Pawa Initiative programme’s manager Shittemy Khamadi during a public forum in Likoni, Mombasa. [Photo/ Maxwell Ngala].
Pawa Initiative, a youth-oriented non-governmental organization has launched a research to define the voting pattern of youth and women in the August 8 general election.The research is aimed at coming up with strategies to enhance youth and women participation in fighting for elective posts in future elections.Pawa Initiative programme’s manager Shittemy Khamadi said the organisation cannot launch an awareness programme to enable women and youth vie for various elective posts if it does not fully understand their voting patterns and how the two groups participated in the last general election.The organisation, which is also known as Pawa 254 is planning to roll out awareness programmes in 2018 to empower youth and women in the Coast region to fight for different elective posts and actively participate in party politics.“We want more women and youth in leadership, that is why we need to establish how youth and women voted in the August 8 general election in all the six Coast counties,” said Khamadi.The youth activist who ventured into gender parity programmes last year said the organisation will be conducting forums in the region to enable women and youth meet their peers in leadership so that they can encourage them to join politics.“We should start from somewhere before we attain our goals, five years is not a long period of time that is why we should start now,” he said.Khamadi, however, criticised a section of political parties for sidelining women and youth in matters of leadership, adding that there is need for the two groups to be fully involved in political issues.The research will be conducted in Taita Taveta, Mombasa, Kwale, Tana River, Kilifi and Lamu counties.It will focus on possible challenges and how to solve such challenges with an aim of enabling women and youth to venture into politics.