The Kenyan Youth!

The term youth is as complicated as those who are associated with it. It is often interchanged with adolescent, teenager or even young adult. These terms basically mean the same thing but occasionally differentiated. Generally, youth refers to a period between childhood and adulthood.

Youth is also a state of mind as it is associated with a certain way of doing things and that is why it is possible to find individuals past their youth being described as youthful or some taking their youth too far by how they carry themselves.

Being youth has also been associated with certain traits and behaviour: both positive and negative. The youth are supposed to be imaginative, innovative, courageous and independent in the mind and have often been referred to as future leaders.

The youth have also been associated with negative behaviours such as violence, recklessness, untrustworthy, unpatriotic among others.

THE KENYAN YOUTH.

Youth in many parts of the world have been recognized for all the wrong reasons and Kenya is not an exception. The majority of the people in Kenya jails are youth. The Kenyan youth is idle, frustrated, rowdy,lazy and evil. The Kenyan youth has adopted a culture of violence and destruction. These youth are frustrated and overwhelmed by the challenges that the face in their daily lives. They do not own property and have not been offered opportunities to enable them own property and therefore are ready to destroy without a second thought. The are some of the consequences of failing to cater for the needs of youth and providing opportunity for them in national development.

Youth involvement in conflict and violence is a global problem, but what sets the Kenyan youth apart is their readiness to kill and destroy not for their own cause but for others."Fighting other people’s wars". (Post election violence)

CHALLENGES.

Unemployment ranks highest among the challenges facing the youth in this age of globalization, labour flexibility and rapid social change. Unemployment among the youth remains 2 to 3times that of their elder folks constituting some 40% of global unemployment.This has been because of discrimination in the form of work experience in employment requirements,illiteracy due to the limited opportunities in accessing higher education and the lack of confidence in youth leadership by the Kenyan society.

Discrimination is not only in employment but in social development. Most people view the youth as anti social and unpatriotic to their country. The police have a negative attitude towards the youth and this has led to arbitrary arrests of youths and mistreatment by the same. The youth are always the first suspects when a crime has been committed.

Youth conflict is therefore a societal process rather than a problem of immature, confused or troubled young people. This dilemma occurs when societies fail to separate their young to protect and prepare them as they mature yet take advantage of their separate status to engage them in activities that serve society. The dilemma of youth is that this separate phase can be limiting as well as nurturing. When separated by their status as minors, young people may receive protections like the right to education or freedom from forced labour, but they are also excluded from participation in citizenship activities,like voting,that exert some determination over the future of the society. The point is that youth youth feel as part of society and they should be allowed to play their role and feel important and have a sense of responsibility to the society.

( International perspectives on youth conflict and development. ColetteDAIUTE, Zeynep Beykont, Craig Higson-Smith, Larry Nucci. OxfordUni.press. pg 12-13)

Assumptions about their innocence or inability to understand the complexities of social life may unwittingly lead young people to exclusion from activities where they could contribute or learn. When excluded from full participation as citizens,they also become tools or scapegoats for others purposes.

The youth in Kenya lack an identity that unites them towards a common goal. They lack role models and a vision because in their current situation, they don’t see a bright future ahead but tough times ahead of them. This has made the youth to adopt foreign cultures and behaviour which is not necessarily beneficial to them and most of what they adopt is negative.

Media and communication technologies have not helped much. Youths in Kenya today have access to foreign soap operas, foreign lifestyles through television and the internet, music and news around the world which further expands the options available. However, the youth in Kenya have not used the media for their benefit; e-commerce, the virtual classroom, cyber-democracy etc. The youth can use new opportunities for democratic and community participation, for creativity, self-expression and development, expansion of knowledge, global perspective on issues thereby supporting diversity, difference and debate.However, majority of youth in Kenya have used the media and telecommunications to the erosion of traditional values and authority, the rise of individualized and privatized lifestyles increasingly dependent on the economics of consumerism tending to undermine national culture and national media regulation. Rap culture is ingrained in Kenya especially among the youth in urban centres who want to be associated with rap culture. This has made them adopt careless lifestyles and an aggressive behaviour that is common with rap artists in the U.S These include gangster profiles that land most of them into trouble, expensive foreign mode of dressing and uncouth dressing modes. Males would want to sag their trousers n show their underwear like their rap role models do and females have continues to dress as brief as they possibly could.

