New youth council Bill should be driven by representatives

The deliberations on the National Youth Council (Amendment) Bill 2019 by young people demonstrates the serious quest for an independent, inclusive, transparent, responsive and accountable National Youth Council as it waters down the NYC’s mandate and shrinks the democratic space for the youth.

After a series of consultations, deliberations, reviews and advocacy campaigns under the hashtag #NYCTuitakayo, a consortium of youth-serving organisations (YSOs) from across the country came up with a harmonised memorandum of proposals.

Members had staged a peaceful procession on September 18 from the NYC offices to Parliament, where they presented the memorandum to young MPs through Gideon Keter, Babu Owino, Mohammed Ali and Major Dong.

The memorandum has key provisions informing the five-point agenda — professionalisation of youth work, youth mainstreaming, structure and functions of the NYC, corporate membership and resource mobilisation and capacity building.

On professionalisation, Kenya is one of the Commonwealth countries without a national-level policy to regulate, protect and promote youth work as a distinct profession despite its significant youth bulge.

The consortium proposes empowerment of the NYC to formulate and implement a youth work profession model and collaborate with the ministry in charge of youth affairs to establish locally relevant policies, procedures and mechanisms to accredit youth workers.

Regarding mainstreaming, it proposes empowerment of the NYC to nominate youths into decision-making bodies and coordinate the youth agenda into national policy processes.

The structure of the NYC envisaged in the 2019 Bill reduces it to a purely centralised outfit without county presence. The consortium proposes an Assembly of the Council comprising delegates elected at the constituency and YSOs as corporate members. The assembly shall be the highest organ of the NYC and in whom all powers will be vested.

The NYC shall comprise 11 youth elected from the assembly to represent 10 regions and special interest groups, and any of them can be appointed by the President as the chairperson.

Another proposal is a County Youth Chapter consisting of four youths (two female and two male), one person representing special interest groups and a representative each appointed by the respective county governor and the Youth Affairs Cabinet secretary. Apart from the two appointees, members shall be elected by delegates at the constituency level.

The Bill fails to capture the spirit of a youth-representative body; hence the proposal that the County Youth Chapter discharge the NYC’s functions at the county level.

Corporate membership is proposed to mobilise resources to bolster the representative goal of the council. Accordingly, all YSOs will get a five-year corporate membership after paying a subscription fee.

The consortium also proposes capacity building for NYC leaders for effective and efficient delivery of their mandate.

I hope with the Bill, sponsored by Keter, the best interests of the youth will be addressed accordingly and the contents of the memorandum, which seeks to make the NYC a body of the youth, by the youth and for the youth, considered.