 Many thanks for keeping us company and if you just tuned in this is why 254 discussion Monday where tonight we are talking about the youth in a legislative leadership and we want to understand why are we failing and if we haven't failed what do we need to do for us to be had and seen out there. I am joined by Neville Odiambu. He is the secretary general for Kenya University Students Union at Morani Hilaria 254 channel is the Twitter handle to use. Welcome to the program. Good evening, sir. How have you been? I am good. It's an honor to have you here. Please. All right. Now there's a summit ongoing in Kisumu and on the weekend they were speaking about the youth and it came out clearly that the youth or the youth rather have not been involved in the leadership per se and we want to understand which are some of these areas that the youth have not been involved and towards the end of last year and actually even now as you speak there is a debate going on whether we should have the referendum or not and then my first question would be what's the position of the youth in the constitutional review debate that is ongoing? Thank you very much, Hilaria. The position of the youth is that the youth will only support a constitutional review that in all angles will encompass the rights, the welfare and the general administration that entails youthful leadership. So if it is a constitutional review that will not encompass the youth, then the youth will not support it. All right. From where you seated, where do you think are some of the areas where the youth have not been involved, they are not there already? Number one is when it comes to the nomination. The nomination be it to any other government parastatals, to any political parties, the youth have not been involved. That is the first aspect. The second aspect is when it comes to our devolution or the counties. There are specific places or specific ministries, including in the ministry of youth, which we find being led by people who are not youths, so we feel the youths are kind of aligned. Yes. Now, what's the state of youth inclusion in governance in Kenya and what do you think is the perception to the majority if not all in terms of gender equality when it comes to job opportunities and representation like you just mentioned because I remember last year there was a position that was given to an elderly person because the youth are said to be corrupt. So what do you think we are corrupt and what is the state of inclusion to ask youth out here? The state of inclusion as it stands right now is very, very gross. Very, very gross in the aspect that it is very minimal. We are not particularly included in any sort of leadership or any sort of governance. Be it in the county, be it in the national government. Addressing the issue of gender, we are moving towards that. I believe where we were in 2013 is not exactly where we are right now. We are seeing a number of women coming up, picking up leadership positions, picking up leadership roles. One of them, even including my chairperson of Kuso, who is Anwaria, who just won the University of Nairobi elections, for a very long time the University of Nairobi has never had a female chairperson or president. So we are seeing the female gender coming up and moving forward by 2022 we are optimistic that the number would have gone high. You just mentioned her and remember she was supposed to be here but due to some commitments she couldn't make it. So discussion Monday we would have had Anwaria, the first female president of Nairobi University. Now we have seen policies coming up. Every politician who comes up during the election nearing period they say we will support the youth, we will do this. Now what are some of the policies gaps that are in place and you feel these have been undermining the youth? The youth will not be there because I see positions and mostly in our country as we speak the position that most of the youth will run for is for the MCA. They don't think the senator belongs to them neither do they think the governor belongs to them. So do you think we are undermining in terms of policies? Yeah, true. I think the first key role that we have to do in terms of the policy is amending our legislative policies. In such a manner that even a youth as me of maybe 23 years old is allowed to run for the president of this country. We have seen it happen in France. We have seen it happen in very countries that we will never imagine that it will happen. And when you speaking of policies are we talking about the how wealthy you should be because there is a certain amount you should have if you want to run for this position. Are you speaking of what you should have before you vie for this position in terms of education because like for governors you hear of the degree but we have a person who can be a good leader but they are only in diploma or even in certificate. That is exactly why I am saying Hillary we need to amend our legislative acts so that we have policies that favor the youths. Policies that could make the youths rise from the positions of MCAs to the position of senators and governors to the position of the president to even greater positions of international level. So I think that is the first basic thing that we need to do amend our legislative acts. And in your own opinion how should we amend this what should be done through a referendum, through demonstrations. No. About room meeting. Not really. Right. You see moving forward or even in the previous we have sent bills. We