THE SILENT SONG OF CORRUPTION

/1 Comment/in , , , , /by

A song whose rhythm we’ve embraced

Being one whose origin can’t be traced

Its beats we dance to with haste

Its moves we copy and paste
……………………………………………………….

Its a song that we’ve known to always be

Overlooking its effects that sting like a bee

Anyone takin the seat will agree

To embrace it times not one, two nor three

…………………………………………………………..
This song speaks evil, injustice and hate

Like a wild fruit that we all forbiddenly ate

The kind that makes us not regard our mate

Causes us to take not our own and blame it on fate
………………………………………………………………….

That song will cause our people to cry

Gives no regard to one who will work and try

When its played the word ‘yours’ becomes ‘my’

And as one crashes the other begins to fly
…………………………………………………………………………….

I speak of a song that never seems to end

In our system it will always bring a bend

Do you know of this song dear friend?

It’s one you’ve heard, one we could mend.
…………………………………………………………………..

Written By: Perpentual Wangari.

An Ultimate Guide to Making the Right Choices in Romantic Relationships

/1 Comment/in , , , , /by

Majority of our young men and women are perishing for lack of knowledge in the name of love. Whoever said love is blind was right. It makes one do stupid things to please their romantic partners. What we fail to understand is that some of these things that we do blindly can have lifetime effects on our lives and those close to us. Please note that a healthy relationship comprises of two people who want to be in one. So, as you get all lovey-dovey today remember that it may not always translate to the phrasal ‘happy ending’. Sometimes an unexpected plot twist may happen, ending your relationship in premium tears. As you follow your heart take your brain with you. 

Below are some pointers on what love is and what it is not.

  • Love is not Great Sex

Do you love them because they are good in bed? If yes, then you are sick and lost. Sex and love cannot be on the same table. Sex won’t make them stay but love will. Do not break your back for someone who is there to enjoy the moment. Remember they may get all acrobatic in bed and still not love you. Love is beyond physical gratification. It is connecting deeply with someone such that when you look into their eyes you see their soul.

  • Love should not Hurt

Love is a beautiful thing, and it does not hurt. It is the person you are in love with that hurts. Betrayal, abuse, loneliness, and rejection hurts but love erases that pain and makes one feel wonderful again. True love makes you happy in a way you have never experienced before so if it hurts it’s absolutely not true love. Do not get it twisted.

  • Love is not Obsessive 

There is a very thin line between love and obsession. To love is to want your partner to be happy and wish them the best even when you are not in their lives. On the other hand, obsession is an unhealthy longing to be with someone 24/7 or talk to them all the time. Obsessive love can lead to insecurities in a romantic relationship and cause unnecessary drama and pressure. Note the difference and make a wise choice. 

  • Love is not Uncertain 

Ambivalence in a relationship can be nerve-racking and lead to a rollercoaster of emotions. Your partner should be clear about where the relationship is headed to avoid unnecessary stress. It is either you are dating for marriage or a breakup. There is no dating for fun. Do not stomach the “let’s see where this is going” phrase. Stop asking them “what are we?” Raise the bar and vamoose from their lives for good because you deserve better. 

  • Love is not saying yes at the Expense of your Own Happiness 

Stop saying yes to everything to please people. You know what, your parents did not raise you to be miserable so that others can be happy. Learn to ask what is there for you, as well as saying no without feeling guilty. Take charge of your joy, your happiness, and your worth and protect it at all costs. If your partner can’t handle that kick them out. 

  • Love is Supportive 

If you look for nothing else in a partner, make sure you have a supportive one. It is important to have a partner who can be there during tough phases in life. Having a reliable support system gives a sense of security and pride. Support may be emotional and also financial when need be. It feels nice to have someone you can turn to during a crisis and receive immense support from them. 

  • Love is Work

Anything worth having demands effort and intentionality and true love is not an exemption. Love takes work to resolve disagreements. It takes intentionality to communicate and understand one another. Love requires nurturing and care for it to thrive. You deserve effort, you deserve consistency, and you deserve everything good that true love has in store. Anything short of that is not worth your energy.

