THE YOUTHS TOWARDS THE KENYAN ECONOMY

 The vision of our country lies in the hands of our youths. They are filled with tremendous and towering ambitions. It will be a great wastage of human resources if these youths are not given an opportunity to exrcise their talent. This beautiful land needs these youths in orde for our soil to become a brighter one. The primary role of young people is to get a good education in order to become better citizens of tomorrow.  They need to learn skills to do the job that the country's economy needs. They alo need to know how to read , write, think, understand, analyse and discuss the issues that the country faces. The entire success of the nation depends on the youths. However, in order for continous success to take place; it is the Government's responsibility to provide the youth with proper facilities for getting equipped with the knowledge of the modern era.

Kenya, which has a relatively youthful population, stand on the runway of economic take-off if they find the correct formula to harness the energy, creativity and entrepreneuship that young people have to offer. The youth are an economic force that can both drive and create  demand for goods and services especially due to the growing digital economy. However, even with this major advantage, these countries also face the attendant risk of ensuring that their youths do not fall prey to political machinations that can turn them into dynamite especially in the run-up to general elections. How then can Kenya position itself to benefit from its youthful demographic while avoiding the potential political pitfall?

One of the answers is to be found in the government’s Big Four Agenda. When the government invests directly or facilitates investment in attaining food security, building affordable homes, accelerating manufacturing and ensuring affordable healthcare, young people are in direct line to benefit from these investments. All these are youth-facing investments. Creating jobs through manufacturing will create demand for food and housing, and once the young people start families on account of having disposable incomes, they will automatically require healthcare that meets the needs of their households and those of their dependants. My view, however, is that for Kenya’s youth to benefit from the Big Four Agenda and other investments in infrastructure development, we will need to inculcate a culture of self-dependency in a critical mass of the youth demographic. There needs to be a shift from the historical socialisation of young people that education will position them to get well-paying jobs. Now, more and more, we need to make them understand that education ought to prepare them to create jobs by harnessing their creativity, starting with small start-ups that the government and its agencies can hand-hold to achieve scale. Secondly, we need to teach young people that what they call ‘talent’ can be monetised and professionalised to make it profitable for them to engage in the activities they are passionate about, be it acting, music or sports.

This also calls for greater synergy between the national and county governments so that they collaborate in meeting the infrastructure and policies that will spur investments and open up the country for growth. Only in this way will we progressively create a country in which the young people, indeed all citizens, feel confident to live, work and invest in any part of the country.