National Youth Council: The Kenyan Youths Revolution Blueprint

It was not a time for a chaotic, retrogressive and bloody revolution. Murderous revolutions as witnessed in Egypt, Libya and Syria. But rather Kenya was ready for a structured revolution. A total paradigm shift into a sophisticated model of youth’s inclusivity in government. A change inspired and generated from the soul of the Kenyan youths. Nor was it a time to plant the trees of freedom and democracy with our blood. For we were not fighting for freedom like the mau mau youths or for democracy like the youths of the 80’s. Freedom we had, democracy we had, it’s just that our slippery values had refused to grasp them and in our indifference refused to own them. 

What a shame, how empty was our generation at the time, how devoid of any unity of purpose, so deathly blind to the signs of the times. We were always so ready to listen to crisis reciters. Those so ready to use their platforms to contort the most potent of vitriol on existing societal failures. Doomsayers preaching to the converted and rephrasing old problems into infinitum. Yet will not move an inch to propagate change. They would be the last to agree with a clarion call they did not sound themselves, fan the embers of an original movement, leave alone be seen on the streets championing for a new way of doing things. The rest of our generation frozen in a messianic like wait, waiting for a big bang fix, for a utopian wave on the populace that would magically bring about change. Far be it they be, they be the game changers themselves.   

As our generation groped in darkness in noon day for lack of a vision, our so called leaders desperate to be seen to be doing something, dilly dallied in empty pursuits. Swept by the band wagon effect, they would find themselves rallying behind political joy rides. Riding on short sighted causes inspired by drunken ambitions to self preservation, shamelessly at the expense of developmental agendas. We had entrusted our future to past heroes long turned into traitors. An ideologically emaciated brood of vipers who spent too long staring into the abyss of tyranny, that in time the abyss stared back into their souls. Leaders whose focus had long shifted from the interest of the masses to the interest of their individual careers and families. How craftily they had swayed us from the task of building institutions to worshiping their personalities, from discussing ideas and solutions to perpetual discussions on their entitlements as leaders. So fast to talk down at youths for their lack of initiative, but too slow to notice or lift up a nondescript player with a noble initiative.    

The mau mau youth wanted self governance, the 80’s youth wanted multi-party democracy, and the youths of 2014 wanted economic prosperity and social equity. Ideals that could only be achieved through a participatory approach to developmental processes and inclusive structures of governance. These are the ideals that made up the bronze snake that we all had to look at if we were to quell the restless agitation, the unrest brewing among the masses. The mau mau youth had to travel from village to village to rally the masses to the new dawn of a revolution, and today we govern ourselves. The 80’s youth had to use seditious written materials and secret meetings to bring about change, and today we have more political parties than we need. The 2014 youth had a mouth, ears, eyes, a virtual community and a ready spring board to a revolution at their hands. At the touch of a button, hell or heaven could come down on their behest. 

For a long time the youths of 2014 had been weakened by lack of ideological training and political identity. In whose absence, tribalism, institutional corruption and political mediocrity had served to stifle any meaningful progress. The political elite already in the limelight banked on the indifference of the youths to preserve their status quo. Swindling the masses with political innuendoes full of theatrics but empty of substance. These clowns dressed as politicians and reformers spewed such epithets to sicken even the most politically passive among us. These war mongers and tribal demi-gods preyed on our political attention with their sights trained on draining our national resources. 

So it came as a surprise, sure enough, none had foreseen such a revolutionary road map that side stepped the bloody mess of many a revolution. That was so swift because it was not tied to reconstruction and reconciliation frameworks that characterizes chaotic revolutions. The Kenyan youth’s revolution rested on the inverted role of a deadly virus. Just like a virus multiplies within the body of its host till the whole body is consumed and overwhelmed, so was the swift takeover of the National Youth Council (NYC). The National Youth Council attached itself to the structures and functions of the government, private sector and civil society in such a way that the desires and aspirations of the Kenyan youths and women were realized fully. The national youth council was not a panacea, but it was the platform, the recruiting ground for new political movements, socio-economic polices and governance structures that liberated and catapulted the youths into the limelight, into the front row seat in defining their destiny. 