When all is said and done, you are the only one who can decide if you are happy or not. Until you believe you deserve better you will always attract the same version of what you disposed. Take care of your heart and value yourself. At the end of the day, all that matters is how content you are with your story.

Happy Valentines 🙂

By: Shalom Musyoka, ELF Alumni, Cohort 8.

CIVIL SOCIETY ACTORS MUST REMAIN VIGILANT IN THE WAKE OF COVID-19 IMPACT IN KENYA.

/1 Comment/in , /by

This pandemic is not just a health crisis, rather, it is a revelation of the failure in governance. The leadership of this country is finally on the spotlight, the one time that it matters most. To come out of this havoc alive, we will need rational governance responses, and it is for that reason that Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) must remain vigilant, if this government is not checked now, there is a likelihood that it will turn into the worst catastrophe of our time, worse than COVID-19.

CSOs must guard against the possibility of the political class taking advantage of the pandemic to further balkanize the country or even to form partisan political outfits.

The Consortium for Elections and Political Process Strengthening (CEPPS) recently released a white paper titled, “Mitigating the impact of COVID-19 through democracy, human rights, and governance (DRG) assistance” in which they identified 6 critical issues with regards democracy, human rights and governance. I will consider three of them that directly relate to the Kenyan context.

  1. Preventing the abuse or concentration of power: CSOs must prevent this government from using the pandemic to settle scores with individuals or groups which are seen to be anti-government. Recently we have witnessed scapegoating by government, when it laid the blame squarely on youth (a marginalized group) for the spread of the virus in the country. Further, we must stand against the spread of fake news, internet censorship and overreach by security agencies in the implementation of government directives. Civil society must also ensure transparency and oversight over emergency measures so that they are inclusive and adhere to democratic principles.
  2. Reducing opportunities for corruption: The Kenyan government has recently mobilized resources towards the tackling of the pandemic, from tax payers money, to grants from the World Bank and other agencies, CSOs must keep a keen eye on the utilization of the resources, pandemics have a way of creating opportunities for theft and mismanagement. Truth is that our financial systems are flawed, and healthcare has been a siphoning ground for a lot of grand corruption in Kenya. Vigilance might be the only way that the much-needed socioeconomic cushioning is realized by all Kenyans during these trying times. Our situation is made worse by the fact that our elections are only 2 years away, with every election, comes an insatiable appetite for public money by the political elite. We must safeguard against this risk.
  3. Reinforcing good and inclusive governance: Persons with disability, youth, women, and other minority groups continue to face the risk of illness, violence, and loss of livelihood. They must be protected with targeted messaging and emergency care packages. CSOs must guard against the possibility of the political class taking advantage of the pandemic to further balkanize the country or even to form partisan political outfits. Civic education must continue to target youths, women and PWDs with an aim of increasing their representation in political spaces and building their capacity to respond to such a crisis.

The 2015 film, Mad Max: Fury Road perhaps offers an example of where civil society organizations find themselves today and what they must do; in a post-apocalyptic wasteland, max, a drifter and survivor, unwillingly joins Imperator Furiosa, a rebel warrior, in a quest to overthrow a tyrant who controls the land’s water supply. The secret to the success of the mission was in collaboration. In these turbulent times, CSOs can no longer work in silos, this is the time for new and more effective partnerships in tackling the above challenges. Even as the donor community shift focus towards averting the health crisis and reconstructing the economy, they must remain alive to the fact that the success of their interventions rests on effective, accountable, and democratic governance systems in individual countries.

 

Submitted by:
Jim India- Policy, Research and Communications officer

“Revisiting” Kenya’s Judiciary.  

/0 Comments/in , , /by

The close of last year (2019) saw the Judiciary revolt against what it termed as ‘control by the executive’ due to budgetary cuts from treasury. Chief Justice David Maraga lashed out at the executive and the current finance Cabinet Secretary Ukur Yattani and sought answers as to why the judiciary was the main target of huge budget cuts. In his press conference, Maraga explained how budget cuts were affecting the judiciary’s ability to reduce the number of unresolved cases that lie in files.  

