Who will champion the youth agenda?

Today, Kenya joins the rest of the global community in celebrating the World Population Day. Led by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), World Population Day aims at raising awareness about important population and development issues. With the slogan "Being young is tough", this year's World Population Day focuses on young people – ensuring that their voices are heard, their needs met and their human rights protected.

Whereas UNFPA has a vision of a world fit for young people, where their rights are promoted and protected, opportunities for developing their full potential provided, their voices and views welcome and respected and where they live free of poverty, discrimination and violence, in Kenya one question will keep begging for answers: What has the government done to safeguard the interests of and ensure the wellbeing of the youth?

Take, for instance, the issue of the youth and political leadership in this country. The old guards keep on referring to the youth as ‘leaders of tomorrow’. But for reasons perhaps only known to the wazee, tomorrow never comes. Consequently, the youth—despite their impressive qualifications and experiences in various fields—find themselves locked out of political leadership. The upshot is that Kenya's political landscape is reeling from the generation gap as older generations hold on tightly to political leadership at the expense of the energetic and more adventurous younger generation.

It is also an open secret that after 43 years of Kenya’s independence, successive leaders have never seen the need to come up with and provide a clear-cut rallying point for the youth, despite the reality that the youth comprise the majority of the Kenyan population and has the potential of forming the most potent voting bloc ever experienced.

But one cannot fail to apportion blame to the ordinary folk who are yet to decide whether the younger generation could be a panacea to our political morass or whether they are destined to stick with the greying leadership, one after the other. It is not lost to observers that President Mwai Kibaki in 2003 became a major let down to the youth when he stuffed his cabinet and civil service appointments with old, retired personalities that was derisively referred to as the "grey-haired club". Never mind that the youth contributed immensely to his electoral victory.

Still, the few young people who made it to the cabinet and other plum public jobs have been a disappointment to their supporters following their incessant public outbursts. They include assistant ministers Danson Mungatana and Kalembe Ndile as well government spokesman Dr Alfred Mutua. Thus, the long-held dream that Kenyan politics could at one time be driven by young and educated personalities aged 40 and below, remains a mirage, even as there is a growing consensus that the old generation is starving Kenyan politics from new and innovative ideas to propel the country into the global realm.

But credit must be given where it is due. In the 2002 general elections, KANU, led by their youthful presidential candidate, Mr Uhuru Kenyatta, managed to bring in a good number of new and youthful faces. And there is no gainsaying that most of these youthful MPs are very articulate both inside and outside parliament.

While UNFPA’s vision of a world fit for young people is also reflected in the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), Kenya is still away from achieving these targets. Applying the poverty line of $1 a day to young people, it is estimated that one in four young people in developing countries are living in extreme poverty. And Kenya is no exception. Many young men and women are living in squalid conditions, which affect their performance in schools, that is, if they are in a position to attend one. Still, a number of young people are starving, especially those from the hunger prone regions of Eastern and Northeastern Kenya.

President Kibaki’s government may be lauded for introducing free primary education, but due to a variety of reasons, some children are forced to leave school before having learned to read and write. But even those who successfully complete primary education fail to get places in secondary schools owing to lack of school fees. While studies show that many benefits accrue from investing in girls’ education, the government is doing very little to empower the girl child.

Violence against young women and men is on the rise yet the government is doing very little to curb the menace. Due to weak legislation, shoddy prosecution and a corrupt judicial system, perpetrators of heinous crimes are let off the hook. It is commendable though, that the Sexual Offences Bill, which was recently passed by Parliament, will go a long way in addressing this problem. What remains is for president Kibaki to move fast and assent to it.

The youth have borne the heaviest brunt of the HIV/Aids pandemic. And the statistics are quite chilling. Four young people get infected with HIV/Aids every minute. Vulnerable as they are, young women are at a higher risk than their male counterparts. Adolescent girls are especially at risk of sexual violence and exploitation, harmful practices, early pregnancy and HIV infection. Many are forced to abandon their education and stay at home to help with chores and care for other siblings. Yet, the government has not put in place any major HIV/Aids prevention programme for the youth in and out of school since the pandemic was declared a national disaster in 1999. It will therefore be a tall order to halt and begin reversing the spread of HIV/Aids.

Despite the government’s promise to create 500,000 jobs a year, nothing much has been seen on the ground, with a number of youth remaining unemployed. The lack of productive work for young people has perpetuated poverty and is associated with high levels of crime, substance abuse, conflict and the rise of terror gangs such as the dreaded Mungiki which in turn compromises the country’s security.

So, what has the government done to safeguard the interests of the youth? Your guess is as good as mine.