is engrossed in everything else except in the youth.

My take: we are sitting on a time bomb whose ticking increases in intensity in the face of joblessness, anger, frustration, anger, poverty, sickness and death. The youth are crying out, and unfortunately, no one is paying attention.

Sometimes I hear talk about Vision 2030 and I must confess that for me this seems like an elitist dream because in my interaction with youth from all walks of life they too view it as a pipe dream developed by a few people who seem to be more of the beneficiaries than the majority of the population. You see, each young person who has been looking for a job for the past five years or so (I am aware there are those who have been job hunting for more than five years), is not interested in a vision that will not assure them of a meal at the end of the day. I hear of ambitious plans for project A and project B and most people saying Kenya is on track for growth and development but a critical look at our society paints a totally different picture.

Do we really care about the youth or have we just been using them as a means to an end? Does anyone care that a graduate with a degree in Textile Engineering or Economics has opted to peddle second hand items along the streets of various towns? What does this young person feel? Does anyone care that most of the youth end up married young because this may be the only redemption? Does anyone care that the majority of the “idlers” who sit outside Nairobi cinema, 20^th century, engaged in socio-political talk, are Kenya’s youthful population? Does anyone care that there are university students who have opted to engage in sex work in order to make ends meet? Does anyone really care that there are youth who have migrated from the rural towns to cities such as Nairobi, Mombasa and Eldoret, and when night falls they retreat into the dark shadows of shanties, park benches, and streets? Does anyone really care?

It is time we begun to ask ourselves what we really must do to get the youth out of the quagmire that society has created for them. We are living in a society where the rich are growing richer while the poor, most of whom are the youth, are becoming poorer. There has been much talk about the youth, with even specific programs and projects targeting them but the day I watched on TV some youth digging a road under the Kazi Kwa Vijana (KKV) project, I was taken aback. I wondered which politician or parastatal chief would have his or her son/daughter digging hard ground in the hot sun. While this seems okay, in the real sense it is not. Of what benefit was this road-digging task? Was it even intellectually challenging? I wonder where the jembes went to.  

The youth must remain a priority in this nation. A nation that consistently ignores the voice of her youthful population is in danger of facing dire consequences. Investing in the youth ensures that there is a lifeline for the next generation. While there are many policies and plans aimed at ensuring positive youth development in this nation, there is obviously something missing, and this needs urgent redress. I do not think we really are committed to the youth. I think we use them to gain whatever we want then quickly discard them and pick them up once again when needed. I also think that most of the older population is less concerned about the nation’s posterity; instead it is concerned about “the here and now” and the “me, myself and I”.  

In thinking about the youth, we need to ask ourselves if we have an effective support system for the youth and whether we are consciously creating opportunities for the youth; opportunities that will give them the space to learn and grow towards responsible adulthood. We also need to ask ourselves about the kind of quality services we are providing for the youth especially with regard to health and education?

The youth are crying out. Who will listen to the voices of these young men and women? We ignore them at our nation’s peril.