Is the judiciary under-funded or is it failing in its mandate and finding excuses to distort the reality?  

There is no global standard for funding the justice system, the UN only recommends that member states provide adequate funds to the judiciary, how much, is a political decision. 

The Kenyan Judiciary presented a budgetary request of KES 31.2 billion in the 2019/2020 financial year. This budgetary request was first drastically reduced to KES 17.4 billion, and later suffered a further reduction to KES 14.5 billion, an over 50% deficit cut. In the previous financial year, the Judiciary received only 40% of its budgetary requirement with a resultant effect that it is unable to sufficiently fulfil its core constitutional mandate of delivering justice to Kenyans. This trend is consistent with previous budgetary cuts in the last five years. 

The 50% reduction in development funding to the Judiciary equates to suspension of over 100 court construction and rehabilitation works that are at various stages of progress which are meant to improve physical access to courts and reduce the distance travelled in search of justice. 

Is there a correlation between funding the judiciary and delivery of justice?  

According to Prof Luis Franceschi, founding dean of Strathmore Law School, “Reducing the financial resources available to a judiciary may indeed threaten judicial independence and create a more subservient judge, but it also hampers the entire institution’s effectiveness. It reduces its adjudicatory capacity by lessening its accessibility.” 

Defunct tribunals, the abolition of mobile courts, less efficient judicial systems, and reduced personnel are among other consequences of reduced funding of the judiciary. 

This article does not assume that efficient funding of the judiciary will miraculously heal the institution of its bad manners, for instance, the ministry of devolution has so far had two major scandals, NYS I and NYS II- but no case has been fully mentioned and no key suspect has been arrested in relation to the same. Assistant Director of Public Prosecutions Gitonga Riungu in 2017 said that Ksh. 11 billion may have been lost in the case. But why have the cases taken too long to be exhaustively prosecuted? There have been cases that have been completed at a faster rate. Unfortunately, most of those cases have been around low-profile citizens. 

The public has been treated to a war of words between the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions and the office of the Directorate of Criminal Investigations, the former accusing the later of shoddy investigations which cannot stand trial. The judiciary has also accused the ODPP of not arguing its cases effectively and sending inexperienced lawyers to court. All this time, many judges have been accused of corruption, most recently through confessions of the Akasha brothers who have been jailed in the USA for dealing in narcotics.  

Additionally, there is a distinct lack of adequate training for probation officers to build competencies to address emerging demands from criminal activities and to adapt modern evidence-based supervision and rehabilitation programs. The number of probation officers is not adequate to meet the demands of magistrates and high courts in the country.  

Improving the performance of our justice system is a complex and long-term issue which goes beyond budgetary improvements. Funding will undoubtedly help us deal with the backlog of cases in our courts. However, injecting money to the courts will have to be augmented with an ethics and integrity check among the judges and court officers. 

 

in pursuit of purpose

/5 Comments/in , , , , , /by

The last time I had this feeling was 7 years ago in 2012. I felt joy, hope, happiness, freedom name it all when I won an award on “role of  youth in building a more democratic Kenya” organized by UNDP, amkeni wakenya and Youth Agenda. I didn’t have anyone to guide and mentor me on my passion, ELF was not there, rather, I didn’t know it existed, but deep in me I knew I had this big drive of participating, contributing and transforming our society in matters of democracy and good governance.

I followed another route which was more of computer based, profit making and money oriented but I still felt am human centered and I needed to go back. It has been a hustle, going back to school and mastering in courses of projects, participating in forums and fellowships, trying to quite but I had no courage until I met ELF 3 months ago.

So, I quit my job. Not today, 1 month ago, Friday 8/11/2019 was my last day.

My 8 -5 job that was making me good money, and with a good employer, yeah I quit it.

Why?

Because passion, conviction and self-awareness is taking action when you can’t see the whole staircase and all you can see is the next step.