The National Youth Council started with a blog post which went viral. A few inspired youths held a series of meetings where the national youth charter was drawn, a selfless administrative structure was floated and a formation course mapped. The idea was to have a central body to holistically cater for the interests of youths. Though independent to the influence of traditional centers of power, it would be legitimized enough to the point of having controlling influence on the functions of government, policy formulation and implementation of issues central to the interests of youths. The National Youth Council would be meritocratic institution ran on by youths who’ve had outstanding contribution to society, demonstrated servitude leadership and success in their own field. It was to be funded by the exchequer, private sector and civil society. It would derive its mandate directly from the Kenyan people, the Kenyan youths. 

On the political and governance front the NYC was to vet and approve all youth based government appointments. So no longer could a 50 year old be appointed to take up a slot reserved for youths. The NYC think tank contribution to government policy and legislative formulations were to be adopted with no qualms. A shadow structure mirroring the structure of government (for example shadow cabinet secretaries) to offer fresh, new age ideas and solutions, offer counter voices or support official government stands for the interests of youths. Political candidates vying on a youth platform would explain their agenda and plans to the youth council and get a certificate of competence from the council. All political ventures including referendums would need tangible proof of beneficial value to the youths, meet the progressive agendas of the youths beyond mere political rhetoric and time wasting political circus. All in the understanding that it is the youths who will inherit the best or the worst of today’s political and governance choices. 

On the economic empowerment front the government was to channel the 30% of all government tenders reserved for youths through the youth council to be disseminated evenly to youths around the country. This was to ensure equity in the distribution of these tenders as opposed to when no one knew which youths got these tenders and their demographic concentration. The council would by innovative means improve access of capital by youths from not only special government funds like Uwezo fund but also from mainstream financial institutions. The council would go a step further to ensure that these funds and capital reach community youth groups under the youth council. A widespread structured mentorship program ran by the youth council would link and pair youth entrepreneurs with the private sector, and youth dominated jua kali sector with mainstream industrial and manufacturing sector. Kenyan youths would benefit from the youth council ran incubation centers for small and medium sized enterprises and for the first time recognize micro enterprises as well. The youth council would sponsor free social leadership training and offer a pool of resources for university scholarships targeting youths from poor backgrounds. 

It’s obvious that such a grand scheme as is the National Youth Council would remain a concept on paper, a fairy tale on disillusioned minds of our youths, an object of ridicule for our fattened elite and a taboo topic for our insecure leaders. But do not belittle yourselves fellow Kenyans, this dream can be realized, the youths of this country can hold their destiny in their own hands. In this age of multiple social media platforms, of unprecedented and penetrating mediums of mass communication, of an enlightened and passionate generation, anything is possible, change is inevitable. Dear Kenyans, of what use is your ten thousands or hundreds of thousands of followers on social media if you can’t influence them towards a common goal, for common good. 

How hard can it be to use social media to bring together groupings of youths from the neighborhood level, to ward level, to constituency level, to county and national level? How hard can it be to bring them to the streets if need be, or at the very least, from the comfort of their homes, using the phones on their hands, involve them in taking part in targeted campaigns to pressure the powers that be in one way or another. The idea of a National Youth Council as exposed in this article would need mass exposure among the youths to set the foundation for its formation, its potential would need to be sold to the youths to be accepted. A successive clamor for its formation would need the youths to own the idea, the coordination of its structure would need to be carried out on a massive scale, the youths council would need muscle. Kenyans, it’s also for such noble causes as this that social media exist and not only for spreading your selfies. The national Youth Council blood runs in the networking potential provided by social media. Its backbone the social activists lying dormant in each one of us. Stand up and let’s do this!

Public Health Innovations by 2030

The year is 2030 and Africa is gathered in Isiolo the new capital city of Kenya. Health professionals drawn from the continent of Africa are convening to recognize public health innovations. Both technological advances and social transformations that had set the stage for the triumphant leaps of successes against health challenges in Africa. We were all gathered to celebrate the role played by individual innovators, private health enterprises and governments to overcome the monstrous inadequacies of our health systems. In tune with recent scientific discove5ries, continuous research and changing social structures was the culmination of human excellences in human health. As much as we were proud of our victories, we were in the same breath humbled considering the human cost and the lives we had lost along the way. 

