YOUTH CHARTER :
THE KENYA KWANZA COALITION recognizes the Youth as essential and indispensable to the integrity, stability, prosperity, and posterity of our nation and as key drivers of national development,
CONVINCED that Kenya’s greatest potential resides in its youthful population and that only through their active and full participation can Kenya surmount the developmental challenges of the present and the future; DEEPLY CONCERNED about the situation of the Kenyan Youth who are yet to be fully engaged and included in production and development, with many remaining marginalized on account of inequalities in income, wealth, unemployment, poverty and hunger, illiteracy, poor quality of health services, violence including gender-based violence, torture by security agents and extrajudicial killing and experiencing various forms of discrimination;
ACKNOWLEDGING that the youth are facing a myriad of health-related problems, including malnutrition, Drug and Substance abuse, teenage pregnancies, early marriages, female genital mutilation, domestic violence as well as limited access to health services; RECOGNISING that Youth are partners, assets, and a prerequisite for sustainable development with a unique contribution to make to the present and future development;
AFFIRMING that the bottom–up economic model offers the best opportunity for improving the quality of life for the Youth in Kenya through their empowerment, inclusion, and participation in economic and democratic processes as well in community and civic affairs; REAFFIRMING that the bottom–up economic model advocates the creation of an affirmative social, cultural, economic and political environment that will empower the youth to be effective actors in national development;
APPRECIATING that young people are trailblazers in the innovation and creative economy, and recognizing that Art is an economy on its own, UNDERSTANDING the role of the digital space to national prosperity and competitiveness and the pivotal role played by the youth in technology as a tool to improve their lives and those of their friends and community at large, and whose potential must be harnessed grow and generate employment, CONSIDERING the proportion of Kenya’s youth to the national population is among the highest globally, which characterizes Kenya as a young nation.
NOTING that in the absence of useful opportunities and meaningful engagement, the youth become susceptible to despondency, vice, and runaway crime, CERTAIN that education enhances opportunities, promotes critical and creative thinking, problem-solving skills, informed decision making, and is a precondition for community participation; and that sports unite Kenyans of all ethnic, regional, social, economic and political walks of life, enhances cohesion between citizens of every persuasion and serves as an inspiring focal point of our National Development efforts; ACKNOWLEDGING the urgent need for new impetus in the design and implementation of youth-friendly policies and programs at all levels in every sector.
NOW THEREFORE SOLEMNLY COVENANT AND COMMIT AS FOLLOWS:
ECONOMIC EMPOWERMENT/YOUTH IN BUSINESS
1. Eradicate red tape & bureaucracy in accessing government credit
2. Establish start-up incubation centers across the country to nurture young entrepreneurs
3. Design tax incentives for companies offering internship & apprenticeship programs to youth. Additionally, legislation to end the exploitative practice of unpaid internships. A living wage/ stipend is to be paid to all interns. Furthermore, government incentives for employers employing youth with no prior experience.
4. Legislate requirements & tax incentives to ensure that foreign companies operating in Kenya equip young Kenyans with the skills to be internationally competitive as part of a skills transfer program.
5. Remove experience requirements for government jobs to promote youth opportunities. • Free youth certificates for AGPO (Access to Government Procurement Opportunities);
6. Allocating 30% of the AGPO for the youth and strengthening implementation measures by the Public Procurement Regulatory Authority to ensure maximum adherence to the 30% youth AGPO policy in public tenders;
7. Reviewing the AGPO Act to accommodate the Corporate Mentorship program for the youth by parent companies.
8. Remove limits to access to the Youth Enterprise Fund
9. Increase tax on imported commodities and simultaneously reduce taxes on locally produced goods to promote local manufacturing as well as promote manufacturing start-ups which creates jobs for the youth
10. Introduce minimum taxable profit which will increase cash retention by youth businesses towards enhancement of operations and capital retained for business expansion;
11. Establish the institutional arrangements to monitor the needs of the labor market and create sound policies to promote sectors that can boost job creation;
12. The National Employment Authority should increase mechanisms to identify untapped opportunities and advance information sharing amongst state agencies to ensure expeditious clearance of prospective job seekers;
13. Promote an expanding demand for labor that benefits young people by investing in public works programs;
14. Expand opportunities in the informal sector and address the challenges of the informal economy by formulating policies to improve conditions and facilitate profitable formalization of the sector;
15. Integrate county licenses into one smart license that caters to different licensing demands for businesses towards supporting the SMEs;
