Young people from across the country will on Tuesday gather in Embu to chart ways of improving the education sector.
The National Youth Day will mark the start of celebrations culminating to the International Youth Day - observed every August 12 as designated by the UN General Assembly in 1999.
The theme of this year’s IYD is ‘Transforming Education’, which Kenya has domesticated to “Boresha Elimu, Wezesha Vijana’, translating to ‘make education better, empower youth’.
Public Service, Gender and Youth Affairs Cabinet Secretary Margaret Kobia said the forum will provide a platform for the young people to talk about education.
The conversation will be centred on the lot’s role in transforming the education sector to make them (youth) contribute to the communities they live in.
Education Cabinet Secretary George Magoha will preside over the launch in Embu, with up a number of activities lined up in Samburu, Nairobi as well as in all other counties.
International Youth Day will be marked in Kwale where President Uhuru Kenyatta is expected to join the session via videolink, having travelled out of the country.
Prior to this day, ODM leader Raila Odinga will lead a tree-panting drive at UN Headquarters in Gigiri, Nairobi.
“The celebrations will be premised on the need for education to have relevant and effective learning outcomes,” Kobia said in a press statement.
The CS said the week-long activities will focus on both formal and informal education as a tool for youth empowerment.
The conversation will also factor youth employment, promotion of environmental conservation, disease prevention, good governance, peace and conflict resolution, and inter-generational relations.
A Youth Empowerment Centre will be opened in Embu on Tuesday; leaders from the Gender and Youth Affairs ministry are expected to plant fruit trees at the centre.
Issues of access to education for both the boy and girl child will also feature during Wednesday’s activities which will be hosted in Samburu.
A dialogue session by key sector players will be hosted at the University of Nairobi on Thursday.
Exhibitions and works of young people will be showcased.