The first to be recognized was the role of governments in facilitating and creating an enabling environment for a flourishing health sector. From the digitalization of the health sector, which among other things allowed for digital storage and centralization of medical records accessible by wealth providers with the consent of patients, universal health insurance coverage that allowed those at the lowest socio-economic strata access health services that were previously only available to the rich, subsidization and tax exemption of health equipments and medical supplies, instituting policies that allowed for mass training of medical practitioners and nurses complete with satisfactory remuneration of those in this profession, not forgetting remedial measures such as accommodating and incorporating into mainstream health provision the use of mobile clinics to reach pastoral populations in remote and expansive areas. 

The private sector contribution to health provision could not be ignored. It’s this group that covered the gap between government’s efforts, individual players and the pooling of resources towards a harmonized approach to public health challenges. In the height of government and private sector collaboration, we saw in the case of Kenya, the emergence and building of Konza city, an ICT based city, Tatu city, an agricultural based city and what a noble endeavor when Kenya launched Afya city, a health based city. This attracted international pharmaceutical companies to set up factories in the Afya city, medical researchers to put up bases, massive investments in mega hospital facilities and medical equipments manufactures all found a home in the country. It led to the emergence of a new medical pilgrimage location replacing India for those in the country as well as those in neighboring countries. What more it also motivated individual health based innovations to take root in the country. 

In the last decade or so there had been an upsurge of technological innovations in the health sector. It would have been impossible to name and recognize all of them in a single conference sitting. However there were outstanding innovations that demanded to be recognized if only for their ingenuity, relevance and impact they had had on lives not only in Africa but globally. For some of them it was impossible to imagine life without them. So indispensable were their utility that some could boast in their own right to have halved or completely annihilated health challenges that had plagued humanity forever. It’s this innovations that had to be recognized and acknowledged. 

On reducing preventable maternal, newborn and child deaths we had from simple innovations like ‘preggy watches’, a watch worn by mothers and newborns that doubled up as a device that tracked pregnant mothers and newborns heartbeat, temperatures and blood pressure and warned mothers of dangerous levels that would be a strain on their unborn or newborn children. The watches could also keep record of these vital signs between visits to clinics that could be accessed by health providers. We also had mobile apps that offered nutritional plans to mothers; with an input of available foods by mothers it would offer nutritional plans matching the social economic situation of different mothers. We had mobile apps that also allowed mothers to gauge nutritional values of food stuffs available in their environment. We had digital records of children under 5 years that could be accessed by heath providers by entering the mother’s phone number. The same portal would be used to send mothers sms reminders of vaccination dates, educational sms’es on maternal health etc. And with the mainstreaming and proper training of traditional midwives such innovative packages as ‘safety delivery Kits’ became life saving humanitarian provisions.  

On ensuring universal access to reproductive health supplies and services was another vital mobile based application that revolutionized women reproductive health. This application brought together use of human capital as well as technology to meet the reproductive needs of women. This was made possible by first the training and registration of a significant number of Community Health Workers (CHW’s). With a an even distribution of these multi-purpose CHW’s  in the community the stage was set for a new beginning in reproductive health. A mobile application was created that registered these CHW’s together with reproductive health clinics and service providers. Using the same GPS technology that allows travelers to find hotels and places of interest in a particular area they are visiting, this application allowed for women to connect with the nearest CHW’s or clinics in their area who could meet their needs at the touch of a button. The number of CHW’s reduced the distance they had to travel to access this services and supplies. It also allowed for discreet and timely interventions where necessary. 

On preventing and treating infectious diseases such as Hiv/Aids, tuberculosis and Malaria, we had a combination of mobile apps and devices that brought these challenges to manageable levels. At first we had automated devices that allowed diabetic patients to continuously monitor their blood sugar levels and warn patients when they were at dangerous levels or even test their blood sugar when need be. This worked on the premise that it was vital to allow self-testing for prompt response to threats. So it was given that there would be a demand for devices that allowed for self-testing of tuberculosis and even Hiv/Aids. This portable devises were carried around and even became household items. Newly met sexual partners could test each other in the comfort of their homes and get results immediately. One could blow into a device and find out if they had tuberculosis even in their earliest stages. Further innovation in this segment allowed for digital mapping and monitoring of prevalence level of an infectious disease. Without disclosing the exact location of infected people for privacy purposes, individuals could access information on the prevalence level of a particular infectious disease in a particular geographical area or neighborhood. Using the same GPS location application mentioned earlier one could now easily access medication conveniently as well if infected.  Nutritional plans for infected people were also now easily available.  