For me, the next step was just to leave that office and start working on my dream job. To be a social entrepreneur and participate, work and surround myself in matters of democracy and good governance. To build my own empire, brand and bring transformational leadership to my land. To follow my dreams. To fail at my own thing. To start over. To succeed against all odds.

The training on self-awareness, leadership, good governance and Pan-Africanism, has contributed a lot to the above decision. Your (ELF) approach is so unique from others, it’s beyond skill or practical based and more of pure self-awareness of the potential we have, opportunity which are there and the direction to follow to achieve your born purpose and passion.

Elf cohort 8 gave me a platform to vie for a president though I ended up being male representative. It gave me a chance to lead a group of diverse ideologies, transformed group and am sure they will make an impact wherever they will go. The interaction with trainers and ELF staff was professional, awesome experience and very engaging. Community service was most unique one and successful since even after the attack by bees we were able to unite and deployed organised team work which made us save everyone and as well achieve our objective.

I may not have enough words to thank you, but just know am launching to my passion. As I step out, I may not talk about my future because it may not be very clear, but one day, I will speak about my present which will be my past while in future. Am forever ELF cohort 8 alumnus.

THANK YOU

 

Daniel Gitau

ELF cohort 8 male rep

Ongoza campaign

/0 Comments/in , , , , , /by

Leadership is pegged on the ability to influence individuals, families, organizations, communities and even nations. Everything, we believe, rises and falls on leadership. That is why at ELF we are obsessed with adding tools to the toolbox of young emerging leaders to prepare them for sustainable development of their societies.

Since 2012 to date, we have passionately been churning out values-based leaders across the country, deploying them in their spheres of influence to cause impact.

We are looking to raise 105 million during the Ongoza campaign to enable us scale up our program and shape the future of Kenya.

Milestones: 

In our 7 years of existence, 461 young people have directly been trained and mentored, but here is our key milestone; 108 initiatives have been started across the country. These include; businesses, CBO’s, NGO’s, community empowerment projects, pressure groups etc., which have led to societal transformation, job creation and sustainable livelihoods for hundreds of young people.

Our purpose is to build agency within every youth who comes into our program, to capacitate them to look at their environment and become solution providers; It is worth noting that 98% of our alumni are currently employed, running their own initiatives or involved in volunteerism.

42% of the average 65% alumni who join the program while not involved in anything, have started their own businesses and initiatives. 34% have been employed while another 21% are currently volunteering in different organizations.

Our Case: 

Kenya is very youthful country. The median age is 19 years, and about 80% of the population is below 35 years. To a large extent, this youthful population will determine the shape of the country’s future.

According to a survey by the Aga Khan University; 50% of the youth believe it doesn’t matter how one makes money as long as one does not end up in jail. 47% admire those who make money through hook and crook, 30% believe corruption is profitable, 73% fear to stand up for what is right for fear of retribution, while 35% of the youth would readily take or give a bribe.

That is the bad news, but here is the good news; in our 7 years of existence, and 461 directly trained, we have reached 8,000 youths. Each of our fellows is assigned a mentor who walks with them in their journey of leadership. 84% of our alumni have organized or participated in community service initiatives, taking responsibility of their communities. 61% of our alumni who joined the program while employed, took up new leadership roles during or after the program. Our program has the potential of scalability, as 78% of our alumni are currently mentoring at least 5 other young people. And of those who go through the program, 98% recommend others to join the program.

Building the Future: 

We foresee a future where young people everywhere take charge of their society, starting their own initiatives, being responsible and sustainably responding to the challenges around them. We see youth taking over leadership and leading with values, young people who can be trusted to keep their promise, who approach leadership as a service to the people, young people who embrace team work, are proud of their African identity and believe that only the best is good enough for Africa. In short, we dream of dignified societies with values-based leaders.

How:

Our model is based on the theory that an individual is best fit to drive social change in their community only after self-discovery, which in turn enables them to connect with others for impact.

Discover: – to lead others, you must first discover and master yourself. We guide participants through sessions of self-awareness.; life mapping and story telling where they get to share narratives from their personal life journeys. This process enables the young leaders to know their purpose in life.

