Dr. Tajudeen killed in car crash: Message of Condolence

By Cyprian Orina Nyamwamu, NCA-NCEC

Dear Compatriots and comrades,

On behalf of the The National Convention Assembly (NCA), The Partnership for Change and on my behalf, I wish to share the sadness and shock that has engulfed us on learning of the tragic death of Taju. We learned of the tragic death of Taju from a message Kepta Ombati sent us from Dar at 7 a.m. this morning. This is shocking beyond belief.

Taju, was one of the greatest Pan-Africanist standing. NCA/NCEC tremendously benefited from his wisdom and input over the years.

I knew Taju in 1996 when I met him in Kampala as a student leader of the Kenya Polytechnic Students Union. Then, Taju as Secretary General of the Pan-Africanist Movement was powerful and really the icon of the African vision and leadership. My encounter with him left a permanent impression on me. In 1999, after the death of our Mwalimu Julius Nyerere, Taju was with us at the Wasifu Nyerere and since then he has practically turned kenya into his base for pushing the liberation agenda forward for Africa. In 2005, Taju working with his fellow Panafricanists including Dr. Willy Mutunga helped us get Prof. Issa Shivji to address our NCA fifth Plenary Session at Ufungamano House. Taju was simply outstanding.

The great Nigerian he was espoused the spirit of the continent. Those who worked even more closely with like Betty Kaari Murungi, Houghton Irungu, Mwaura Kaara, Mwangi Waituru and the whole team at UNMC Against Poverty and the MDGs, the whole African gender justice and indeed the Social Justice movement shall miss the leadership, inspiration and indefatigable embodiment of our struggle for free, prosperous and just societies in African and the world over.

The Kenyan Youth Movement and the Grass roots based social justice movements including the NYC, Bunge La mwananchi, the Transitional justice and the groups working with communities around land such the Social Economic Rights Foundation, Action Aid etc will find the gap Taju has left simply daunting.

When The Urgent Action Fund Africa co-convened last year the major African region Conference on Sexual and Gender Based Violence, I recall Taju illuminating the room with his originality, fervour and buoyant energy. How I Love the way he filled us with a smile and hope.

I am simply lost for what to say comrades. Let us just call for the Union of African states and the scrupulous delivery on the MDGs to honor Taju's efforts.

I will miss him.. My tears are with his family.

Pole Kenya, Pole Nigeria, Pole Africa.

Cyprian Orina Nyamwamu
NCA-NCEC

National Youth Convention: A Call to Action by the Young People of Kenya

Dear Friends,

Our country is in a total disarray. Its now Official. The Coalition
Government has made Kenya a FAILED STATE. We got to do something about it.

The National Youth Convention would like to call upon all young Kenyans to rise up and save Kenya from the mismanagement and total confusion that the Political class have resorted to.

The Women have been able to catch the attention of both the local and international communities in calling for abstinence not for the sake of it but for the evil bedeviling this country. Their efforts must be lauded.

The pressure must now be sustained all the way to the ballot day.

Steps to Act on;

We would like to start national activities that are going to set the agenda for discussion all the households in the country on the reform agenda. All means at our disposal should be used. Initiatives at regional provincial and district levels need to be given support. Do not allow your member of parliament to come to the constituency and go Scot free without addressing the issues that are affecting the people. Our leaders MUST be held accountable for the promises they made during the last general election and the livelihoods of all Kenyans need to have improved given the promises.

We need to petition the government on its lack of goodwill to address the ever increasing youth unemployment, massive killings by the state and agents of the state, illegal gangs and thugs, the governance crisis, the status of IDPs and the myriads of challenges that Kenyans are going through now.

Alternative Leadership

It is apparent that the current leadership is not going to protect its people even from external aggression as is being seen by the Forces from Uganda in the case of Migingo and now all the beacons separating Kenya and Uganda on the West Pokot Border have been removed by the Uganda Military and the Uganda Security Forces have been deployed to take over our land.

The Young People need to now arise and present themselves to the people so that they can be elected to take over from the current octogenarians and corrupt politicians.

The NYC calls upon those who are interested in Leadership at Parliamentary, Civic, and professional Bodies to present their intent so that we can start profiling them. The intents should be sent to convener@nyckenya.org

A criteria shall be reached at on democratic process on the NYC forum. The Young Leaders are being called upon to organize for activities at local level that will be coordinated in accordance to ensure the messages are passed on to the leadership. We need to start preparing now for the massive groundswell. Each strategy and tactic will be released at a time.

The messages are ready. We now need to work together in holding this government accountable and finally taking over leadership.

The challenge is huge, the problem is real, the road ahead will be rough and tough. We will either decide to support the same politicians or make that decision to remove them. Our generation, MUST fulfill its mission for this country. We have the numbers. We have the energy. We have one common enemy. Let us take the POWER back to the PEOPLE. PEOPLE .... POWER.

The Forum is open to your suggestions before we settle on the national day that we are going to launch our Onslaught on the current regime.

Please let us be honest with each other and come up with a clear way forward. Vijana Tujipange..... People .... Power.

Emmanuel Dennis
Convener

Bashing without researching the Kenya Youth Enterprise Development Fund

This morning, we received a comment from an anonymous reader on a post Kenya Youth Enterprise Fund: Show us the money - "tusiharibu wakati bure!"

“Anonymous said...
This idea of bashing things without reearching should just stop. Why do we bash the youth fund even without endeavouring to find out how it works? Do we expect the fund to put labels on the foreheads of those it loans money?

