The older generation in Mombasa, Kilifi and Kwale counties have been pushing the youth to violence ever since the August 2022 elections.
This is the new trend observed by Civil Society Organisations working in those counties.
According to Manyunyu CBO, for example, the older generation in Bangaldesh slums in Jomvu constituency, were inciting the youth to reject the presidential results announced by the IEBC in August last year.
Manyunyu CBO executive director Mohamed Alian told a CSOs meeting on Friday that the tension in Bangladesh at the time threatened to erupt into full blown skirmishes.
“The older men were telling the youth they still have the energy to fight for their rights and that they should not accept a stolen election,” Alian said.
It took the intervention of the CBO, which uses art to sensitise youth on security, sexual gender-based violence, climate change and environmental degradation, to calm the tension down.
Manyunyu had to show some educational film and incorporated both the old men and the youth which served to reduce the tension in Bangladesh.
“In the end, Mombasa elected the governor peacefully,” Alian said.
In Kwale, Human Development Agenda’s Jermain Kashi said, the youth pointed an accusing finger at the older generation saying they are the ones who made them elect ‘wrong leaders’.
“Kwale has this culture where the candidates endorsed by the elders are the ones youth are told to vote for,” Kashi said.
So when the youth vote for a candidate endorsed by the elders and the candidate loses, to save face, the elders say the vote is stolen and that it should not be accepted.
And because in most cases the youth are idle, this gives them something to spend their energy on.
“So we had to intervene and call on the losing candidates, especially those who emerged second in the races, to talk to their supporters and calm them down so they could accept the results,” Kashi said.
The organisation mostly used the youth who were being used as pressure groups by the politicians to calm the tension.
The two CSOs are among 56 others working in all the six coastal counties and Garissa county that were facilitated through grants from Search for Common Ground.
Zena Hassan, the programme manager, said Search for Common Ground has given over Sh4 million worth of grants to the over 56 CSOs which are working around peaceful pre- and post-election tension mitigation.
The grants have also benefitted government officers like chiefs and assistant county commissioners to organise security barazas with community members.
This is under the programme “Uchaguzi Bila Balaa” funded by the European Union which is being implemented in all the six counties at the Coast and Garissa county.
“The main aim of the programme is to ensure any conflict within the communities related to the elections, whether before, during or after, are addressed and resolved,” Hassan said.
The programme has been undertaken in close collaboration with other stakeholders including security apparatus and the county governments.
Hassan said issues like trauma is still affecting most people at the Coast, especially those whose preferred candidates lost in the August 2022 elections.
“You find there are people who are still aggrieved and still feel angry up to now,” Hassan said
She said insecurity incidences sharply increased after the 2022 elections, especially in Mombasa.
“This is because the youth who were used as pressure groups by the politicians during campaigns were left hanging after the polls.”
She said they were used to having a few hundred shillings at the end of every campaign day but that stopped suddenly.
To continue sustaining the newfound lifestyle, some of the youth resorted to mugging people.
“This has been the trend almost after every elections,” Hassan said.
Social media hate and disinformation has also been a major contributor to violence and insecurity, especially in Kilifi county where WhatsApp has been used to spread propaganda.
Search for Common Ground said they will be looking at some of the gaps that have been identified by the CSOs to address them as they look to the 2027 elections.
