Throughout African history, the youth have always played a positive role in the struggle for self-emancipation and change. It is difficult to see a situation of change in which the youth were either left out completely or were mere bystanders. The anti-colonial struggle for self-emancipation in West Africa was led by various amorphous youth movements. The same goes for the struggle for emancipation in Ethiopia against the Mengistu regime, or in the struggle for independence from Portuguese colonialism. In most of these struggles, the youth were fired by a nationalistic and patriotic instinct and not by the forays of busybodies with lots of dollars in their back pockets.

However, the situation in Sierra Leone and Liberia poses a different set of questions. In Sierra Leone, youth became such avid abusers of the rights of women and children that it was almost unimaginable. This situation was exacerbated mainly by the lack of political and ideological clarity on the part of the United Revolutionary Front, whose youth fighters, fired by drugs, turned to hacking off arms of children and women, killing the very population they had set out to ‘liberate’. Eventually, it took a combined armed effort of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and its peacekeeping force to end the carnage.

Which of these scenarios do the youth of Kenya want to emulate? Debate about the role of youth in Kenyan politics is usually devoid of political analysis and ideology. The youth are presented as some kind of homogenous group, all contributing to the struggle for a better Kenya. This situation is further exacerbated by the numerous nongovernmental organizations claiming to be working with and among the youth. These have a positive role to play, as I can attest from Amkeni Wakenya-supported youth groups. However, there also seems to be a culture among development partners which assume that the solution to the problem lies with pumping more dollars into ‘youth projects’. To my horror, the more I read about these, the more I conclude that there is a deliberate attempt to deconscientise the youth; that is, no sense of promoting consciousness among young people of the type of society they want Kenya to become for the next generation. The most dangerous social forces are youth with no hope in the future of a country and without political consciousness or love for their country because they feel alienated and excluded from society. For instance, the youth ‘bulge’ is presented as something that is dangerous; the youth are presented potential hordes of unmitigated disaster waiting to happen. On the other hand, ‘youth bulge’ could be seen as something that contains positive energy to be harnessed for nation building through youth volunteering schemes for building roads, hospitals, clinics and youth centers across Kenya. In fact the youth could become civic education ambassadors in 2012.

The National Youth Council elections and attempts by the Ministry of Youth and Sports to bring the youth together under a government-led umbrella is a positive move which should be celebrated rather than undermined by parallel processes. A government-led national youth movement can mobilise the youth for reconstruction, for volunteer projects in the rural areas and for instilling pan-African consciousness in them. It is only the government of Kenya which I believe should have that mandate. This will then be complemented by various independent youth organisations or formations. As a former Minister of Youth and Sports in Ghana, I can attest to the positive energy of the youth and children, whom we mobilised for national reconstruction and change at difficult times in Ghana’s history.

The problems facing the youth in Kenya have been narrowed down to unemployment. How about the drugs culture on the Coast? How about bright young people who cannot afford an education for one reason or the other? How about the early marriage or abuse to which the girl child is subjected? I could go on and on for pages. What is important is for the youth to clearly identify the challenges they face and engage the government of Kenya is a positive dialogue for durable, home grown solutions.

But most important of all, the current euphoria about the ‘youth’ is deliberately skewed so that politics is left out of the debate. Do the youth of today understand the anti-colonial struggle in Kenya and the role of their forefathers? How many of them can discuss and appreciate sacrifices of their forefathers? How about neo-colonialism and the continuing attempts to re-colonise Africa? How does the history of Kenya affect them today? Is settler colonialism a thing of the past? Who owns Kenya, and do ALL the youth have a stake in Kenya?

These are issues of politics and ideology. Any serious efforts to jolt the youth of Kenya into action should go beyond he scramble for dollars sprayed around by the US embassy in Nairobi, to a more rigorous interrogation of the problems facing Kenya. This will enable individual youth to situate themselves in the quagmire and determine where they belong in the debate. Are they agents for positive change or for the continuation of the present moribund neo-colonial system? Do the youth understand the rights of children, of women, of people with disability? Can the youth be supported to discuss, interrogate, the difference between the various political parties, the socio economic groups, and the structural causes of poverty in Kenya. It is only through such engagement that the propensity towards violence after elections will reduce.

The absence of such clarity can lead to situation in which youth become gangs for hire to the highest bidder. Without a clear ideological orientation, youth can become abusers, are attracted to gangs because there is no option. It is not enough to decry the gang culture, or so-called, ‘negative ethnicity’ when there are no alternatives to gang culture. If the youth of colonial West Africa, of a despotic Ethiopian regime and youth fighting against all odds could overturn years of neglect by despotic military regimes in Ghana, and against Portuguese colonialism the youth of Kenya could also do the same to change the current political impasse and a dog-eat-dog system which keeps them perpetually in bondage.

The cliché that youth ‘are the leaders of tomorrow’, is becoming precisely that: a cliché. The more you look at Kenyan youth, the less you see. But if you look closer, it is obvious. There is a subtle attempt to keep Kenyan youth from the light of revolutionary consciousness to the point at which they see tribes, tribes and more tribes. Or they develop ‘the leader syndrome’ which means they support demagogues parading themselves as leaders of the people. They youth lie in wait, ready to be called upon to rise up because the leader has been cheated out of a ticket to the proverbial ‘House on the Hill’. The youth of Ivory Coast, of Liberia, of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), of Angola, are all waiting to rise up to support their leaders, who encourage them from the roofs of their Castles to demand democracy. Yet in any ideological struggle, there is only one question, and one answer: are you with or for the people (and their interests) or are you with the oppressors and their foreign backers?

The history of Kenya also shows that with courage, determination, and some ideological clarity, the strength of the youth can be harnessed for change they believe in. As a youth leader in Ghana, my friends and I realised very quickly that land grabbing, ethnic/regional discrimination, abuse of power, and the neglect of marginalized communities will not end unless the structural problems of unequal distribution of power, marginalization of communities and inequality based on gender are addressed by a government that is responsive, pro-people and pro-development. That transparency and accountability are empty words unless there is a will on the part of those with power to live up to these ideals; that impunity had become endemic. But we did not wait for power to be handed over. We mobilised popular masses of farmers, rural youth, market women; students, urban workers, etc. to demand change in a positive way. Money or the lack of it was never an excuse not to do anything. Ghana is different now for all those struggles. Power will not be handed to youth on a silver platter, neither will unmitigated violence on behalf of the ‘leader’ bring about employment, redeem the youth of Kibera and other settlements from poverty.

The 2010 Constitution of Kenya is forward looking and seeks to address issues of accountability and transparent leadership, end impunity and corruption. The youth of today need to work assiduously to change the mindset of this generation. Contrary to popular beliefs, these groups are not awash with money. I have met youth groups who believe that unless their counterparts become politically engaged, work assiduously in the community, and create the basis for change through action, opportunities will be lost. Their weapons are commitment to change, enthusiasm, creativity, vitality, patriotism and a belief in a future that is full of promise. A courageous and steadfast belief in the ability of the youth to change today’s world for tomorrow’s brighter future is all that is required. In essence, it is up to the youth of today to reclaim the Africa continent from doomsday analysts, comics and from western celebrities who turn settlements like Kibera into zoos of gratification. As Frantz Fanon noted, ‘every generation, out of relative obscurity, must discover its own mission, fulfill it or betray it’.

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* Zaya Yeebo is programme manager Civil Society Democratic Governance Facility.
* Please send comments to editor[at]pambazuka[dot]org or comment online at Pambazuka News.