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This is no safe country for young men or women, so go celebrate someplace else

Thursday August 16 2018
youth

One thing about the young, they are energetic. They are also naïve and sometimes that’s exactly what is needed to change the world. FILE GRAPHIC | NMG

By NERIMA WAKO-OJIWA

International Youth Day is celebrated globally on August 12 and every year it has a particular theme that is supported by youth from around the world.

The theme for this year was “Safe spaces for youth.” The Ministry of Youth in Kenya coined it as “Space Iko Safe Husika” – meaning, “This space is safe, be involved” and hosted an online chat to engage youth.

Before they knew it, the hashtag had been switched by their audience to “Space Haiko Safe,” meaning, “This space is not safe.”

What does safety even mean? Instead of looking at what is being said, we need to look at underlying factors. First, we have to acknowledge that even to use the word safe, means there are spaces that are not safe.

Globally, this is a confession that some form of space exists for young people but that not every space is safe for them. With this theme, there is not much to celebrate when it comes to Youth Day.

It should be a day of mourning for the youth of Kenya – unemployment is high even as students are being churned out of universities as quickly as corn popping on the fire.

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Few people have access to healthcare, though many youth between the ages of 18 and 34 are starting families so are most in need of affordable health services. Food is expensive, decent housing is becoming a luxury, electricity bills are ridiculous and our already high fuel prices are predicted to increase soon.

Young people not only have to compete in the workforce for survival – a study conducted this year showed that seven million youth are unemployed while one million are currently actively looking for employment. Youth have to survive in the jungle of adulthood while meeting these challenges and juggling the creation of safe spaces for themselves.

Think about first-time parents paranoid about their first child who has just begun to walk.

Doing all that they can to prepare for the child’s mobility, they research all sorts of information, making sure they read most of the books that they can find on toddlers, asking for advice from friends and relatives on diet (Yes, Elsie Eyakuze, it takes a village to raise a child). These parents make sure all hospital visits are scheduled and attended with no delay so that they can be up to speed on vaccinations.

However, the most important consideration is making the home safe. Now that the child can move around, you need barriers if there are stairs to prevent the child from rolling down the steps.

You need to replace all the fancy glass furniture with safe rounded wooden tables. Parents want the child to have room to move around, to wit, a safe space.

Creating an environment for the child to thrive in means being free in a protected area. So what do youth have when it comes to national protection?

A follow-up question to that effect, what does freedom look like to young people? Freedom would look a lot like making a contribution without second guessing whether “it is your place to speak.”

Sharing ideas without suspicious glances from people wondering why one is actually contributing “on serious national matters” not because of a stupid idea but, because of the society we have structured, where youth belong at the bottom of the totem pole.

Youth lack spaces to express to new ideas where they will be listened to. Take a quick look at our national platforms and observe the representation of and contribution by young people in those spaces. We have a long way to go.

One thing about young people, they are energetic and have zeal. They are also somewhat naïve and sometimes that is exactly what is needed to change the world. Naïveté morphs into a sort of courage because consequences are locked away in a secret black box in the mind.

We tend to forget that change has never come with the old at the forefront. The weight on our shoulders gets heavier as we get older. We stop talking about freedom, safe spaces, about change for the better.

At the end of the day, everyone prays for a better future but most take no action towards that future, not realising that faith without action is dead.

Nerima Wako-Ojiwa is executive director of Siasa Place. Twitter: @NerimaW

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