Youth and Peaceful Elections in Kenya

Chapter Three: Socio-Economic Status of Youth in Kenya: Implications for Peaceful Elections

Chapter Three Socio-Economic Status of Youth in Kenya: Implications for Peaceful Elections Chrispine Oduor Owino Introduction Defining youth is not easy as there is no universal definition of whom the youth constitute. Youth is not a homogeneous construct, but encapsulates several different experiences and diversities. There also seem to be overlap between international definitions of youth and children. Organizations have different definition of youth for instance, the United Nations (UN) general assembly has defines youth as those aged between 15 and 24 years while the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) defines a child as everyone under the age of 18 “unless under the law applicable to the child, maturity is attended earlier”. Youth has been best understood as the transition stage between childhood and adulthood. Whereas age is useful when defining youth, it is insufficient indication to characterise the transition to adulthood. The Constitution of Kenya (CoK 2010) defines a youth as an individual who has attained the age of 18 years but has not attained the age of 35. Youth population in Kenya Kenya’s population growth rate has been rising steadily over the years from about 2.5% per annum in 1948 to around 3.8% per annum in the 1980s. By the year 2009, the country’s population size was slightly over seven fold the population in 1948. 78.31% of Kenyans are below the age of 34 years. According to the National Youth Policy draft document, Kenyans in the age bracket of 1 to 30 years constitute 75% of the country’s population. Those aged 15 to 34 years old constitute 35.39%. While the proportion of children aged between 0 and 14 years has been declining since the 1980s, the population of Kenyans Socio-Economic Status of Youth in Kenya 55 56 Youth and Peaceful Elections in Kenya aged 15 to 64 years has on the other hand been rising consistently. It is envisioned that the country will experience a demographic transition due to rapidly falling fertility rates as more women give birth to fewer children and as more women delay and space child birth.These factors together will in turn result in a “youth bulge”. It is this group that will form the country’s next generation of workers, citizens and leaders. Youth employment and unemployment in Kenya Unemployment and underemployment feature prominently amongst Kenya’s most difficult and persistent problems. These challenges that mainly affect the youth make it difficult for them to access economic opportunities thereby effectively blocking their transition to adulthood, if adulthood is to be measured by economic independence and ability to move out of one’s parents house marry and have children. Unemployment was one of the challenges identified by Kenya’s independence government in 1963, and still is almost 50 years after independence. This is in spite of the numerous policy efforts that have been put in place to address the challenge by the successive governments. Among these was, the policy of Kenyanization at independence that sought to integrate Kenyans in the mainstream economic activities following several years of segregation of the “natives” by the colonial government. The government’s policy during the colonial era was such that, Africans were to be used as a source of labour for the mainly white owned settler farms. They were not allowed to actively engage in business or any other economic activities. Other policies that have been put in place by successive governments include the development of the Jua Kali (informal) sector which however consists of menial jobs that provide little or no opportunities for advancement. The government also embarked on fiscal policies that include the provision of finance to young people for self employment and entrepreneurial skills development. Most notable of the fiscal policies are the Youth Enterprise Development Fund (YEDF) and the Women Enterprise Development Fund (WEDF) that were both established in 2006 and that have been receiving increased budgetary allocations over the years. There is also the public works programme Kazi Kwa Vijana that was launched by the government in 2009 with the aim of employing the youth in both the urban and rural areas in labour intensive public works projects such as road maintenance, water harvesting, afforestation and waste collection among other jobs. Most of these policies implemented by successive governments have however not been able to create adequate and sustainable employment for youth in the country. High unemployment experienced in...