Youth leaders drawn from the five Nyanza counties have strongly opposed the on-going national youth policy review being conducted by the National Youth Council (NYC).
The leaders claimed that the move to review the policy was ill-advised as most of the statutes therein were largely unimplemented, and therefore called for enactment before an overhaul was called.
The leaders represented youth from Kisumu, Homabay, Siaya, Kisii and Migori counties and had converged in Kisumu for the National Youth Policy Review.
Participants in the forum faulted the NYC for what they termed as being inconsiderate insisting that it was unreasonable for them to be called to review a national policy in just one day.
“We are also wondering why the media is not being involved as a stakeholder in informing the citizenry that the policy is being reviewed. The exercise is almost over nationally and not a single advert or even publicity poster has been released to the public domain,” claimed the leaders.
The policy review is being conducted nationally. The Nyanza region was the 12th stopover and on Monday (today), the exercise will be concluded in Kakamega.
The review is led by ACT Institute Management Consultant Julius Wakubwa. After the review, the draft recommendations will be validated, and the approved ones will be forwarded to the state Department of Youth Affairs for adoption as a policy.
Another reason that the youth leaders gave in opposing the move is that the NYC policies were gazetted in 2007, and were set to be reviewed in 2012 but this was never realized, and reasons for the delay have never been communicated.
“We underscore the importance of policy review, however, the existing ones are not handicapped, they just call for strict adherence and implementation and then a review can be conducted to evaluate what has worked and what needs adjustments,” stated the participants.
Raymond Ochieng, the CEO to the NYC who addressed the youth, however, stated that the 2007 policies were overdue and needed criticism in order to align them with the devolved system of governance.
Ochieng’ added that the review process was also informed by the fast-changing societal dynamics and emerging issues affecting the youthful population which was never factored in during the formulation of the 2007 policy.
“I will take it upon myself to ensure that all the grievances raised concerning the implementation of youth policies are amicably addressed. This will also go a long way in assisting the government to deliver on its big four agenda which its achievement is heavily pegged on a motivated and empowered youth,” said Ochieng’.