Kenya Youth Movement: Who We Are

KENYA YOUTH MOVEMENT PROFILE

Background Information

(Profile provided to the Kenyan Democracy Project by Mwania Walter, Secretary General of the Kenya Youth Movement.)

The Kenya Youth Movement is a national initiative seeking to unite together all the Kenyan youth under one umbrella body for the sake of their political, economic and social prosperity. The youth constitute a large percentage of our population and over 60% of Kenya’s workforce. But even as such; they have been pushed to the periphery when it comes to matters of political and social, economic decision making. The movement has been in operation since 2003.

Rationale of a youth movement

The ideals behind the Kenya Youth Movement are build on the basis of equity of people in their pursuance of social basic needs and livelihoods, the necessary concern for the other. The youth lack any substantial representation in all social-economic and political spheres in Kenya and as such their interests have been disregarded for quite a long time. Decisions have been made from the local to the national levels which have grave impacts on the youth livelihoods. Besides, there is poor checks and balances on the functioning of the Members of Parliament. The Movement thus seeks to have civic, parliamentary district, regional and national representatives checking the utilization of every tax payers penny, influencing and formulating policy reforms that take into consideration their interests and those of the nation. The CDF, LATF, Bursary funds, Roads funds, HIV/AIDS funds are among the public resources where the Movement shall ensure that they are used for the benefit of the people.

Besides checking the functioning and operations of policy makers, the Movement strongly feels that to have a meaningful change in Kenya, there is a need for a generational change in the Kenyan leadership. This change must be ideologically driven and sphere headed by focused and visionary young leaders. In this regard, we seek to mainstream the young men and women of Kenya into active socio-economic and leadership affairs of this country. This shall be realized through building the capacity of the youth to stand for elective posts in the civic, parliamentary and presidential elections. Other sectors like the sports and Kenya Football Federation, The sugar boards, the City Councils, the councils, and all sectors touching directly on the livelihood of the youth then have to be governed and led by the youth for they suffer most when these sectors are performing below par. The youth are leaders for now and never the future for the future never comes since leaders never want let go power.

Moreover, the youth shall be involved in active processes of transforming the societies from participating in environmental conservation and protection, agricultural production, sports and talents development to mention a few.

Youth problems we seek to address

The movement seeks to address diverse problems affecting the youth including: -

• Unfocused, and lack of visionary leadership
• Political Oblivion
• Unemployment
• Poor sports management
• No/minimal efforts to develop Sports and Talents
• Exploitation by the employers
• Drug – Abuse and HIV/AIDS prevalence
• Lack of start up capital and or securities to begin businesses
• Police harassment
• Ignorance and illiteracy
• Tribalism
• Electoral Malpractices
• Insecurity
• Hunger
• Teenage pregnancies
• Environmental degradation
• Corruption in the public service among others

Vision Statement

To provide a nationalistic and visionary alternative leadership.

Mission statement

To champion the process of general change in Kenyan Leadership and foster youth prosperity by uniting them nationally and promoting their participation in sustainable development through capacity building in social, economic and political affairs.

Goal

To give Kenya and Africa as a whole, an alternative approach to Social, Economic and Political development and independence by integrating the citizenry in the national development process.

Objectives

The Kenya Youth Movement aims to:

1. Be the central body to provide a framework on how to address youth issues and co-ordinate youth programs throughout the country.

2. Give the youth a chance to elect their national leaders who best represent their interests.

3. Provide a national forum for the deliberations of youth affairs.

4. Integrate and promote youth participation in national development process.

5. Participate in national environmental conservations by mobilizing members to plant trees and participate in community clean up exercises.

6. Initiate comprehensive Civic Education enabling people shape public policy and advocate for national policy reform in all sectors at all levels.

7. Enhance agricultural development in efforts to empower people economically, eradicate national food insecurity and hence alleviate poverty.

8. Intensify the war on HIV/AIDS, Drug Abuse, Child Abuse and promoting both the rights of the girl and boy child.

9. Initiate Economic Empowerment ventures for the Youth and establish information Resource Centers.

Programs

· Governance and Leadership

Kenya Youth Movement seeks to promote the ideals of good governance among the youth and enhance their leadership capacities. This shall enable the youth to have the capacity to make informed decisions while electing their leaders as well as presenting themselves for elective posts in civic, parliamentary and presidential positions come general elections. Workshops and consultative forums across the country shall be organized to this effect.