On reducing the toll of chronic ailments such as diabetes, cancer and cardiovascular related ailments was the use of capital intensive investments that had been made in the health sector. For example the use of Afya city state of the art facilities, community based residential hospice centers as well as mobile clinics that were equipped to provide periodical relief for patients. Platforms that allowed for the sharing of research, patents to generic drugs and best practices went a long way to relieving the suffering of chronic patients. Informational mobile applications that created awareness and allowed for early detection of such ailments also were readily available.

At the end of the award giving and demonstration of these health innovations, one thing was clear; we lived in an exciting time.  

Neo-Progressive Wildlife Conservation

The year is 2030 and Tembo, a 40 year old elephant is commemorating 10 years in the council of once endangered wildlife. Tembo is a resident of the expansive Amboseli National Game Reserve. Among his peers, Tembo is considered one of the most knowledgeable historians. Especially in regard to human-wildlife conflict and to a large extent human’s efforts in wildlife conservation. So every year at a time like this, in partnership with his long time friend and fellow historian Kifaru, they gather the rest of once endangered wildlife in this rite of passage. Celebrated by passing down to the younger generation the tenets of wildlife conservation that has kept them alive to this day and continues to do so. 

As Tembo clears his throat, Kifaru paces restlessly in front of the gathered youngsters as a sign that everyone should settle down to listen to the proceedings. As is customary, Tembo would always start these events by a chilling account of the dangerous times the older generation once lived in. A time of terror and indiscriminate genocide of their kind by the same people they were meant to grace with their presence. Tembo would recount in a harrowing voice how they were hunted down in their grazing and hunting fields, watering holes and night stands. How at one end of the park they would be surrounded with vehicles and excited humans taking pictures of them and at the other end of the park would be shadowy figures pointing rusted guns and shooting poisonous arrows at them.

At this point the youthful generation listening to Tembo would be so silent that one could hear the thinnest of twigs break. Tembo would see the questioning looks on their faces, as they could not imagine that the humans that they now peacefully co-existed with could have been so cruel to their kind. But Tembo would be quick to point out that not all humans were terrorists to their kind, even at the worst time of insecurity in their past. That among them were a special breed of humans called conservationists and activists. It is this special breed of humans who did not rest at having an exclusive club amongst themselves but rather succeeded in turning the whole nation, to a man, into conservationists. So much so, that a three year old would regard a chameleon as sacred. So much so, my young ones, that children turned against their parents and wives turned against their husbands all in the name of wildlife conservation.  

At this point Kifaru would take over, and start by posing the question, “how in the name of already extinct species did humans pull off this sensitization of the masses, this transformation of attitudes and recruitment of activist’s en-mass”? “It might have as well begun with the inspiration of government”, Kifaru says. Governments taking up their rightful role in the protection of wildlife. It’s sad that it took some convincing to reconcile the efforts of governments and non-governmental conservationists. The government had to realize that wildlife conservation activism was not idle chatter and empty apocalyptic concerns of busy bodies. But were well founded, genuine and sincere selfless sacrifices of time and energy for the preservation of an integral lifeline to humans own existence. Today in 2030, governments need not be lobbied to appreciate and participate in full force in the conservation of wildlife but it is a deliberate effort educated by the preservation of government itself. For example an activist need not camp at the office of a government official to petition them to take some requisite action but rather the government would be reaching out to the activists for any new action the government can take to reinforce gains in wildlife conservation. 

