Blog4Dev #OpportunitiesForYouth #CreatingABrighterFuture

To begin with, one of the ways through which I would create a brighter future for the youth in Kenya would be through fighting the hegemonic ideal of negative ethnicity. Negative ethnicity has for many years, since Kenya attained independence, been a bottleneck in the realization of a brighter future by the young people. It is through the formation of anti-tribalism initiatives in the country that I’ll be able to help the Kenyan youths to get access to socio-economic opportunities albeit indirectly.

 The formation of the anti-tribalism initiatives through the social media and physically at the grassroots level nationwide would go a long way in promoting and propagating tolerance by championing the spirit of unity in diversity. The tolerance so attained would help to strongly and highly enhance national cohesion in order to form a solid nation of Kenyans that recognizes and cherishes the ethnic differences in a positive way. It is through tolerance and cohesion that a young Kenyan from one ethnic group would be able to work, invest and live in a different region that is occupied by a different ethnic community. It is also through tolerance and cohesion that many youths would be able to access job opportunities in government and in non-governmental agencies in an equal or nearly-equal manner hence a drastic reduction in the marginalization of the Kenyan youth.

Secondly, another sound and effective way to boost opportunities for the young people would be through the pooling of financial resources. I would advocate and enable many of the disgruntled, unemployed youth to form savings and investment groups. Whichever small amounts that the youth would have genuinely acquired will be saved in savings accounts in convenient financial institutions encompassing the mainstream banks and the micro-finance institutions. Through this, they’ll be able to get access to loans that can be used to establish several investments and/or income generating activities hence creating employment opportunities.

 As a matter of fact, such savings and investment groups would enable easier access to cheaper loans such as the Uwezo Fund and the Youth Enterprise Fund provided by the Government of Kenya under the aegis of the Ministry of Youth, Gender and Sports.  Furthermore, with the current government policy of allocating 30% of tenders to the youth, such investment groups would come in handy to facilitate this.

Another way of increasing opportunities for the youth would be through creation of a platform where the young people from all corners and walks of life will enlist the various talents that they possess. My vision is to establish an online platform that would have the primary mandate of listing young individuals and their respective talents. This will provide an opportunity for the youth to be in the lime-light so that well-wishers, the government and the non-governmental organizations can tap such talents. Most importantly, through the platform, these young people will get opportunities to earn income as a result of  commercialization of their talents.