Kenyan youth are their own worst enemies

Sunday Times - 29/07/2007
By: Njogu wa Gitu, Maragua.


There is this notion being advanced that the youth in this country are a neglected lot. This which is a big lie. On the contrary, the youth in this country have all along had the opportunity to expand their horizons, but because they only have themselves to blame their lack the vision to exploit their talent.

The crying attitude among the youth will not solve anything for them and unless they go out there and seek the opportunities like other Kenyans. They say that they have been sidelined in matters of leadership, but who gives leadership to who? Leadership is a competitive game and it open to all including the youth.

These youth are a funny lot, nay, ridiculous! They never tire of telling us that they are the majority hence why they should be incorporated in decision making organs.

But when you ask them how they want to be incorporated, they are clueless. That voter registration exercise has been going on and the youth who to lead the country have not even been registering themselves. If they don't register as voters, how then wil they elect their own as leaders? I don’t know whether they want Electoral Commission of Kenya chairman Samuel Kivuitu to take the clerks right into their bedrooms.

The writing is clearly on the wall thus: Until that time the youth will embrace the power of thought and hard work, they will forever be singing the hymn of isolation. Numbers without action is akin to the barking of a toothless dog.

And when you tell these youth that they got to style up and be proactive, they come up with some slogans, say, gutuka (arise). Why would you get noisy about such a serious issue? And since the youth are just there to help others make a killing in their name, the gutuka sloganeers leave the scene after making colossal amount of money out of the drive.

For the few youth who respond to voter’s registration, majority register more than 10 times in different constituencies because some "elders" have paid them to do so. That is the beauty of these youthful minds.

And when it comes to voting, two out 10 will find their way to the polling stations, with the other eight being in the convoys of elderly politicians where their usefulness will be stoning, shouting and jeering at rivals, all these for a pay of khat, beer, cigarettes and bhang of course.

And the end result? More elders ascend to power. This is the real tragedy of our times.

Again, are the youth as poor as they want us to believe? The amount of liquor some of these youth consume is enough to knock down a dozen elephants. All these drinks cost money.

The other day Finance Minister Amos Kimunya increased the taxation brackets for cigarettes and beer in order to post resources for the secondary school’s tuition fees. You just need to walk past at the smoking zone and most of those puffing away furiously there are the youth.

It is important that the youth get this from me: The elders will rule over you till that time Jesus will come to your rescue.

In any case the youth have shown clearly that they cannot be trusted to run a big country like this one of ours if their biggest pre-occupation is to form gangs to extort money from the matatu sector, behead people like sheep, getting recruited into Mlungunipa Jeshi la Coast and Saboat Lands Defence Force.

Come on, you need to wake up from the deep slumber of self delusion if you want to be taken seriously. Over to you, my dear youth.






Njogu wa Gitu,
Maragua.