have petitioned the parliament to do this through our able member of parliament, through our able senators. And we optimistic that they are doing a great job and before 2022 we will have favorable laws that allow the youths to rise. You speak of the MPs and I see the young parliamentarians already in place. As we speak what do you think they have done to ensure that the youth and the policies that have been undermining them or everything that has been undermining the youth from prospering in terms of leadership has been put in place. What have they done? I wouldn't say they have done so much. They haven't done anything significant. And that is why we are pushing them hard because we feel they have not done anything significant. The example will even be the university amendment act which until today has not even been touched. All right. Which my audience I believe would want to know what does it entail? The university amendment act is the famously known duali act that introduced the electoral college system of voting or governance in the universities as opposed to the democratic process that we used to have before. Right. Yes. And what difference will it bring on board? The difference is it will be a vote by the students for the students with the students as opposed to right now where we only have a few delegates elected by the comrades or the students. They are after these comrades or delegates are expected to elect the student leaders who lead for tenure of one year. All right. What difference do you think these people will bring on board because I have seen people elected to higher positions and when they get there they forget who voted for them. And even for the youth I've heard cries from even musicians they have people in parliament they expected them to help them in terms of music but nothing has been done. What do you think these people who will be elected by the students who will bring the difference? The first thing that even before I answer your question is that the reason as to why we do not see a significant impact on the youth elected is the notion that the status quo that has been created in such a manner that if these youths get into these positions what they first look on to is wealth creation instead of service delivery. To your other question which was talking about the people who will be elected what difference will you bring after being elected by the students because they are the same people who will go there and they will still go to fill their pockets before they think of you who voted for them. Difference is a personal approach between the leader and his electorates. Right. You will not expect a leader of another constituent to bring an impact in your own constituency. So it is upon you and your electorates they manifesto that you had the agenda that you had for them. Right. You will not bring water where there is already water. You will not tamaka road where there is road. But maybe you can bring electricity where there was it. True. Yes. Before we move to a different matter who are there already who pushes our agenda speak of the parliament. Who gets the information out there? Who do we have for the youth? Right now we have the young parliamentarians association headed by Mwishimiwa Babuwino and Sakaja. I think so far we will say they are the ones who are giving us the information or pushing our agenda in the legislative arm of government. Alright. Let's speak about the youth fund that was put in place to ensure the youth will prosper because they have been telling us we shouldn't look into white collar jobs, we should look of how we can innovate something and work something out of it. But now what channels if created do you think will help to channel or to mitigate the problems that youth have been facing when going to access these funds because I don't expect them or it is in the public domain many youth especially people from the rural areas they will have something. If someone who is in the suburb someone for example has been brought up in Kibra they don't have a land they have nothing. But when they go there you should go a team. As an individual you can't be given a certain amount. How true is it out there and if it is there what should be done? Youth fund and wezo fund are the worst disasters that ever happened to us as youths. Why do you say so? The investment that have been done on these funds is worse than even the great corruption that we hear as we read on the newspapers. Why? Because these are funds that are supposed to build us as youths. These are funds that are supposed to help us grow as youths. These are funds that are supposed to make us be to the leadership position that others have been. These are funds that are supposed to push us forward and ensure we also get into the business sector. But the investment that has been happening to those funds has so far created an environment of non-confidence from the youths to these entities. And we are asking, actually in the position of KUSO, the Kenya University Students Organization, we are requesting the government and the president to look into this matter and ensure we have people of decorum, people who can fully represent the agenda of the youth in these government parastatals. Alright, now Neville, I'm speaking to Neville Odiampo. He's the secretary general for Kenya University Students Union. And as you can hear from him, many things need to be done to our youth out here. Now speaking of the Wezo fund and the youth fund as you have rightly put it, as we speak for now since