KANYADUDI:Youth should seize chances for empowerment and control

Friday, October 24, the government launched verification of applicants to the Nyota Star programme.

The National Youth Opportunities Towards Advancement Project is a Kenyan government initiative supported by the World Bank to create jobs, increase earnings, promote savings, and foster entrepreneurship among vulnerable youth.

It can also refer to the Swahili word for "stars”. Its overall goal is to transform the lives of vulnerable youth by boosting employment, enhancing income-generating opportunities, and encouraging a savings culture. 

It is a five-year programme aiming to unlock youth potential empowering young people to drive innovation for community development and long-term economic resilience.

The project aims to strengthen systems that promote sustainable youth empowerment. It will also enhance access to financial services and opportunities for entrepreneurship and equip youth with in-demand skills guided by labour market trends.

The Nyota project is just one of the many economic projects of the administration of President William Ruto under the BETA policy. The others include the Hustler Fund and the Youth Enterprise Development Fund (YEDF). These offer easy access to credit for SMEs’ business capital and financing for bid bonds and business expansion.

The globally acclaimed Youth Empowerment Centre has transformed the young people’s lives at the grassroots level. The YECs are a unique response to challenges such as inadequate capacity and limited access to ICT services, guidance and counselling on drugs and substance abuse and HIV-Aids prevention, among others.

Besides promoting and nurturing youth talent, the YECs are platforms integrating entrepreneurship training, information provision, ICT, counselling, games, community mobilisation and networking. Their comprehensive services make the YECs the hubs for all government activities involving the youth countrywide.

A fully fledged YEC was to be constructed in three phases —all constituting a Y-shape (standing for Youth) office complex. Wing A will consist of a library, cyber café, a guidance and counselling room, a room for indoor games, an office and a store. It also will include the national government through Ministry of Devolution that were to fund the establishment of this wing.

The second phase (Wing B) would comprise a large multipurpose hall, a physical fitness gymnasium, a reproductive health facility and changing rooms funded by the local National Government Constituency Development Fund (NG- CDF).

The third and final phase (Wing C) funded by the local county governments is to comprise a conference room, counselling and testing room, a secretariat office, drugs and substance abuse facility, and a nutritionist facility. Other initiatives involve strengthening the formal job sector, reviving youth polytechnics, increasing bursary allocations, and establishing youth empowerment centres and affirmative action policies.  

Given the current national circumstances, the government has gone a long way in fulfilling its promises to the youth during the 2022 elections.

Further, the youth in their numbers have demonstrated a strong desire to play critical and constructive roles in national leadership and development. They came out last year and loudly demonstrated reservations about many of the policy directions the government was taking. Their protests led to some unprecedented decisions by the national political leadership across board. These efforts must not be in vain.

However, to achieve their full potential, the youth require both civic and economic empowerments. The two are complementary and should be supported simultaneously.

Even though some work still needs to be done in the civic and political education front, a lot of ground was covered during the second liberation movement period. The beneficiaries of these efforts by the civil society are generally adults and may have only a handful of the current youth in their ranks.

What is glaringly missing is the economic empowerment to complement the civic consciousness of the youth. The government’s intervention initiatives should be understood in this context. The pervasive fear is that these programmes may not achieve their intended objectives or full potential because of historical experiences. Most previous such endeavours to economically uplift the youth have been motivated by political expediency.

They have been designed and launched in electoral seasons with the sole objective of enticing the youth to deliver their critical vote bloc for the incumbency. As such, the intended beneficiaries, who understood the political motivation, did not take the initiatives seriously. In the same vein, those who accessed business opportunities did not utilise the resources availed for economic advancement. A large number of them squandered grants and loans on irrelevant activities, including politics and leisure. Therefore, the economic marginalisation of the youth became systemic and cyclic.

Without adequate and sustainable incomes, youth continue to remain vulnerable to manipulation by the political elites. They will be considered appendices in major political decisions that direct the development of the country. Their unity will be reactionary, sporadic and susceptible to infiltration by status-quo forces. The youth cannot negotiate impactful development projects that address their special needs as a significant constituency.

While it is appreciated that the youth stage in human development is transient, their conditions of livelihood require special considerations at the policy level. They can leverage their economic might if they are well endowed. Many social and political formations have not taken full advantage of these opportunities to mobilise the youth join the programmes. The church, civil society and political parties should make it their priority to sensitise the youth to the benefits that will accrue from these ventures.

Citizenship as practiced derives from the classical concept of democracy. A good citizen is responsible, respectful and actively participates in his or her community. Key qualities include honesty, empathy and a commitment to upholding the law while respecting the rights of others.

Good citizens stay informed, contribute to the common good, and show a sense of duty to their nation and community. They take responsibility for their actions and the community's well-being through actions such as voting, volunteering and helping neighbours.

Aristotle defined a citizen as someone who is entitled to participate in holding public office and in the administration of justice. His definition was not based on residence alone, but on active participation in the governance of the state, requiring the capacity for rational thought and deliberation.

Plato, on the other hand, defined a citizen as someone who has achieved a balance of "knowing how to rule and be ruled with justice". This means a citizen is not just a passive member of a state but someone who understands their role within the social hierarchy, who can govern themselves justly, and is willing to accept the rule of just leaders.

As is evident, the responsibilities of citizens require that they possess certain levels of capacity. Economic empowerment is a key component of this capacity. If the youth do not take full advantage of the government initiatives to uplift their lot, then they will continue to be mere spokes and cogs in the wheel, not the drivers of national development.

Ochieng’ Kanyadudi is a Political and Policy Analyst