AMERICAN AMBASSADOR SHOULD STOP IMPOSING ‘YOUTH LEADERS'

It is imperative and the wish of majority of Kenyans especially the youth to see a better future for our country. We want a nation free from corruption, free from impunity and free from bad and immoral leadership. The mentioned characteristics have epitomized Kenyan political leadership for a long time. We as Kenyans are duty bound to protect the future of this country through creating an opportunity for transformative leadership. Those who already hold power are hell-bent to cling onto it and hand over to the heirs of their choice. This culture of attempts by leaders handing over to certain people of their choice has hurt Kenya since the days of colonialism. It is this method of nurturing leadership that we have most times ended up being led by wrong people whose duty has always been to continue with the legacy of their predecessors. Currently, Kenya is going through tough times which call for leaders with a strong background and a good understanding of the needs for our country. This is the time that the young generation is challenged with a responsibility of nurturing a leadership that will transform this country into a well established economy for the future generations. this has become the greatest challenge for this generation and I appreciate the fact that many initiatives have come up to try and right what has been made wrong by our leaders who happened to hold the reigns of power in the past. It is laudable that even the international community is concerned about the future of Kenya and has thus decided to get involved in trying to take part in some of the processes that can help Kenya rid itself of bad leadership. However the most regrettable part is that the people who intend to help in the name of foreign support are doing worse that the bad leaders that we already have by trying to patronize the processes of change. It is a reflection of colonial mentality that some foreign ambassadors are trying to own the Kenyan youth by imposing what they imagine can be the leadership of the youth. They have entered into the fray of misusing the name of the youth to achieve their own selfish goals which are yet to be defined. They are now looking for the youth who are ready to be used without any question to implement what appears to be a foreign agenda. The hope that they could help the Kenyan youth overcome the political challenges has become a pipe dream. The foreign envoys especially the American embassy has decided to fall into ordinary Kenyan politics of gossip, cronyism, tribalism and sabotage as a way of showing their bosses in the US that they are working. They are spending millions of money in this country on what they claim to be pro reform projects by organizing bogus youth meetings to impress their political powers that they are working in the interest of bringing political reforms. So far, the Kenyan youth seem not to have any sincere friend, since while the current government officials are using the Kenya youth name to advance the culture of tokenism by pretending to be appeasing the youth through small institutional tokens like the kazi kwa vijana project and the youth enterprise development fund, the foreign embassies are using the name of the Kenyan youth in justifying their expenditures on what they claim to reforms on the interest of African governments whereby Kenya is included in this group. The same embassies have decided to use the money to impose people who know little about political leadership. It’s noticeable that the agenda of the US in this country is not to nurture true leadership, but to create supposed projects for supposed reforms without well intended result. its time for the Kenyan youth to have their own time to identify leaders and not American appointed projects sitting in hotels under American ambassador’s sponsorship and masquerading as leaders of the youth. Those gatherings are for programme officers of NGOs who are driven by the thirst for donor money and know little about political transformation in Kenya . Kenyan youth need support to work towards realization for true change; we don’t need donor sponsored circuses claiming to be representing us. Kenyan youths already know their leaders and are not ready for any impositions driven by greed for donor funds whose full agenda is yet to be established. Foreigners are welcome to help us but they are not welcome to impose political novices into what is supposed to be youth leadership. I support president Obama’s Policy of helping democratically challenged countries like Kenya to advance reforms, but we refuse any imposition of leaders on the Kenyan youth. FWAMBA NC FWAMBA Box 1176 , BUNGOMA, +254721779445