This has been compounded by engaging in high risk lifestyles by the youth. Alcoholism, drugs and sex has become fashionable among the youth and this has derailed them from the reality of life as most of them end up dropping out of schools and engaging in crime to be able to afford drugs and alcohol as well go to social joints to “have fun”. The perception is that fun is when one drinks excessively and dares the world by challenging the police, over speeding, destruction and arrogance.

The youth in Kenya are exploited and misused. Some individuals have taken advantage of the youth situation to use the youth to do their dirty work. Politicians are the majority of this group

WHO IS TO BLAME?

Parents cannot escape from this because they have failed to stand up for the youth as they are busy in their careers hoping that that the youth will get a place in a future role never seems to come. Parents today have become very busy and neglected their kids or their role to discipline their children and establish healthy relationships with their children.Most children grow up without the nurturing and guidance from their parents and when they grow up to their youth, they become independent minded and try to make independent choices without proper training on how to make wise decisions and choices.

According to William Glasser’s choice theory, each one of us can control only his own thoughts and actions. By exerting a great deal of coercion we can temporarily control the actions of other people but we can never control their thoughts. And as soon as any person is free of us, as when he or she is out of sight, he or she can do anything he pleases. How far he will deviate from what you want him to do will depend on the strength of your relationship. The stronger it is, the more he will behave the way you want him to when he is on his own.

Who should Regulate the Media in Kenya?

The Kenyan media has come under attack in the recent past for its conduct and alleged lack of proper regulation. Despite these attacks and accusations especially from the political class, it remains the most trusted institution by the people.

Why is the media generating such sentiments and why does it get the overwhelming support from the citizens as opposed to the government?

The media in Kenya is quickly transforming from the conservative nature in the past to a more liberal institution concerned with social progress. In the past, a liberal media was considered unhealthy as it encouraged mass participation and government scrutiny which was incompatible with the conditions at that time. It was widely perceived that liberalized media could undermine weak and fragile states and that freedom of speech and information access should be restricted in favor of support to the state in some instances. This was coupled with complete state support with the abstract idea of supporting the state meaning supporting the regime in power It was very risky to the journalists and the media could not survive the harsh implications of any signs of contempt.

Today, the media see social change as a fundamental principle of authority and oppose any form of censorship that limits free expression. They believe that the sole purpose of government is its effectiveness and have boldly gone out to ensure that government is accountable to the people. These are ideals that the Kenyan people relate with and want to associate with hence the overwhelming support from the general population.

Any functioning democracy is founded in a communication sector that functions adequately, allows informed public opinion to develop freely. Michael Kunczic says: In a democracy, journalists have a special political purpose and responsibility. To him, democracy is above all, a culture of dialogue in which opinions of dissenters is respected and intellectual debates is allowed to safeguard democracy, yet every society has an elite that is the most powerful in politics, an elite that is most powerful in business and in common, they do not want their affairs critically observed. He says corruption and abuse of power are most effectively fought by Democratic journalism.

In their practice of democratic journalism, journalists must be guided by ethical standards that establish norms for good and fair behavior. Fair play dictates that journalists should never publish anything negative about anyone without an opportunity to reply. The alternative press in Kenya is notorious for publishing half baked and biased stories without regard to media ethics. Any kind of work can provide an arena for developing personal integrity or not. Journalists must avoid impropriety and the appearance of impropriety as well as any conflict of interest and should neither accept anything nor pursue any action that might seem to compromise their integrity.

This is no escaping the question of ethics in journalism but calls for measures to address these issues. Journalists have a responsibility to the people to ensure that they are independent impartial, practice fair play and report and publish information that is true and accurate. The answer in this does not lie in government regulation but in effective self regulation. Journalists are responsible to readers, listeners and viewers and not the government, media owners or commercial enterprises.

Freedom of the press belongs to the people is it must be defended against encroachment or assault from any quarter, public or private, but at the same time, the media has to be able to regulate itself effectively and be able to address complaints against it and offer redress. In Lichtenberg’s view, the freedom of the press should be contingent upon the extent to which it promotes certain core values. In circumstances where the media suppresses diversity and impoverishes public debate, the arguments for the freedom of the press turn against it and regulation becomes an option

Through the initiative of the Media Industry Steering Committee, an ethical code was established to ensure that international practice standards are adopted locally and the media industry is subjected to public scrutiny.

In the quest for self regulation, the media should not act unilaterally but engage in open minded consultations with appropriate colleagues as well as dispassionate outside parties such as experts, lawyers, ethicists. The government should only come in to enforce the media ethics approved the regulating institution and facilitate their work to serve the public interest and result in the greater good.

We must stand for the media not by supporting it when it is wrong, but by seeking ways to improve it.