Connect: – establishing a connection with people is the first step to having influence in many communities. We impart our young leaders with communication, debating and personal branding skills for a good first impression. We also help the leaders to connect to fellow leaders, creating a critical mass of change makers.

Impact: – leadership is about results. We guide our mentees to develop individual and collective agency i.e. the ability to take purposeful initiative, each of them becomes a solution in their societies.

We have tested the above theory for the last 7 years and seen it work, as shown in the data previously shared. We believe that with enough resources, we will scale up our program to all the 8 regions of Kenya and reach 7500 youths in 2020. In 10 years, we should have impacted 1,000,000 youths, in the process we will effectively shape the future of Kenya with young people who are rooted in values and are responsible enough to start their own initiatives.

We are asking for 105 million to scale up our program to the 8 regions of Kenya, where we will recruit 200 young emerging leaders and train them in two cohorts of 100.

Why ELF?

So far, we have received credible commendations, mentions and rewards from the following;

  • In July of 2018, President Barrack Obama mentioned the work of ELF to the whole world. Stating that we are part of Africa’s new stories, dutifully taking part in the work of ending poverty and promoting human dignity.
  • We also received the Diversity and Inclusion Award for “Youth in Leadership”, commending our work in ensuring that young people are equipped for leadership and dedicating ourselves to fostering the inclusion of young people in all spaces in society.
  • Recently, the Voice Achievers Award awarded us with, OUTSTANDING AFRICAN IMPACT AWARD WINNER OF THE YEAR 2019, for “your tremendous contribution to impacting the lives of young people in Kenya by providing them with adequate trainings and skills to become future leaders of today and tomorrow. You have excelled in your various engagements within the country which includes promoting human capacity, engaging in business enterprise and charity works thereby giving positive representation of Kenya to the rest of the world.”
  • During a recent expo by My Leader Kenya dubbed “Vijana na Biashara” we merged winner in the category of organizations that are empowering lives of the youth.

How can you take part in the Ongoza Campaign? 

You can make this possible by:

  1. Attending the gala dinner (Register Here)
  2. Or picking any of our sponsorship packages (Sponsorship package) .

Act now to secure the future;

Book your ticket now!

 

 

Don’t Agonize, Organize.

/4 Comments/in , , , , , , , , /by

The title of this article is a widely used slogan and is credited to the Afro-American woman civil rights activist Florence Rae Kennedy, its popularity stems from two realities; on the one had we cringe at the pain, suffering and indignities afflicted on us, while on the other hand we are challenged as to what we can do in response.

Agonizing is a much-taken path by the youth since its easy to complain, to talk ourselves into believing that nothing we do can bring about any change, and most times we wait for the “right moment” (whatever that means). Constantly procrastinating action and rationalizing it with the fear of timing – news flash; the right time is NOW, if you choose to make it one.

Proper and collective organization is the key to the 75% of youth in Kenya and elsewhere in Africa turning their potential power into REAL power that will end historical political and economic marginalization. There is a lot of talk that the political class should hand over power/ include young people in government, but truth be told, power is hardly ever given on a silver plater, leaders have to EMERGE and EVOLVE over the period of organizing, and it is these leaders who then champion for the beginning an era of youth participation.

In Kericho county for example, a group of young people has started the journey of organizing themselves to engage fellow young people better and to participate in the governance processes of the county. What started in 2017 as a group of fifteen youths identified, trained and sent out by Emerging Leaders Foundation to start meaningful engagement with the county government and move from noise to voice, has now grown into a formidable youth working group. As of last month, the group had brought together representatives from 27 of the 30 wards.

The purpose of the newly formed Kericho Youth Leadership Network is to be the umbrella organization for all youth groups/organizations in the county for effective driving of the youth agenda, enhance youth participation in governance processes and foster attitude change through capacity building and opportunity tapping for the youth of Kericho. In other words, the vijana of Kericho want to mobilize around issues, they are tired of being on the periphery and being turned in mere spectators and cheer leaders in their own territory, they have realized something which I hope resonates with young people across the country; that yes, we can! (Tunaweza) That we are the captains of our ships; masters of our destinies and for change to occur we must desire it, we must trigger it and we must sacrifice for it.