Human communities living in and around wildlife were next to tow the line in the accelerated push for the preservation of our kind. It was common knowledge that no one travels a thousand miles to come to a strange land to poach. But it’s the immediate communities who were responsible in the actual massacre of wildlife and formed the first conduit in the chain of smuggling that ended at the port of exit from the country. Winning over communities living around wildlife did not stop at educating them on the importance of wildlife. Or how to keep wildlife in protected areas to mitigate against human-wildlife conflict and keeping external threats from infiltrating our parks. But was followed up by bringing these communities into organized and manageable groups, both youth and women based. These groups were to directly benefit from the wildlife they encompass both financially and through targeted sponsored capacity building programs that allowed them to better their lot especially economically.

Using the same organized community groups as fertile grounds to recruit intelligence gathering networks spanning the whole perimeter of national parks and game reserves. These community intelligence gatherers (CIG’s) were not founded on suggestion box type of intelligence gathering but were a sophisticated network of continuously trained spies. They were such a vital component of the whole struggle that in recognition of their contribution, they were privileged to have none other than the tourism secretary in the ministry of tourism as their patron. CIG’s leaders in the Kenyan case reported directly to the director of Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS). This arrangement allowed even the use of former poachers as confidential informants in unmasking the kingpins behind the poaching cartels. Trained and managed by National Security Intelligence organs, these CIG’s were professionals in their own right living in the immediate communities around wildlife.

Ports were not left behind in this elaborate scheme to save our kind, Kifaru continued.  For the first time security systems at the port were extended to cover the concerns of non-governmental conservationists. In all ports of entry/exit independent non-governmental parties were allowed to attach themselves in the clearing and forwarding processes for transparency and as a deterrent to corrupt port officials. Smugglers had to now contend with automated security systems, overly transparent custom processes, highly supervised government officers and incorruptible independent non-governmental attaches. 

Special courts and binary law enforcement instruments were the last nail in the coffin of wildlife terrorism. Half hearted approaches by the justice system to our cries for mercy were frowned upon. All this change of heart begun when finally poaching was recognized as terrorism and poachers were considered and handled as terrorists. For poaching had for a long time been used to finance civil unrest in countries, fuel civil wars and was indeed a threat to the economic security of a nation. In the Kenyan case, the mandate of Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) and their rangers was extended to cover not only armed protection of wildlife, which included arrest of suspects. But they were also trained as special prosecutors against poachers in a court of law and in a revolutionary move, as magistrates in poaching related cases. This accelerated the hunt of suspected poachers, their prosecution and sentencing of wildlife terrorists. It also alleviated the burden on the unitary police force and justice system who were naturally overwhelmed by traditional law and justice issues. 

So was the ceremony conducted and ended in sighs of relief, for the safety of wildlife was assured.

From Slum Upgrading to Slum Hypergrading

To say that little change had taken place over the years in our almost ancient slums would be an understatement. We had lived as a country with the shame of slums like Mathare and Kibera since colonial days. Just as we had never added an inch of railway since the last one was laid by the colonial government, we had just the same never changed the iron sheets that roofed our expansive slums. These were not low cost housing that could be upgraded to decent standards. But dreadfully these were ghostly tin roofed shades not even decent for stray pigs. Unlike torn undergarments that we do well to hide from the public, we had as a nation walked around shamelessly with our torn under garments worn over our heads for generations. 

In African traditional society we had no slums; therefore slums are un-African just as much as they are inhuman. How unfitting it is then that in our modern time slums could be associated with Africa as if it was part of our culture. Slums would have found no place in our traditional society as we lived in a totally different socio-economic setup. However every country that had undergone some level of industrialization had had to deal with slums and unplanned human settlements. But all countries did not live with slums indefinitely. They found a way to deal with such inequality in human settlement. Nobody sets out to live in inhuman conditions where even the most natural of acts is curtailed by circumstances. The exodus of the populace from the spacious rural areas to already crowded urban centers in search of a livelihood had imprisoned many in urban inadequacy. So it’s not a surprise that many who travel into slums or are born there are condemned in a never ending circle of imprisonment from these bar less prisons. 

The best subsequent governments could do after independence was to assume that there were no slums. To remove them from service delivery maps, to deny such settlements the decency of basic services such as sanitation, water and security. All this in a bid to generate plausible deniability in their conscience of the existence of slums. So slum dwellers were left to scavenge for even the most essential of services. They had to forcefully put up illegal water connections, dangerously tap electricity from overhead power lines, dig trenches on their doorsteps for drainage, turn their sitting rooms into toilets and turn disposable foodstuffs into meals for their children.

