A group of 200 youths from Garissa County have come together to address the challenges facing them and educate their colleagues on the dangers of radicalization, rising cases of extrajudicial killings and what they term as 'political alienation'.
Addressing the press in Garissa Town after convening their first meeting at the government guest house, the youth, led by Hassan Abdille, said that the key challenges they want to address include lack of identification cards, drug and substance abuse, run away crime and the high levels of unemployment among school leavers.
Abdille says that most of the youth in Garissa County are experiencing challenges in acquiring ID cards as the vetting process has proven a 'radiculous' one.
"Majority of the youth in this County are lacking ID cards which is the most challenging issue at hand. This is because the vetting process is a bit hard for them," said Abdille.
He further argues that this has pushed the high number of unemployed youth without ID cards to engage in some harmful activities such as radicalization.
"Since the unemployed youth without ID cards are large in number, some involve themselves in radicalization activities which is very harmful," added Abdille.
The group's Secretary Albishar Noor said that they intend to educate the youth against being used by politicians to cause chaos and unnecessary unrest among communities and clans.
"We would like to educate the youth so that they are not used by politicians especially during elections so that they do not cause chaos among our communities and clans," said Albishar.