Why youth vote will be crucial to candidates

By Joe Kiarie

Presidential hopefuls with resolute policies to address the plight of the youth could soon secure a key support base that would hand them an outright advantage in the race to State House.

With the number of youth voters set to account for more than two-thirds of the 18 million targeted voters, various influential associations plan to support an aspirant who best articulates pro-youth policies.

The estimated 12 million youthful voters are expected to provide a crucial swing vote in the election and it is projected that with the majority of them educated, open-minded and capable of overlooking tribal affiliations, they could end up as the tiebreaker in what is expected to be a close contest.

The National Youth Forum, which has a nationwide membership of 1.6 million people aged between 18 and 35 years, is among groups that have decided to settle for just one candidate who advocates for the youth cause.

Nahum Okwiya, the national advisor of the group, says they are scrutinising every step made by presidential aspirants and will later interrogate each of them before deciding who to back.

“Unfortunately, no politician has shown any interest in the plight of the youths so far. They are just saying they will create jobs but none has given a concrete roadmap on how to achieve this. We are thus yet to identify who to support but we will make a decision as the situation becomes clearer and there will be no compromising,” he states.

“Let the aspirants articulate their policies for young people and how they plan to achieve them. If the strategies seems plausible and practical, then that will be our candidate,” says Okwiya, who is also the governor and chairperson of the Kenya Private Sector Alliance Youth and Sports Board.

And that will not be the conclusion. George Thuranira, the forum’s chairman, says the chosen candidate will have to sign a Memorandum of Understanding with the group so that he can be held accountable if he backtracks on the promise upon assuming leadership.

Among the issues the youth want aspirants to commit themselves to include tackling unemployment, rampant drug abuse and high school dropout rate, investing more in education and health as well as making capital investments in sports, music and arts. On employment for instance, they want the adoption of youth-friendly approaches such as lowering retirement age of civil servants to 55, adopting a one-man-one-job policy, reserving 30 per cent of Government tenders for youth.

Okwiya says if majority of the youth acquire national identification cards and register as voters, this voting block will be all presidential candidates need to assume power.

“Even if they do not vote as a block, the youths can still provide the 50 per cent plus one votes required for one to be president. This presents a rich vote hunting pool for politicians and it provides an opportunity that the youth must safeguard by voting enmasse for the leader who cares for them,” he states.

Soft spot

The Kenya Young Voters Alliance and the Kenya League of Young Voters have also been making conscious efforts to have the youth vote for leaders with a soft spot for them.

The former has been persistently urging all Kenyan youth to take charge of leadership at the county and national levels by registering as voters and voting in large numbers for young and visionary leaders.

Kenya League of Young Voters leader Murage Kamuri says the youth now know what they want in leaders and will play a critical role in deciding who wins at various leadership levels.

“Look at the example of Ndhiwa constituency where (Agostino) Neto easily won the ODM nominations and later beat 22 candidates to become the MP despite not enjoying (Prime Minister) Raila Odinga’s full support. He rode on the back of the youth,” he says.

Kamuri says they have been advocating for the processing of ID cards but focus has now shifted to having the group register as voters and also cast ballots in big numbers. “We must correct mistakes of the past and are thus advising youth to vote in leaders who are young, visionary, good managers, not tribal and with clean leadership and development records.

“President Kibaki has for instance focused on infrastructure and agricultural development which is good but has no direct impact on the youth. On the other hand, initiatives such as the Kazi kwa Vijana turned into a disaster while the Youth Enterprise Fund became a scam. We don’t want a repeat of this,” he says.

Indeed, youth unemployment was identified as one of the key causes of the 2007 post-election violence and tackling this problem became a key aspect under Agenda Four of the National Reconciliation Accord. According to Okwiya, unemployment is a crisis that is yet to be addressed and Kenya faces the grave risk of having a lost generation.

“In the US, unemployment has been declared a crisis yet it stands at just eight per cent. Why should it not be a crisis in Kenya where it stands at about 40 per cent with about eight million people affected?  We are getting deeper and deeper into a crisis,” he states.

Okwiya says that with estimated 500, 000 jobs created since 2003 not enough for the youth, most young people have been left with a common problem in survival amid joblessness.

He gives the example of youths who have been sucked into criminal gangs such as the Mombasa Republican Council.

“MRC and all other mushrooming gangs are all symptomatic of a larger problem with survival as a common denominator. There are cracks on the wall and we should not forget these groups were used as the foot soldiers in 2007-8,” he says.