Three key lessons from the youth of Kericho;

  1. Collective action is stronger than individual action – mobilization, clarity and strategy.
  2. We need serious organization to get things done – commitment, effectivity and inclusivity.
  3. Alternative to elected leadership is unelected leadership – leaders without titles.

Agonizing never got people anywhere, it only maintained the status quo. Our aspirations will be met depending on how well and fast we ORGANIZE!

 

90% of Life is About Showing Up!

/1 Comment/in , , , , , , , /by

There is an old saying most often attributed to Woody Allen that “90% of life is showing up.” Actually, it turns out that the number is somewhere between 75 and 90, depending on the recollection of the person reciting the quote, but either way, the balance of life is about following up. Allen’s point is a good one. Just get involved, make the call, or introduce yourself. The results will astonish you.

My colleague always reminds us that we are the finest humans to ever walk the face of the earth; our great grandparents were not as smart and did not have as many opportunities as we do today. We have evolved into the ideal humans that our ancestors could not even dream about, in fact, should some of our ancestors rise from the dead today, they would go bonkers over what they would see. What sets us apart from other animals, is that we are story telling animals with the ability to organize ourselves.

In view of the foregoing, young people do not have the luxury of feeling hopeless or powerless today, across the country the chorus is the same “my governor hasn’t done …. Things cannot be done”. There is a feeling of indignation to a point where the youth even seem to think that voting will never change much.

But think about this; what hope or power did our fore fathers have when they were fighting the colonialist, the odds were against them, they did not have the numbers and neither did they have weaponry to face the oppressor. Yet against all odds a few men and women organised themselves and showed up for battle, thanks to them today we are a sovereign nation.

Better still let’s bring it closer and think about the second liberation; when young politicians and members of the civil society were demanding for political inclusion through the repeal of section 2A of the constitution, what power did they have? They were lone voices, strange voices demanding the unthinkable. But they dared to dream of a different society, the looked beyond themselves and reached out to a higher purpose, and look at us today? We have 63 political parties and across the country we can freely assemble to express our political beliefs.

Had these women and men given up or chose to dwell on what was not impossible, I doubt I would have even had the freedom to write this article, but because they dared to think and organise differently, we are where we are.

Fellow young people the onus is on us, things will only get better if we think and act differently, we must organise around issues and build teams in every county and sub-county to engage strategically with duty bearers, we must be willing to sustain the murmur long enough. Nobody understands youth issues like the youth themselves, hence we are best placed to do youth advocacy. Society always turns to young people in its hour of need, can we be counted on; because truth is, things are messed up all around us.

To the youth of Kilifi, who are the inspiration of this post; thank you for showing up for the Tunaweza training, we have built your capacity and we believe that you guys have assembled the best team to start meaningful engagement with your county officials. Don’t tire! And never loose sight of the antelope because of a dashing squirrel. 

 

 

Written by Jim India

Communication Officer

Emerging Leaders Foundation

Millennials stand up, this is the hour

/0 Comments/in , , , , , , , , /by

By ARNOLD MALIBA
More by this Author

A United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN Desa) analysis report, ‘World Population Prospects 2017’, shows that people born after Year 2000, commonly referred to as Generation Z, will next year constitute 32 per cent of the world’s population, surpassing Millennials, or Generation Y, who will comprise 31.5 per cent.

Millennials are the demographic cohort following Generation X. They were born between the early 1980s and the mid ’90s to early 2000s.

Next year, the first batch of circa one million Kenyans born in 2001 will turn 18, the age of majority. And whereas, the world will wait till next year to experience this phenomenon, Kenya’s Generation Z have already surpassed Millennials as we are a child-rich nation, with slightly over half of the population under 18.

