PROSTITUTION OF KENYA'S YOUTH VOTES

At one time, my village in rural Kenya had everything one can ask for. We didn't need money to buy basic necessities. Business was done by bartering: villagers would trade livestock for grain, fish for flour, dogs for monkeys etc. Money was only used to to buy things that were not made in the village like sugar, salt and clothes. My village, like yours, for the most part was self-sufficient. Youths had full time jobs going to school, working the farms and playing soccer in the village grounds. The good old days life style in our villages are gone now and not coming back The youths did not need politicians to promise them everything except the sun and the moon to earn political support. Nowadays, a great number of Kenyan youths are unemployed, lack employment skills and live in perpetual poverty. These youths have migrated from their own villages to fishing beaches, small towns, cash crop plantation farming areas and major cities across the country. It is in these places where the “prostitution of youth votes” has been consummated. Unfortunately the relationship between the politicians and youth groups is not equal. The youths have nothing to offer or bargain with to get long-term benefits and opportunities from politicians and their political parties. The youths are bargaining from the position of weakness. With no jobs, no money they are literally poor. On the other hand politicians and their parties knows this vulnerability and don't hesitate to exploit it to further their own political interests.

In this election, I am urging the youths in this country to think about and ask these question:

/How will this current crop of public program promises by these political candidates and their parties be different from the ones they have made to them in the past? And what can the youths themselves do in this election that can make long term difference after these elections are over?/

According to the ECK figures, 68.8% of eligible voters in this election will be citizens between the ages of 18 and 40. Using those numbers, it stands to reason that a very large number of voters will be young people. Even if youth (age 18-25) voters only comprise 33% of the eligible voters, they will still wield enough power to demand politicians and their parties address the issues most important to them. It is time for youths to stop falling for empty promises, tribal and party propaganda by politicians. For more than 40 years of independence (under three administrations), the youth vote always sides with a household name in elections. The politicians who have participated in the three regimes since independence have all used Kenyan youths like prostitutes, offering no long-term commitment to their interests. These politicians and their parties have had many tricks at their disposal to generate youth votes: tribal loyalty, public funded programs, creation of governmental agencies, even providing "walking around money" (read: bribes) to various youth group organizations in the country. Tribal loyalty is the strongest weapon in the arsenal of every serious politician in Kenya. Youths from each tribe are commanded to support specific candidates and parties under the guise of tribal loyalty.

Publicly funded programs offered during the campaign season are often forgotten just days after the election. Existing youth programs meant to serve all youths are routinely abused to favor youth groups friendly to the party and administration in power. When legitimate government programs are used to favor the youths of one party, region or tribe all of Kenya’s youths ultimately lose. The politicians and administrations that use youths in this way never care for the entire youth community in the country. These politicians and their administrations are only concerned with election cycles and how these same youths can help them get re-elected. Programs like "Youth Development Fund" should /not/ be offered like candy to garner youth votes in elections. These public funds should be awarded based on the merits of the program, regardless of tribal or political affiliation, or other regional considerations. This “walking around money" ploy that political candidates use comes in the form of transportation money for their own supporters to attend their opponents rallies, or a bottle of beer (contaminated changa) payments designed to intimidate their opponent’s supporters. It is sad but true that in many cases at political venues, youths are hired and loaded in trucks like livestock to the market to disrupt the opposition’s political rallies. In some extreme cases, the candidates and their parties furnish the youths with party t-shirts, pangas and rungus and encourage them to fight with and intimidate the opposition’s supporters.../politics in banana republic go figure!!./

Why is it always poor youths who get caught up in these criminal acts of election violence? It is because these politicians target youths with limited amenities for their dirty work, knowing that these people have a lot of time on their hands but not a lot of money and cannot think for themselves.

In theory programs like YDF sound great but in reality the impact being made by giving Ksh 50,000 business grants to individuals or groups with zero business experience is very minimal. The problems facing Kenyan youths have no tribal and political boundaries. Without employment opportunities all of Kenya’s youth are in the same boat regardless of their tribal, party or regional affiliations. No youth can say "I have no job or I am poor, but I am better than the people from this tribe or that region". It is important that the youth of Kenya look beyond their tribal loyalty and regional areas to effectively address the issues that will bring job opportunities and economic benefits to all of them. It is stupid for the youth to follow the footsteps of political leaders from their tribes or regions blindly and without demanding these leaders fulfill promises already made. History tells us that "divide and conquer" made it possible for the colonials to rule Kenya and other nations. Current politicians and their political parties have gone colonial on the youth of this country. Not a day goes by when one can't see or hear about youths for this candidate or that party literally fighting on behalf of their political sponsor.

When will the youth of this country realize that they are being used in these elections? The youth have no one to blame but themselves. The youth of Kenya has enormous power to put any candidate or political party in office, but unfortunately they still vote for their tribal leaders/politicians and regional representatives. The youth, like their parents before them, are putting their tribe first and the politicians know it. In this coming general election, the youth of Kenya will be the loser again if they vote with such a narrow interest in mind. Elections will come and go, but the issues facing the youth of Kenya will remain, unless they vote and support politicians who stand for issues beyond their tribal and regional boundaries. It would be nice for a change in these elections to see the youth from all regions campaigning outside their tribal territory without intimidation and physical abuse. Perhaps this will happen some day. As the saying goes "high tides raise all boats".

Dan Magero Orao
Michigan, USA