from: Joshua Odhiambo Nyamori of Nyanza Youth Coalition.

What is the National Youth Forum? A youth driven national space aimed at breaking new ground for Kenyan youth aspirations to build a new nation from the grassroots.

Who is the National Youth Forum? Brings together over 20,000 grassroots youth organizations and youth initiatives with a subscriber base of over 1.5 million youth spread throughout the country and across religious, political, gender, cultural and ethnic divides.

Why a National Youth Forum? To build synergy amongst the Kenyan youth organizations so as to increase the impact of the activities of each organization by coordination and strategizing together.

Successes:

On 17th November 2009, on the same day the Committee of Experts on Constitutional Review (CoE) released the Harmonized Draft Constitution (HDC) for public debate and input, NYF convened a National Youth Conference (NYF 2010: Youth Voices on Reforms) that brought together over 700 youth leaders from the 210 constituencies, higher learning institutions, labour unions and religious institutions who, among other things: reaffirmed the commitment of young people to the logical constitutional review process as envisaged in the road-map; and developed an agenda and an action plan that informed meaningful involvement of youth in the remaining phases of the review process.

NYF used its wide networks to distribute over one million copies of the HDC and engage youth in debate of its contents. This led to the convening of ten regional youth leaders’ consultative workshops in different parts of the country to collect views of young people on the HDC. These views were collated at a retreat of NYF leadership and rapporteurs of the regional workshop into a joint youth position paper that was presented to the CoE as the NYF Memorandum.

Upon release of the Proposed Constitution of Kenya (PCK) by the CoE, the membership of NYF, jointly and at individual levels, distributed over a million copies of the PCK and engaged young people in debate of its provisions at grassroots levels all over the country.

NYF convened televised Town Hall meetings in three locations just before the referendum, each carried live on a National Television Network with interactive simulcasts for two other locations and streamlined on the internet through Yu tube, so as to provide the National Youth Forum with the visibility nationally to mobilize the youth of Kenya to support the reform agenda, including civic education on the proposed constitution, out of enlightened self-interest. The televised Town Hall meetings, that not only brought together 1800 youth leaders directly, but also an estimated audience of 4 million indirectly – also brought to the fore discussions of the important issues facing the youth of Kenya and put them in context of the opportunities presented in the New Constitution and the broader reform agenda.

NYF is in the process of holding radio youth town hall meetings, aired on locale vernacular radio stations – in all of the 47 counties to give grassroots youth to engage amongst themselves and with the NYF leadership and other key stakeholders on role and opportunities for young people in the new constitutional dispensation. The radio town hall meetings also serve to organize grassroots youth to establish NYF county structures.

The NYF have brought together/mobilized 15 national/ regional youth-serving organizations/ partner youth organizations and over 20000 grassroots youth organizations with a subscriber base of 1.5 million. The organizations are now cognizant of their partners’ activities due to coordination efforts at the local, regional and national levels. Therefore, their activities have a greater impact and the youth they serve have an amplified voice.

Though its activities that have endeavored to accommodate and respect the cultural, religious, gender, disability and ideological diversity amongst the youth, NYF has contributed significantly to inter-ethnic peace and reconciliation dialogue and building of the culture of national cohesion and integration. The activities have also profiled and built confidence amongst youth leaders that they have the capability of engaging and influencing policy issues at local and national levels

NYF Founding Philosophies and Core Objectives

Breathe Peace: NYF will support youth to breathe peace into Kenyan communities by transforming the culture of impunity and building the rule of law. NYF will provide civic education opportunities, develop a policy platform to address youth security needs, develop a peace platform to shun violence and address the security concerns of youth.

Bring prosperity: NYF will bring prosperity to youth to advocate and lobby for people-friendly economic policies and change. NYF will fill gaps of information that youth need to be effective advocates and develop a youth platform on economic change.

Bridge differences: NYF will bridge differences and build a culture of national unity and solidarity by building inter-ethnic, interclass and interreligious tolerance & trust through dialogue and joint action creating a vibrant communication hub for youth across the country.

Brew new leadership: Lastly, NYF will brew a new kind of leadership, servant leadership rather than master leadership, and develop and promote a new creed of leadership to overcome tribalism, corruption and impunity. NYF will develop and nurture emerging youthful leaders to be the vanguard for change, entrench new values of leadership & integrity in youth organizations and in the governance of Kenya; expand opportunities to transform youth leaders based on a culture of selfless service and transform the mindset of young people.