Thursday 18 April 2013

National Youth Council-Kenya: Making Youth Affairs a thematic area under "Sports...

National Youth Council-Kenya: Making Youth Affairs a thematic area under "Sports...: In unveiling his government's structure, President Uhuru released a refreshing list but one aspect was  disturbingly missing; the youth...

Making Youth Affairs a thematic area under "Sports, Art and Culture" is A folly Mr. President!

In unveiling his government's structure, President Uhuru released a refreshing list but one aspect was  disturbingly missing; the youth platform. It is of concern that the president saw it fit to lump youth affairs under a ministry dubbed "Sports, Art and Culture"...It should be noted that youth affairs are not limited to sports, art and culture!

Of more concern still is that the president since his swearing in has depicted signs that much as he speaks large on youth issues is intended on trivializing youth affairs platform and tools. He through his inaugural speech said he would merge the youth and women funds, an issue that didn't go down well with the affected groups.

Today the structure of government released made youth affairs a minor aspect that would be taken care of under a docket dubbed "Sports, Art and Culture." This development is disheartening and puts doubt on his commitment on matters youth, seeing how he is handling institutions, platforms and tools that should in essence be driving the youth agenda. Whoever is advising the president on youth affairs is making a serious blunder. This must be corrected immediately.

Sample the structure below:

President Uhuru Kenyatta unveils the structure of his Government.

In exercise of the authority vested in him by the Constitution of Kenya 2010 and in conformity with the expectations of a lean and effective structure, President Kenyatta officially released the list of ministries and state departments that will form the National Executive as follows:
Under the Presidency, there will the Executive Office of the President and the Executive Office of the Deputy President with two ministries:
  1. Ministry of Interior and Coordination of National Government.
  2. Ministry of Devolution and Planning.
Other ministries are:
3. Defence.
4. Foreign Affairs.
5. Education which will have the Department of Education and Department of Science and Technology.
6. The National Treasury.
7. Health.
8. Transport and Infrastructure which will have the Department of Transport Services and the Department of Infrastructure.
9. Environment, Water and Natural Resource.
10. Land, Housing and Urban Development.
11. Information, Communication and Technology (ICT) .
12. Sports, Culture and the Arts.
13. Labour, Social Security and Services.
14. Energy and Petroleum.
15. Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries under which are the Department of Agriculture, Department of Livestock and Department of Fisheries
16. Industrialization and Enterprise Development.
17. Commerce and Tourism which has the Department of Commerce and Department of Tourism.
18. Mining.
The structure also contains the Office of the Attorney General and Department of Justice.
In the new structure, President Kenyatta has collapsed the ministries from 44 to 18. The reduced structure is geared towards achieving a lean, efficient and effective executive branch of Government.
In the structure, the President has given special focus to the youth, gender, devolution, planning as well as national cohesion and integration which have all been brought under the Presidency.
Also given special focus is mining which is now a stand-alone ministry. Information, Communication and Technology ministry as well as Sports, Culture and Arts are also stand-alone ministries with a view to leveraging on the creative potential of the youth. Infrastructure ministries as well as national resources ministries have also largely been brought under the same roof.

Wednesday 17 April 2013

NYC Upadate

Over two months ago young people from all over the country gathered at Kenya High on 10th December, 2012 for the National elections of members of National Youth Council (NYC), at the end of the exercise 16 members of the council had been elected, their names were gazetted on 21st December in the official Kenya Gazzette, they had their first meeting a month latter in February, chose office bearers; with the Chairmanship going to Jim Clement Ayungo, Vice-Chairmanship went to Fatuma Abdi and also chose 8 members to the Youth Advisory Board. A month latter the council had its second sitting where different offices/committees were put in place as fiollows: Spokesperson (Communication/Marketing/PR) Maliba Arnold, Finance/Admin Palapala Edwin, Resource Mobilization and External Relations Julie Waweru, Research, Monitoring and Evaluation Benson Mutemi, Programs and Development Samwuel Chepkwuony, Youth Fund Board Rep Nesphroy Nyange.

For the purposes of this brief I will not go into the technical and administrative challenges that have so far slowed the whole process but its fine to report that the process of putting up a new institution in government quarters is slow because of the prevailing circumstances and the just concluded elections.

The offices are being set up at Uchumi House 16th floor, members have done a budget and forwarded to Treasury as is required by law, they are likely to be going for their first induction in the next two weeks, a necessity that has been delayed for so long. Then hire the secretary/c.e.o and staff members and the council will become fully operational.

Some of the plans underway include opening council branches in every county (with at least 3 permanent employees and 4 temporary depending with the work available), and holding elections for NYC county offices once funds come in starting in the financial year of June/July,
we are putting measures to ensure that the National Youth policy is reviewed, the NYC ACT, 2009 is redone according to the desires of young people, we also are working on ensuring that young people are mainstreamed in leadership starting with CDF committees according to the CDF Act 2013 among others, we too hope to officially launch the council latter in the year.

For those of you who still don't know what the functions of the council are, sample this and also get the Kenya National Youth Council Act of 2009;

The functions of the Council shall be to—
(a) regulate and co-ordinate activities and initiatives
relating to the youth being undertaken by youth
groups, youth focused community-based
organizations, non-governmental organizations,
civil society movements and other organizations;
(b) promote and popularize the national youth policy
and other policies that affect the youth;
(c) facilitate the periodic review of the national
youth policy in line with other government policy
statements;
(d) mobilize resources to support and fund youth
programmes and initiatives;
(e) lobby for legislation on issues affecting the
youth;
(f) liaise with other organizations to ensure that the
youth gain access to resources and services
appropriate to their needs;
(g) promote relations between youth organizations
and other bodies both nationally and
internationally with similar objectives or
interests;
(h) inspire and promote the spirit of unity,
patriotism, volunteerism and service among the
youth;
(i) formulate operational guidelines that protect the
youth against any form of abuse or manipulation;
(j) mobilize and sensitise relevant stakeholders on
the concept of community youth service;
(k) act as a voice and bridge to ensure that the
Government and other policy makers are kept
informed of the views and aspirations of the
youth;
(l) promote research, collation and analysis of data
on youth issues;
(m) promote the inclusion of youth agenda in the
formulation of policy by public institutions and
organizations;
(n) promote the inclusion of youths in decision making
bodies, boards, agencies and other public
institutions and organizations;
(o) promote and popularize the Youth Enterprise
Development Fund and such other devolved
funds targeting the youth as may be established
from time to time;
(p) perform any other function that may directly or
indirectly contribute to the attainment of the
foregoing.

The work is enormous, but we promise to deliver on it and keep you updated and also involved.

NYC: VOICE OF THE YOUTH!