The Kenya Youth Manifesto 2022

Approximately 75% of Kenya’s population are under 35 and 40% are under 15 years. The Kenyan youth have been largely excluded from meaningful political participation in the past. Hence, leading up to the 2022 general elections, The Youth Café and partners are collaboratively writing Regional/County Youth Manifestos that will eventually feed into a National Kenya Youth Manifesto 2022 (KYM 2022) to outline the views of the nation's youth and demand to be given equal chance and supported to actively participate in the forthcoming general elections.

The Kenya Youth Manifesto 2022 (KYM 2022) will focus on youth participation in the democratic process and seek to engage young people in issues that affect them through increasing their informed participation in the upcoming 2022 elections in Kenya. The KYM 2022 will also seek to effectively include young people in democracy by providing a platform to organize, generate ideas and voice their opinions without the interference of power differences.

It will seek to increase the participation of marginalized groups such as Youth with Disability, Youth Living in Streets and Vagrant Youth, Youth with health concerns, Female Youth and the Boy Child, Unemployed and Underemployed Youth, Youth not in education, employment and training, Youth in emergency situations, Youth in learning institutions, Incarcerated Youth, Youth in conflict situations, Youth living in informal settlements, and Youth in emergency situations.

Research suggests that when young people are involved in the political leadership of the nation they are likely to participate in elections and uphold the constitution. The participation of youth in politics in Kenya is regarded as minimal, showing that there is a lack of robust inclusion in the planning and execution of political decisions.

Youth would benefit from easily accessible information about the political intentions of their leaders and active engagement in future development initiatives. This process will open avenues for youth to share their challenges, encourage them to participate in the electoral process, and be in a position to contribute to future development planning.

Kenyan youth have demonstrated a lack of political interest and knowledge about the electoral processes, voting rights, and the electoral system, which has reduced their participation in Kenya’s elections over the years. In Kenya, young people are often politically marginalized because of age, lack of experience, and resources.

Significant obstacles for young people in Kenya in political participation are at individual, organizational and structural levels. The process will seek to reduce individual obstacles such as distrust in political institutions, the conviction of a weak democracy, and social-political exclusion. By having a human-centered design approach to the process, different youth stakeholders will be trained in the persona creation exercise that will lead to a better understanding of the characteristics, motivations, challenges, and aspirations of Kenyan youth.

The persona will further be used by representative youth juries to develop tailored manifestos for each county/region and later on a national manifesto. This will help to democratize our democracy beyond the election period. Distrust in political institutions is often bred by weak relationships between the public and political parties.

Involving young aspirants and political parties in the manifesto-creation process will loosen the idea of a win-lose relationship thus increasing the trust of Kenyan youth in political institutions. The select youth jury members will be genuine citizens forming a good sample of the population in the counties. We will further make the manifestos non-partisan and the public to increase ownership of the youth development results up to 2027. 

The Youth Café previously convened the Coalition of Kenya Youth Manifesto that collaboratively came up with the Kenya Youth Manifesto 2017. The Kenya Youth Manifesto: which forwarded a proposal to place youth issues and perspectives at the heart of Kenya’s 2017 elections agenda and advance and enrich the current National Youth Policy.

The Manifesto contains the views of its young writers, their aspirations, perspectives and issues, and covers a wide variety of contemporary youth development issues, taking into account the existing Kenya National Youth Policy, the 2010 Kenyan Constitution and internationally agreed frameworks such as the World Programme of Action for Youth, the African Youth Charter and the East African Community Youth Policy. It is the project of The Youth Café, the implementing agent of the International Youth Council in Kenya.

Making a Manifesto representative of an entire country's youth was an ambitious undertaking so the Kenya project received help and support from numerous individuals and organizations. The initial 2016 online survey was prepared by Queen Elizabeth Scholars on an internship in East Africa from the Fraser Valley University of Canada.

Calls for members of the Coalition for Kenya Youth Manifesto were sent out between January and April of 2017, eventually totaling some 50 organizations. Contacts were sent out to 300 talented youth advocates and champions to lead the Drafting and Coordination Task Force whose work on the outreach process included social media engagement, resource mobilization, Manifesto manuscript designs, peer review, participants recruitment, networking, media connections, etc. Siasa Place helped lead the social media discussions while Afrika Nasaha oversaw consultations with educators, schools and young people from across the country. In addition, Global Youth Voices helped aggregate the voices of young Kenyans from a diverse range of sources.

The Kenya Youth Manifesto 2017 was thus an outcome of young people's own interconnected efforts and those of various stakeholders in youth development in Kenya. It is non-partisan, created and owned by all Kenyan youth and domiciled at The Youth Café, a multi-award winning pan-African youth organization headquartered in Nairobi. During the drafting and after its publication, the Manifesto raised over $300,000 through a mix of grants and individual donations.

Through this collaborative initiative, The Youth Café has helped to overcome historical patterns of communal violence and marginalization with a Manifesto reflective of the wants, needs, and desires of all young Kenyans - regardless of class, place of residence, or political persuasion. The non-partisan, collaborative, and inclusive writing process challenged Kenya's norms and practices with respect to youth engagement, especially during elections.

However, much needs to be done for elected leaders, both the executive and legislature, to act on the Manifesto. While the writing of the document can be seen as a victory of participatory democracy, continued mobilization and action are required for the Manifesto to become a political reality. 

We trust that this process will help to increase youth participation in the 2022 elections, promote youth ownership in societal development, and hold political leaders accountable in the next 5 years. This process is aligned with one of our goals which are achieving a transparent, democratic, and accountable environment. 

We, therefore, call upon youth leaders, adult supporters, youth-serving organizations, political parties, civil society, religious institutions, and key youth development stakeholders to join us in building young people’s skills, knowledge and confidence while helping them more effectively express their voices, build relationships with political leaders, and break down socio-cultural and institutional barriers to participation by being part of the Manifestos creation process.

Feel free to reach out to Maureen: maureen.amuhinda@theyouthcafe.com to express your interest in being part of the movement.