16. Legislate a 30-day timeline for payment of government bills
17. Waive all KRA tax penalties for youth-owned enterprises.
18. Pending bills for the youth to be given priority once the government is formed.
19. Re-design and re-align labor-intensive public works programs and incorporate youth saccos.
HEALTH
1. Improve accessibility, availability, and affordability of the NHIF Scheme to deliver high-quality health care Institutionalize county-based services to young people across the country;
2. Establish local youth health associations in partnership with local government and NGOs to promote good sanitation and hygiene programs towards clean environments and better sanitation, especially in informal sectors;
3. Instituting comprehensive programs to help young people affected by mental illness and training and deploying more counselors and psychiatrists;
4. To ensure that all facilities have a functional mental health department that will help in the rehabilitation of the youth who have been adversely affected by substance abuse and those suffering from mental illnesses.
5. Ensure that the distribution of psychiatric Doctors, Nurses, Clinical officers, and Counsellors is available and equitably distributed from Level 6 to the Level 3 health centers.
6. Embrace the Youth in the leadership of hospitals and development of Health Management Systems to effectively establish and accommodate modern healthcare systems. This also includes collaborating with the youth to harness their different strengths to conduct medical awareness campaigns on non-communicable diseases that are increasingly prevalent.
7. Integrate technology(hospital information management systems), especially those that have been developed by the youth to ensure that appropriate medical databases are deployed throughout institutions of the national and devolved units for easy surveillance and monitoring of different illnesses to provide timely and effective interventions.
8. Establish sponsorship programs for the youth who are willing to advance their education in medicine, health sciences, and health technology.
9. Continuous training of youth Community Health Volunteers (CHVs) for them to graduate to Community Health Assistants and after 1 year of service, to be issued with the necessary certification to join KMTC for further training.
10. Increase the stipend to the Community Health Volunteers that is adequate to cater to daily needs.
11. Strengthen provisions of comprehensive mental health, sexual and reproductive health services for youth in Kenya to address teenage pregnancies and early school dropout;
12. Ensure the Youth have a Right to Directly Participate and Promote Youth Leadership in the Development of Sexual and Reproductive Health Policies, Mental Health Policies, and Programmes including the already existing Kenya Board of Mental Health.
13. Significantly improve health services in institutions of learning to adequately meet the health needs of students and counter rising mental health and HIV/AIDS infections;
14. Ensure budgetary allocations to the free sanitary towel program are sufficient to reduce the vulnerability of the girl child to dropping out of school and falling prey to early and unintended pregnancies.
15. Strengthening provisions of comprehensive mental health & including mental healthcare under NHIF.
16. Institutionalize county-based rehabilitation centers.
CREATIVE ECONOMY.
1. Streamline the collective management organizations (CMOs) such as MCSK & PRISK to be under the Kenya Copyright Board to account for monies collected on behalf of artists and avoid reckless spending.
2. Zero rate taxes on investments in equipment used in film and photography and reduction of taxes for content creators for them to generate more income.
3. Support the use of cutting-edge technology such as drones and allow for filming and photography in public places so that it showcases our Country and its development.
4. Tax incentives, rebates, and fast-tracking approvals (1 week) to support filmmaking, and TV production in Kenya that cost KES 10,000,000 and above.
5. Establish and support incubation centers for creative artists to nurture their talent & educate them on monetizing in the industry through an established Youth Talent Fund
6. Legislate policy on promoting 70-75% local content, and intellectual property rights Government to pass the creative economy bill in the first 100 days
7. Government to separate the Creative Arts from Sports, Gender, and Information Technology ministries
8. The government to merge the Kenya Film Commission and Kenya Film Licensing Board to reduce duplication, bureaucracy, time wastage, and cost.