Let us take time to study processes. Of course it is much easier to criticise.”

Here is our response to Anonymous:

Anonymous,

These are the researched FACTS regarding the youth fund:

1. The process of accessing the fund remains an obstacle to youth entrepreneurs. Forcing the youth to form “groups” in order to access Kshs. 50,000 is not in tune with the times. Many youth entrepreneurs are sole-proprietors and compelling them to dilute their shareholding in their enterprise is simply unfair.

2. For those individual entrepreneurs who can access upto 5 million shillings from financial institutions, they too are faced with a credit worthy assessment system that does not take into account the innovativeness of young enterprises. When they approach these banks they continue to face the same stereotypical and patronising attitudes as well as a perceived lack of credibility from the loan officers. Furthermore, they are also supposed to have bank accounts of at least six months standing.

3. The youth fund in its current form does not go far enough in building the capacity of young entrepreneurs to make their businesses growth oriented and market competitive. The fund should apart from holding short workshops for prospective loan recipients, conduct a nationwide programme of ensuring that young businesses can operate effectively and prosper. They could even go further by insisting that government procurement processes take into account youth enterprises for small tenders.

4. Research has proven that small business owners have a natural aversion to exposing their business to risk via debt financing. This has also had an adverse impact on the number of youth accessing the fund. The Youth Fund has done nothing to work on changing this state of affairs. For those interested in these studies, we shall happily provide citations.

5. Finally, just the process at the constituency level for accessing the fund is untenable, particularly in urban areas. The process of registration of groups is riddled with bureaucratic barriers. Secondly the number of banked youth is small in a country where 10 million Kenyans remain un-banked. The M-Pesa system has become a popular money transfer and financial management system solely because it uses mobile phones that reduce the time it takes in normal banking and money transfer processes, something that is attractive for young entrepreneurs who are time constrained. Third, the process of getting an ID card is similar to the group registration process. The Provincial Administration, specifically the local area chiefs, need to facilitate and support youth to acquire such documentation. Fourth in urban areas, getting to know who apart from meeting the local youth officer, Social Development Assistant or the Secretary of the Locational Social Development Committee is a tedious process. Imagine the sole-proprietor who has to close their kiosk every time they go looking for these officials, and probably has to queue for a long time waiting to meet them or even doesn’t manage to meet them. The opportunity cost is too high for such a small business who lose revenues they could have acquired in this time.

Now since we have been accused of criticising without merit, Anonymous, if you had really read this as well as other posts (http://yipeorg.blogspot.com/2008/11/opening-public-procurement-door-to.html and http://yipeorg.blogspot.com/2008/10/youth-and-women-enterprise-development.html) you would know that we have in the past suggested several reforms for the youth fund process:

1. Respecting individual youth entrepreneurs and their efforts so they do not have to form “groups” just to get the loans.
2. Ensure the financial institutions recognise the innovativeness of young enterprise in their loan application assessment process.
3. Build youth capacity to create and manage business by undertaking free training workshops that also take into account the time constraints of youth entrepreneurs. Also ensuring a level playing field for young enterprises as compared with other enterprises in the same industry.
4. Make the loan products attractive to young entrepreneurs, maybe by diversifying into short-term equity based financing.
5. Finally facilitate the process of accessing the fund by removing the need for so many stamps and signatures required.

If you still feel that this is “bashing without researching” then there’s really nothing else that can be said.

Youth Interactive Portal for Enterprise (Yipe.org)

Audacity of Hope: Lessons for Kenyan Youth

Depending on where you are, you either heard a lot about Africa Youth Day or nothing at all.

The day which passed with little fanfare had the theme of "Peace, Solidarity and Positive Values promoted by the African Youth" which is ironic because in Kenya, this year has been marked by youth unrest. Starting off with the post-election violence where the youth were mobilised to forment chaos upto the school unrest where secondary schools were torched.

In the aftermath of the student crisis, a sense of frustration and hopelessness emerged amongst the youth. Frustration because their opinions were neither sought nor heard in matters that concern them, and hopelessness in an education system that drums in information but does not guarantee a job at the end.

But there is hope and today marks a great day where youth power to be the engines of change has resulted in a candidate, Barack Obama as a presidential contender. His campaign has shown what when they put their mind to it, and form a united front, the youth can indeed dictate who will lead them.

Kenyan youth can now stand up and be counted. Like the youth campaigners for Obama, they can refuse to be passive and be instrumental in moving their own agenda. The Waki Report in graphic detail talks about how these same young Kenyans were used in settling political and ethnic scores of others. For the ones that lost their lives, or the ones who murdered, raped or looted all in the name of politics, where are their politicians now? What were they fighting for?

The Obama campaign has shown that the youth have taken matters into their own hands. Obama is their candidate and reflects their ideals and understands their needs. To make sure he is elected they have volunteered their time, efforts and resources to make sure that there is true change in America.

The word “audacity” means to be daring, bold, courageous and brave. From the moment he declared his candidacy, the Obama campaign has reflected these values.

The lesson we can learn here is that true change can only come if we believe that we are the drivers of change and are bold enough to step up to the starting line, and the run. It is now in the hands of the youth to be proponents of a new political system, the system as written in the book Audacity of Hope (2006) that “we have a stake in one another, and that what binds us together is greater than what drives us apart, and that if enough people believe in the truth of that proposition and act on it, then we might not solve every problem, but we can get something meaningful done”.