So you can imagine the relief that met the announcement that we were going to do away with each and every slum in Kenya. Starting in Nairobi and rolling out the same master plan to distant towns and cities. Starting with the biggest slums in Nairobi and moving down to the last slum settlement anywhere in this glorious city of Nairobi. Though we had lived with slums forever, we believed this transformation was possible. Because we lived in a time of singular political will and purpose, a time of patriotic optimism, a time of visionary nationalism. We believed first, that it could be done, and weighed approaches next, because if it could be done anywhere in the world, it could definitely be done in this magical country, known around the world as Kenya.  

The whole transformation of our urban landscape rested on this prism: That when it comes to real estate location is everything. Slums were not located in the furthest corners of our cities but were ideally located near highways, industrial parks and central business districts. Slums were not built vertically but horizontally. Being the enterprising people that Kenyans are, just like someone had taken the wool from our eyes and suddenly we could all see the high return on investment that slum land offered. We had arrived at the crux of the age of progress and urban renewal. The prospects of the new vision for our urban poor and their pathetic settlements could not be resisted even by the dullest of pessimists.  

The hyper grading of slums started with the government appropriating all the land that slums were built on. The government could legally appropriate land for development purposes if the project was deemed beneficial to the country as a whole. For example when they wanted to build a road or say a port. Slum hyper grading was given the same significance and a prominent position in the whole scheme of nation building. Previous owners/landlords of these slum lands had the option of being compensated in cash or through shares in the new building scheme. 

Once the land had been appropriated, a registration of all residents and their households were done through community development organizations that worked in the slums and a government agency for transparency purposes. The civil society also took up the responsibility of selling this idea of slum hyper grading to the slum dwellers. They educated them where knowledge was lacking, they trained them on how to take advantage of this massive reconstruction scheme, and they also registered them as laborers in the same.

The next phase was restructuring of the slums and value addition to the land so to speak. This involved construction of tarmac roads and pavements that crisscrossed the whole slum land. Living square patches of slum houses in between these tarmac streets complete with street names. Electricity substations and transformers were evenly distributed throughout the slum land. These hyper slums were the first housing schemes to get complete network of fiber optic cables covering the whole slum area. A network of piped water was set up complete with water hydrants strategically placed on every street. A proper drainage and sewer system was built underground in anticipation of the population expected to live in this hyper housing scheme. Space for state of the art schools, hospitals and markets was also set aside.

With slum land now primed, it was time to bring in the private investors to do the actual construction of the high-rise buildings. In the beginning the idea was to have different housing locations in the slum lands for the original dwellers and the new comers expected to take advantage of this housing scheme. But this idea was quickly shot down as it was tantamount to social segregation when what we hope for was the social re-integration of our society. It was agreed that since only a handful of slum dwellers were social pariahs, programs would be put in place to take care of them and therefore eliminate the social threats that they might have posed to the new comers. Stringent security measures coupled with viable economic empowerment measures were carefully put into place. So original slum dwellers were allowed to live in the same high-rise buildings as the new comers. Usually the first, second and even third floors of this multi-storied apartment complex were reserved for original slum dwellers and the rest of the floors were reserved for newcomers. These upper floors that were not occupied by original slum dwellers were owned by private investors and government.

Unlike former housing intervention schemes that ended with former slum dwellers selling their new homes and rebuilding slums somewhere else. In the slum hyper grading scheme registered slum dwellers and their household were not allowed to sell or transfer their homes for at least 10 years. Regular inspections in the homes to make sure they still occupied the homes were carried out. Since their particulars were stored it was also impossible for them to benefit from future housing projects in other slums. 

It is also common knowledge that a golden or crystal prison is still a prison and without improving the economic status of slum residents they will continue suffering only this time in well painted homes. That’s why the government shares in the housing scheme were converted into a welfare scheme for the original slum dwellers. Whereby original slum dwellers received financial welfare support every month that increased their household incomes.