Millennials (Yours Truly included), with their exceptionalism and self-centredness, must contend with the fact that they are not only old but also a minority that ought to give way to Generation Z — a people who have never known a non-digital world, have a more global thinking, are less self-centred, are tech-savvy and entrepreneurial.

PASSING BLAME

Millennials are now the elders of this generation (by the way, you don’t argue with age; no one wins). Already, there’s no room for passing the blame to the generation ahead as Millennials assume watch over the nation and, therefore, take on national responsibility.

With a background of such an epic demographic handover on the homestretch, the nation is also plagued with a host of other challenges threatening its very existence — including massive unemployment, an unbearable national debt, fledgling leadership and an economy in turmoil.

LOT AT SEA

Policymakers, educators and the private sector had just cracked an understanding of the Millennials, and here we are, with the arrival of a different generation in a country now seemingly lost at sea.

The political front is amorphous; you can’t tell head from tail, government and opposition — a larger Jubilee group with three formations: A (Kitaeleweka), B (Tangatanga) and C (Tingatinga). In addition, we have a weakened civil society, a rogue Parliament and an apathetic electorate.

Millennials now have the singular task of leading the charge in shouldering the largest national debt any generation of Kenyans has ever serviced, defend civil liberties and revive the economy before Generation Z takes the baton of the republic.

INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION

But as this is happening, the rest of the world is preparing for the Fourth Industrial Revolution (Industry 4.0); a technological revolution riding on Big Data, Internet of Things (IoT) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) that will fundamentally alter the way we live in a scope, scale and complexity never experienced by Mankind before.

No one knows how that will unfold as yet but the response to this must be integrated and comprehensive involving polity, public, academia, private sector and civil society.

And with Kenya at a crossroads, grappling with a present too complex, the future is bleak — unless Millennials show up for duty with diligence, determination and discipline. For this is their hour!

Mr Maliba is a programme manager at Emerging Leaders Foundation (ELF). ask@arnoldmaliba.com. Twitter: @ArnoldMaliba

Courtesy of: https://www.nation.co.ke/oped/opinion/-Millennials-stand-up–this-is-the-hour/440808-4764584-lyknnez/index.html

Youth at the Center of Social Change in Kenya.

/2 Comments/in , , , , , , /by

You can’t start a fire without a spark! Whenever society is faced with the greatest of threats, it has the tendency to constantly turn to the youth. The energy in pursuit, purity of purpose, clarity of vision and passion in articulation of issues is recipe for successful revolutions.

The last decade has arguably been the worst time for the youth of Kenya, we’ve been leathered from every side, our dreams shattered, the promise of education bleak, the availability of jobs almost nil, the factors of production held in the hands of a few greedy men.

But then I’m reminded that, “the best thing you can learn from the worst times of our life is that it always gets better. It may take a month, a year, a decade, but it will get better if you leave yourself open to it.”

In the last election something happened that went unnoticed or rather wasn’t properly celebrated. First, we got more youth into the different elective positions, but perhaps most interesting is the fact that we had more youth who ran as independent candidates and even a greater number who ran on alternative political parties apart from the two big coalitions at the time.

Sometimes we need reminding about who we are and what we can become, a little pride,a little determination and a true sense of commitment can spur us to demand better for ourselves and our communities. The youth who vied inspired the rest of us, the fact that they did campaigns focused on their manifestos speaks volumes. these young people knocked on doors, sat under trees, engaged youth and women groups, they challenged the common way of financing campaigns by asking the people to support their campaigns. They walked on foot and freely interacted with the electorate. There were no big rallies, with loud music and “chini kwa chini” dance, no big cars with tinted windows.

Perhaps if we do our politics differently by ensuring that we do not give handouts to voters and that every Kenyan is invested in the campaign process from start to end, then we could have a different story to tell successive generations, a story that is devoid of violence, theft and bribery, but one that is full of hope and progress.

I am glad that this change is being championed by my generation and I invite each of you to join the bandwagon, change inevitable.

 

Written by Jim India,

Communication Officer at Emerging Leaders Foundation.