Growing numbers of idle youth are a ticking time bomb

I HAVE GONE through a report by one of the UN organisations which was recently published by the media on the challenges posed in the future by the rising number of youthful population.

In a sense the report says that there is a huge risk of instability in most of the developing world and particularly in Africa and Asian countries where the growth in population is quite steep.

Asian countries some of which are fast developing may manage as economic opportunities become bigger, but some like China may crack with demands for openness and democracy likely to emerge.

But Africa and the Middle East is where crises look almost imminent. I take Kenya as a case study.

I have attended some of the rallies of diverse leading politicians lately and even had opportunities to attend some of their “seminars” and through networks gathered a lot on their political engagements in terms of their political planning and communication.

I’m certain that there is a need to doubt most if not all these politicians. True the business of a politician is to acquire power and use that power. There is no really known perfect methodology of getting that power. However the main tool of getting to power in Kenya has been explicitly shown to be tribal amalgamations, divisions and intimidation. There seem to be little learning from the mess Kenya found itself in the post-2007 poll fiasco. What politicians have realised is that we have so much idle youths ready to do their bidding and dirty work.

As politicians do this they seem to forget that Kenya was almost at a political precipice and the main assets of the post-2007 poll violence were the youths who had little to lose. Their numbers are swelling by the day and the economy which has been growing slower than the needs plus the many disjointed issues around it means Kenya has managed to build a huge army of desperate youth who are a ticking time bomb.

Harrison Ikunda
Via E-mail

Why adultery should be criminalised too

Since Uganda is apparently in the process of ridding the nation of all practices “unAfrican,” “unChristian” or “unIslamic,” I suggest that we use this opportunity to legislate against some other practices that some how might have escaped our legislators’ attention.

I have read that in some African cultures, including some in Uganda, adultery was a punishable offence. In certain cases, the offended husband would kill the man responsible and there would be no case to answer. I have also read that adultery is a sin according to the Bible and the Koran. In fact, adultery offends one of the Ten Commandments, which the good Lord handed down to Moses on Mt Sinai. I have also read that in African cultures, including in certain societies in Uganda, pre-marital sex was forbidden.

In one culture, if a girl got pregnant before marriage, she was thrown off a cliff to deter pre-marital sex among young people. I have also read in the book of Genesis, that a man leaves his father and mother and unites with his wife and only then can they engage in sexual intercourse.

Yet for some reason, adultery and sex among unmarried couples have become a norm in Uganda. I think that our good members of parliament should also recall these strong African and religious values and enforce them with equal measure as they purport to enact the Anti homosexuality bill.

They should impose the death penalty for “aggravated adultery” and “aggravated pre-marital sex” for repeat offenders. These evils are “unAfrican” and “unChristian” and the perpetrators of these vices, majority of who are fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, aunties and uncles are recruiting our children, including their own, into these abhorrent and unAfrican acts.
Legislators should also ensure that the entire community participates in the preservation of our strong African values by imposing a jail term for parents, land lords, medical workers, brothers and sisters and any one else who becomes aware of an adulterer or any one engaging in sex before marriage but does not report the perpetrator to the authorities.

For as long as we are being moralists, let us be moralists all the way. Chants of “our Bill” “our children” “our man” which accompanied the Anti-homosexuality Bill when it was reintroduced in parliament this week should be delivered with the same euphoria if some moralistic parliamentarian one day decides to introduce the Anti-Adultery Bill or the Anti-Sex before Marriage Bill.