its inception, do you think there is a good number out there that would point and say, actually this fund has worked, worried not for ABCD? That fund has not completely worked and I believe the youths out there do not have total confidence in it and there is nothing amicable to show because the people back in the rural or the youths back at the rural or back at the villages, some of them have never even heard of Wezo fund. The people in the suburbs, some of them have never even heard of the national youth fund. Sensitization has not been done and why is sensitization not being done so that embezzlement can be entertained. And therefore we believe that as youths we do not have a stake in these funds. Now what channels if put in place do you think they will bring affirmative and effective action to ensure there is proper use of these funds? The first key thing that needs to be done is to change the administration of these entities. And be given to the youth if they are in it? And be given to the youths. It is youth fund. Therefore the representation has to be by the youths. That is the first thing. The second thing is we are moving to vision 2030. It is only through the national youth fund that the digitalization has not been done. We want this fund to be accessed digitally. We do not have time as youths to line up and go and issue our forms to the national youth fund office. The digitalization will also produce the number of corruptions that we are hearing concerning these funds. Alright, let's talk about devolution and I am looking at some of the policies in the county level. Now how can county governments be more responsive to their youth in terms of the policies and ensure that they get up for the youth in their county? Because I am imagining of the 47 counties in our country. If every county would take care of, speak of their 100,000 youth, we wouldn't have a problem coming back to the city or moving to another county. What do you think should be done in the counties? The first thing that should be done in the counties is one to ensure that the elite youths in the counties are given government opportunities or county opportunities. For example, the CEC for youths, gender and maybe the other welfare has to be a representation of the youth. If this can be done in all counties, then I believe we can have a voice. We can have a voice. That voice will help us, number one, in avoiding the rural urban migration. But looking at it in a larger angle, since the inception of the devolution, we are having a significant number of youths absorbed and incorporated in our counties. And I believe maybe it's just because of the inception, but moving forward in the years to come, we are going to see a number of youths taking up leadership positions. As we wind up just last month, actually early this month, there was a proposed bill by the young parliamentarians coming up with enough because they say most of the youths do not participate in the public agendas because they are not there, they are going to internet and that app was coming up to ensure that we will have participation now. But then how do we ensure effective youth engagement in the public participation in terms of coming up with ideas and selling them to the young parliamentarians? The best way to ensure the effective participation of youth in any governance issue, in any leadership roles, the first thing is the digitalization of every aspect of this sensitization because the youths are more prone nowadays to the digital era. You can only find them on WhatsApp, you can only find them on Facebook, you can only find them on Twitter. Yeah, because they were saying calling the youth for a group meeting to be heard, no one will come. No one will come, no one will come because they have also created, them themselves have created a notion or a mentality that if youths are called to search for a, then they have to be given some stipends. Therefore the idea of the app is a noble cause and it is an idea that we as the Kenya University students organization fully support. Alright, now as we finish, do we have a political will in supporting the youth agenda? We do not really have a political will in supporting the youth agenda because the youth themselves have noted, gained the confidence to believe in their fellow youths. And how should that be put in place? That should be put in place by number one, having the confidence in your fellow brother, having the confidence in your fellow sister. Number three, by ensuring that we do not have the so-called youthful jealousy. In such a manner that you feel as a brother sends to power, then you feel so beat about it. That will not be there to propel you to support the youthful agenda. Alright, I would like you to give your final recommendations. Your camera is there if you could speak to the youth out there. I, as Neville Kodiambo, the secretary general of the Kenya University students organization, I believe it's time we pick up the leadership roles in this country, in our counties and in our constituencies. Let us support our fellow youths in rising to leadership positions. Let us build each other and let us build Kenya. Thank you and may God bless Kenya. Alright, many thanks for coming and sharing your comments and your opinions. Thank you so much. Past my regards to your comrades out there. Coming up next is why Masha Riki, please stay tuned and know what they have for you, Can Relbis and DJ Tieska will be here for you. My name is Dereva Hillary. See you on Friday. Have a good night.