The Kenya Youth Manifesto (KYM) 2022 is a product of concerted efforts by various stakeholders, the youth, youth political, and civic leaders from different regions (8 regions) in Kenya being at the manifesto's core. 

Several stakeholders and strategic partners, including the  (IRI), Denmark Embassy Youth Sounding Board, 254 Youth Policy Cafe, The Global Development Incubator and The Global Opportunity Youth Network, Kenya Private Sector Alliance (KEPSA), IEBC, Youth Coordinating Committee on Elections, International Republican Institute, Youth Senate Kenya, Catholic Relief Service (CRS), Political Leadership and Governance Programme Alumni Network (PLGP Alumni), Reach out Africa, Volunteer Service Overseas, Run for office, Council of Africa Youth Advocates (CAYA), National Youth Council (NYC) and The Youth Cafe (TYC) were instrumental in ensuring the manifesto comes to fruition.

The Kenya Youth Manifesto for the year 2022 initiative which has been underway since late last year and is lead by civil society organizations, youth advocacy groups, and academics collaborated across sectors with relevant governmental agencies to raise awareness among students, youths, schools and other stakeholders of how they are involved in shaping their future as well as aspects impacting them such as civic space and financial capability.

The KYM 2022 arose from a series of deliberations among young politicians and citizens. Discussions began with 40 attendees from across the country during the National Youth Summit 2022. These conversations culminated in an interactive focus group consisting of 4 segments by age range: for 15-18 year olds, 19-24 year olds, 25-29 year olds, and 30-35 year olds. This experience revealed to attendees many practical issues related to youths today—issues that had been absent or ignored until this stage.

The personas were presented to the plenary for further input and feedback from the entire participants.  Youth persona development was important in identifying the different challenges, motivation from political leadership and their participation in elections, aspirations; politically, socially, or in any leadership position, expectations; from political leadership in regard to short term or long term needs, level of knowledge in public policies and whether these policies have worked for them or not and lastly their participation in civic engagement.

The youth leaders from different regions and institutions also ventilated on the issues affecting the youth at economic, social, and political levels, and key recommendations were drawn.  They also discussed how the manifesto would be disseminated and localized, manifesto adoption and accountability, and collaborators to actualize the implementation of the different calls for action.

The social, political, and economic issues and recommendations from the National Youth Summit were subjected to 240 young people from 8 regions to provide grassroots-level inputs by youth who are not engaged in the political process to ensure that the priority issues are captured comprehensively. 

The regional consultations consisted of non-political and civic youth leaders, rural youth, students, urban youth, youth in the formal and informal sectors, youth in business, youth engaged in farming, and professional youth, among others, to give the manifesto a non-political perspective, to relook at the challenges suggested at the National Youth Summit and recommending innovative solutions that are regional based and homegrown.  

Key Informant Interviews were conducted to address information gaps, particularly on the policy recommendations on the policy issues. A Technical Working Group comprising 22 young people from the private sector, youth-serving organizations, and NGOs was convened to develop the Kenya Youth Manifesto 2022 document, building its content from existing literature and aligning the manifesto to existing policies and legal instruments.  

The reviewed manifesto was then presented to a smaller team of writers to refine it before being subjected to a youth jury randomly selected to critique the document. The manifesto would be launched and presented for sign-off by the presidential contenders, Governors, and Member of Parliament (MP) aspirants before dissemination and localization. As political promises are being made during Kenyan elections that will define young people's future, we need to listen and work on the most pressing needs of this generation.

The Kenya Youth Manifesto 2022 has been prepared for the youth and by the youth in Kenya.  It seeks to place the Kenyan youth issues predominantly on the national development agenda in Kenya.  The manifesto reflects on the views, aspirations, and perspectives of young people in Kenya and draws from National and International instruments such as the International Covenant on Economic, and Social Rights, which is a signatory; all human beings are entitled to Social rights.

The chapter on the Bill of Rights Kenya in the Kenyan Constitution 2010 provides for the enjoyment of Economic and Social rights under Article 43 1 (a-f) on six sectors which include health, adequate food and of acceptable quality, housing, clean and safe water, social security and education,  international youth development, the East African Community Youth Policy, the African Youth Charter, and the World Programme of Action for Youth, as well as guidelines, tools,  standards, and research developed by nongovernmental organizations and academic institutions.

The Kenya National Youth Policy 2019 “visualizes a society where youth have an opportunity, equal to other citizens; to realize their fullest potential, productively participating in economic, social, political, cultural and religious affairs equitably.” 

The Kenya Youth Manifesto is divided into two (2) parts. Part I - Introduction provides some background information on the Manifesto, including its purpose and the processes used in developing it. Part II - Call to Action highlights key thematic issues under three broad pillars; Economic, social, and Political.

Economic issues directly impact the youth’s ability to generate and benefit from income-generating streams; social issues are pertinent to preventing societies from working at an optimal level, while Political issues illuminate the common barriers to youth involvement in politics. The content of each pillar moves from examining and identifying key challenges in each pillar to providing recommendations and homegrown solutions.

The actions recommended in the Kenya Youth Manifesto are directed toward specific stakeholders in youth development, including government, civil society, the private sector, United Nations agencies, donors and the international community, and young people themselves, among others. Thus, all stakeholders need to recognize that investing in youth calls for cooperation, institutional support, and youth-serving relationships across society and the different spheres of governance.

The manifesto has annexes as follows: Appendix 1: Communication  and Dissemination Plan; Appendix 2: Adoption & Accountability; Appendix 3: Monitoring, Evaluation & Learning Framework; Appendix 4: Youth Persona Development; Appendix 5: Members of the TWG; Appendix 6: Core Organizing team; Appendix 7: Members of the Writing Taskforce Annex; 

The Youth Café strives to enrich the lives of young people by modeling and to advance youth-led and rights-based approaches to foster young people’s civic efficacy, community resilience, sustainable development, and equitable society, as well as proposing innovative solutions, driving social progress, and inspiring transformative change by utilizing innovative research, policy, and advocacy actions.