9. Create and establish a custom-made annual budget for the creative economies equivalent to or more than that of tourism to support and promote local and export-worth creative products.
10. The government aggressively supports the arts through media and publicity such as having expos that promote locally produced products to external consumers.
11. Formally institute and officially support collaborations with institutions of higher learning to convert and certify consistency in talents and innovations.
12. Ensure swift payment of royalties in commensuration to the content.
DIGITAL ECONOMY
1. Provide free Wi-Fi at various access points to enable the use of internet services to aid users and consumers.
2. Develop ICT innovation hubs at the sub-county level, this will be a matter of policy under the NGCDF.
3. Enhance inclusion in the digital economy even in remote areas by ensuring that all counties have youth empowerment centers and tech hubs to provide digital skills, services, and tech enterprise support systems;
4. Promote technology skills in higher learning institutions by establishing adequate and well-equipped technology labs for student learning and innovation development;
5. Improve ICT infrastructure to achieve full internet and telecommunication coverage in the country towards realizing the full potential of the digital economy;
6. Enhance intellectual property rights regime and build the capacity of operators in the digital economy sector;
7. Identify new markets for innovative products and promote the local development of the sector.
8. The protection of software and systems through the beefing up of the cyber-crime unit.
AGRICULTURE:
A. TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT OF YOUTHS IN AGRICULTURE
1. Dismantle social discrimination of agriculture by reforming the education curriculum and making the agriculture lessons more modern and attractive
2. Set up more Agricultural Colleges across the country with specialized courses
3. Have more access to training by government agencies (AEOS) on sustainable, cost-effective training modules for smallholder farmers, and training of young farmers.
4. Develop more agriculture infrastructure by ensuring year-round water sources, and accessible and ready markets • Reduce costs of modern agricultural machinery and inputs
5. Remove government restrictions on planting certain food items.
6. Remove government restrictions on practicing farming in urban areas.
7. Promote Urban farming practices by youths and partnering with KIRDI for training
. 8. Connect Young Farmers to the International Market and Subsidize locally produced produce.
B. FINANCING & MARKETS
1. Easy access to funding and fewer restrictions on smallholder farming. AFC loans to be more subsidized for youths and youth groups engaged in small-scale farming Young farmers tend to prefer shorter-season high-value enterprises e.g. horticulture, and poultry.
2. Have Counties allocate more funds to agriculture, and ease of leasing government land by the youth
3. Offer financial literacy training on savings, and risk management mechanisms e.g. insurance, and alternative crops based on climatic conditions
4. Provide tax incentives on agro-based companies offering internships and supporting youth in agriculture e.g. Tech industries offering digital markets for agricultural products, and soft mobi-loans to youth for agricultural practices
5. Ease access to prevailing market prices, information, and research to enable the youth to be better informed on what agricultural products to engage in.
C. DIVERSIFY OPPORTUNITIES FOR THE YOUTH THROUGH AGRICULTURE
1. Revival of collapsed government agro-processing factories to give more employment opportunities to the youth.
2. Set up more factories to deal in value addition.
EDUCATION
1. Expand scholarship and bursary programs;
2. Improve access to quality basic education in primary, secondary, and tertiary institutions;
3. Expand the technical and vocational education by establishing more TVET institutions at the Sub-County level and reviewing the courses offered;
4. Offer apprenticeship programs and industrial attachments as well as advocate better earnings in internships;
5. Ensuring the education sector is well equipped to promote youth skills development;
6. Increase HELB amounts taking into consideration the high costs of living;
7. Introduce HELB repayments grace period until a graduate has gotten an employment opportunity.
8. Waive all outstanding HELB interest balances and penalties.
9. Offer free education to children with special needs and persons living with disabilities through the establishment of Free special needs schools.
10. Publish all international scholarships to promote transparency.
11. The Government to replace lost academic documents for free.
YOUTH IN SPORTS
1. Establish a youth advisory council towards better policy and advocacy efforts to improve and monetize the sports sector;
2. Expand the National Youth Talent Academy (NYTA) to include all sports and simultaneously devolve it to the county level to introduce the County Sports Talent Academy with the capacity to systematically identify promising sporting talent and provide necessary support through sponsorship to further their skills/talent.
