Kenyan youths have lately been reduced to online bullies thanks to the ever available online political platforms. It is these platforms especially in Facebook and Twitter that have helped spread the seeds of tribalism among many Kenyans.
Their role in governance has been reduced to opening a WhatsApp/Facebook groups for Bwana Mheshimiwa, during campaigns, and use the platform to shout yourselves hoarse insulting those with divergent opinions, ostensibly to mobilize votes for your candidate.
Once their benefactors win the elections, the youth are dropped like a hot potato. They are discarded, abandoned, and left stranded like a dog whose owner died in cyclone Kenneth
Whenever they attempt reaching these politicians, they are accused of being idlers and beggars, on a handout mission, also called “gonya” in dholuo. They are accused of doing drugs, being lazy and being a nuisance
It is only after five years that Mheshimiwa will drive back to the village, to hire the same youth as his “pointmen”, and their role, as usual, will be to smell around for any deaths in the village, so that Bwana Mheshimiwa can land like vulture, to launch his manifesto, amidst the tears of the bereaved, before driving back to the city
They are also very ready to be organized into vigilante and armies to attack a rival candidate or members of another community. The youth themselves are their own worst enemies. Who will save them from themselves?
They are more like a wheelbarrow. They lack the will and the capacity to move on their own. They are ever ready to be pushed to the direction and pace of the pusher and when elections go, they are abandoned, and they stay at the very spot waiting for another pusher to emerge for a repeat of the cycle
Instead of identifying with candidates who may have programs accommodative of their challenges, they run to stretch their palms around the Prados for handouts
They flock around cartels with billions of cash and as usual, these candidates thrive in their despair and will always do everything possible to retain the status quo
Politicians who mobilize their tribes/sub tribes/clans to vote for them also forget to come back to the same clans, to bring them their share of the Arror, Itare and Kamwarer dam money etc, but they are mobilized to defend the graft
The youth should know that once they are armed with education and numbers, they do not need any other thing to tilt the world to their liking and or stop the sun at any particular spot they wish
Wake up and smell the coffee! Its high time youths say no to these kinds of politics and liberate their minds from the same. Politicians will use you then dump you when their objectives are met. Say no to divisive politics