· Youth Economic Empowerment

Lack of financial support for youth projects is a big deterrent in their quest for their economic prosperity. Banks are not easily accessible for loans to boost micro-financial ventures. Most of the youth are unemployed and prospecting entrepreneurs have no access to start up capital.

The KYM seeks to empower the youth economically by providing them with information on available and possible means and sources of funds to support their projects. The movement will also initiate self-employment projects for youth across the country.

· Sports & Talent Development

Sports are an aspect of life which affects the youth’s livelihoods and is currently a major means of employment. Poor sports management in the country is a cause for concern. Local young artistes in the music industry have worked extremely hard to improve the industry, and which has now turned to be one of the major employers in the country. We seek to push for policy reforms in all sporting activities in Kenya to suit the interests of the youth and enable them excel. We shall also seek to have youth managing sports in Kenya and especially in the KFF.

The movement shall undertake sporting activities across the country to identify talents nurture and develop them. The movement shall link talented youth to clubs both locally and internationally in line with promoting their social and economic well being.

· Community Development & Environmental Conservation

This program seeks to preserve and conserve the environment such that it may be able to support massive agricultural production to arrest the problems of food insecurity, hunger and poverty. The utilization of hybrid seeds and modern methods of farming shall be enhanced. This’ a multi sector programme addressing food insecurity, water and sanitary problems, community security problems, and environmental challenges. Workshops and practical lessons shall be undertaken.

· Health, HIV/AIDS & Drug abuse

HIV-Aids has been declared a global disaster and a threat to humanity. Much effort has been put in the fight against this scourge, but not without some shortcomings. Drug addiction and alcohol consumption among the youth are on the rise hence the high rate of crime and school dropouts. We seek to advocate for policy reforms on health sector to address youth reproductive issues and take the fight against HIV/AIDS and Drug Abuse to the rural areas with an active participation of the youth.

· Human Rights Agenda

Though the current and previous Kenyan governments pledged to hold the rule of law and justice, the country’s human rights record is still questionable. Cases of police brutality, cold blood murder of crime suspects, delayed court cases, disruption of opposition political rallies, detention and torture of terrorism suspects, assault on journalist among others, are still rampant in Kenya. Human rights violations are in most cases meted out on the youth who are directly or indirectly linked to crimes.

Achievements

• KYM held a consultative forum at the Coast in September 2004 from the 23^rd to the 25^th at the Mombasa Polytechnic. The forum drew participants from Mombasa, Malindi, kilifi, Kwale and Taita Taveta districts and was attended by among other guests the Provincial Director of Social Services, coast.
• We also have held consultative forums in Kenyan colleges and in the slums and the response if overwhelming.

Current Activities

· The Kenya Youth Movement is organizing numerous activities countrywide including the 27 & 28 th October 2005 on the proposed constitution and its impact and implications on the livelihoods of the youth.

Organizational Structure:

	Composition
Board of Trustees	Three elder members of the society The chairman The Secretary General The treasurer
National Secretariat	Chairman Secretary General Treasurer Organizing Secretary Director of elections And Their deputies
National Executive Committee	The national secretariat The regional coordinators
National Delegates Council	The national secretariat The regional coordinators The constituency coordinators
District Councils	The constituency coordinators
Constituency Councils	The constituency coordinators The ward coordinators
Ward councils	The ward coordinators

Membership

The Movement draws members from the youth and elder members of the society who subscribe to her ideals. We currently have a membership of 200 youth drawn from across the country.

Appeal for support

The movement seeks to address issues affecting the nation and the youth with quite a different approach. We haven’t yet reached a level of self-sustainability since we haven’t yet recruited members across the country who shall be paying fees to the movement. Before recruiting many more youth, we seek to enhance the capacity of the secretariat to coordinate participation of the members in various activities across Kenya.

The movement needs both structural and financial support. Your support will go a long way towards helping us set up an efficient secretariat and realizing our objectives. We believe change must emanate from focused and visionary leaders who are bringing paradigm shift in addressing the society’s problems and challenges.

Contacts

THE KENYA YOUTH MOVEMENT

“MUUNGANO WA KITAIFA WA VIJANA”

Afya Centre, Mezzanine Floor 1,

Tel: 020-310245; Fax 020247842

Cell: 0723 514596; 0721 720841

E-mail: vijanakenya@yahoo.com