3. Formulate proper policies and frameworks for investment into the sector;
4. Tackle corruption in the sports sector that has made sports persons economically vulnerable and exploited;
5. Initiate Inter-County Sports Kenya Cup as the top league in Kenya, as a way of nurturing sports talent from the lowest point at the ward level to the National level.
6. Anchor sports fund at the County level and the Hustler fund at the constituency level to support youth in sports.
7. Developing talents by kick-starting the under-11 and under-16 leagues.
8. Investing in sports towards promoting creativity and talent identification.
9. Intensifying programs with other African Countries through the Kenya Sports Club federation and paying players appearances and loyalties to motivate them.
10. Gazette sporting facilities as a way of protecting them from being acquired by individuals; and 8 11. Appoint youth on committees and bodies that make decisions on sports.
LEADERSHIP AND GOVERNANCE REAFFIRMING The need to include young people in decision-making, policy formulation, evaluation, and implementation; WE COMMIT TO:
1. Accord to young people increased visibility, access, and participation in the decision–making process and policy implementation;
2. Facilitating the effective participation and inclusion of youth in the national development planning process and preparation of policies that affect the youth;
3. Making the youth ministry a stand-alone ministry (headed by youth) dedicated to the eco-social and socio-political development of youth in Kenya;
4. Appointing 30% of youth in all appointive positions in government. (Corporate mentorship policy). County Administrators be given to the youth.
5. Modernizing the recruitment process in the Police sector focuses on academic qualifications rather than physical abilities.
6. Restructuring the National Youth Service on matters of Functionality and Curriculum.
7. Reviving the National Youth Council and funding its operations.
8. Having the Presidential address on matters of youth development on International Youth Day.
SECURITY.
1. Abolish the vetting process on the Provision of Identification cards to youths who have attained 18 years and above.
2. Develop and implement stringent measures to curb police brutality, Extra-judicial killings, Harassment, and Unnecessary Arrests of youth on a suspicion basis. It is also important to expedite the prosecution of the perpetrators of these acts.
3. Institute policies to solve the conflict and hostility between security forces and the youth, especially in the Northern parts of Kenya, the Coastal region, and the slum areas.
4. Limit access to illegal firearms to curb Terrorism, Cattle rustling, Abductions, and recruitment of Juvenile Gangs.
5. Strengthen the laws that ban the procurement of illegal goods, including drug trafficking, and illicit services, such as human trafficking of Youth for slave labor and organ harvesting.
6. Establish and Re-open Immigration offices in the Counties.
7. Limit the Maslach system, Clan negotiations, Compensations, and community punishment to ensure that it is not abused to cover up crimes and heinous acts committed by or against the youth and let the perpetrators face the law.
8. Reviewing the criminal justice system to cure the injustices faced by the youth
BLUE ECONOMY
1. Review the Maritime Policies
2. The introduction of fish farming, and caging activities where the youth will be trained on and funded to practice. OUR COMMITMENT AS THE YOUTH OF KENYA TO OUR NATION.
a. Embrace peace, unity, cohesion, fighting radicalization, and curbing anti-social behavior and violent extremism of youth by promoting national values, cohesion, and unity.
.“Kenya Kwanza” is a call to patriotism and participation.
To be ready and able to step up and take the baton of leadership and responsibility for the common good from the generation ahead of us on time and without fail.
To protect the environment and a commitment to fighting climate change.
To campaign for 70% of the Youth Vote
To protect our votes and voter turnout
To uphold our civic duties as the youth in the development of our nation by promoting the rule of law, paying taxes, and promoting the proper utilization of all resources.
Promote the Kenya Kwanza Youth Charter.
To NEVER participate in NOR perpetrate violence during the elections.
IT IS THUS AGREED AND COVENANTED IN NAIROBI ON THIS TWENTY-SEVENTH DAY OF JUNE, 2022.
