In 2010, Kenyans renewed their social contract through the 2010 Constitution, which appreciated the plight of the Kenyan youth. A situation of deprived opportunities and thus left marginalised.
It is for this reason that the document in its various sections made it mandatory for youths to be involved in the country’s governance.
Take for instance Article 55, which obligates the government to take certain measures to improve the welfare of the youth.
There is also Article 97 (1) (C ) and Article 98 (1) (C ), which compel political parties to nominate youths to the National Assembly and the Senate respectively.
Additionally, Article 177 (1) (C ) provides for nomination of youths in the county assemblies. To eliminate doubts on who is a youth and who isn’t, the Constitution gave a clear definition.
The above provisions are not in vain: The mischief they try to remedy is the condescending attitude of Kenya’s political class on the youth.
The political class, which consists of elderly and middle-aged men, perceives the youth as only a means to a political end. This is the reason they think employing the youth in the civil service is a favour they should beg for.
The recent blanket condemnation of the youth as thieves who do not deserve public appointment by President Uhuru Kenyatta is a mockery.
Despite President Kenyatta being elected on a youthful platform, his record in appointing the youth hasn’t been impressive. For instance, how many youth were in his first term Cabinet?
The only notable senior official was PS Irungu Nyakera, who was below 35 years. There wasn’t any other youth. Two years later after the formation of his 2013 government, Uhuru went to Parliament for the annual state of the Nation address and tabled what came to be known as the List of Shame.
Five of his Cabinet secretaries whom he suspended featured prominently on the list. None of them was a youth.
The Jubilee government has had a number of corruption scandals from the Mega twin scams in the National Youth Service to the ballooned payments of medical equipment in the Afya House Scandal.
None of these scandals had their chief architect as a person below the age of 35, apart from the two women, Josephine Kabura and Anne Ngirita, who were allegedly used as conduits.
The truth of the matter is that the number of youth who have been involved in corruption scandals is insignificant, if any, to warrant such a public condemnation.
As a matter of fact, the number of youth in decision-making positions within the government is low. Despite Kenya having a youthful population, there is a paltry of 25 per cent youth in the civil service. The people who are looting from the government are ironically the same people who should be mentoring them.
Of late, there has been a purge on corrupt government officials and I am yet to see a person below the age of 35 being charged. How then does the President blame the victims of corruption?
Undoubtedly, most of Uhuru’s appointments in government since 2013 are old people, some retirees. Today, if you map out Kenya’s diplomatic missions, most of them are not ran by career diplomats, despite having young and energetic people trained in the field.
They are run by political rejects or incompetent civil servants who had to be re-deployed. Public appointments are now based on cronyism, where the typical and majority of youth have no chance. Indeed, Uhuru’s frustrations are self-inflicted and he shouldn’t vent them on the wrong people.
Uhuru is a man born in privilege and even the people he gives jobs are sons and daughters of the privileged. He may, therefore, be talking of a different group of youth.
The typical Kenyan youth are even exposed to money they can steal from their employers, because they are unemployed.
According to the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics, nine out of 10 unemployed Kenyans are young people below 35 years. We have a young population that feels cheated by their government.
No wonder a survey by the British Council early this year showed one out four youths in Kenya want to leave for Europe or the US in search of a better life.
The youth feel it is hard for them to achieve their ambitions in Kenya because the environment isn’t enabling. The generation before them, which is unfortunately blaming them now, has only managed to bequeath mockery and disillusion.
Truly, even the old men who are being idolised may not be icons to be emulated. In President Mwai Kibaki’s Narc government, Moody Awori was allegedly involved in the Anglo leasing scandal.
Awori never resigned or stepped aside to allow investigations of his office. Is this what President Kenyatta wants the “already thieving youth” to emulate?
Gitungo Wamere is a Master’s student at the Willy Brandt School of Public Policy in Germany