Towards a county youth policy document

Youth issues today seem to be endless and measures to address these issues are sometimes futile. These issues  such as unemployment, drug and substance abuse, access to education among others are further given a general  national overview without consideration of social, economic and political grass root aspects, therefore prescribing  to them general solutions which are sometimes vain.

In order to get down to the particulars of these issues, youth representatives and other stakeholders convened  in Nyeri to discuss the specifics of the issues that affect the youth in the county.

The meeting which was organized by Youth Agenda sought to support the formulation of a county specific youth policy document which will back the constitution in ensuring that key challenges facing Nyeri youth are  tackled effectively. It provided a forum for issues affecting the county youths to be identified and discussed at length.

During the meeting it came out very clearly that being a youth in Nyeri county comes with a lot of opportunities and challenges with the later seemingly taking precedence.

That nyeri county is perhaps the breadbasket of the country and also has a huge cash crop investment is undisputable, however this does not make the challenges the youth face any less severe and in fact, recent media reports indicate that Drug and Substance Abuse may very well quickly become a national disaster.

In addition to the challenges we all know, there is an increasing sense of despair among the county youth which if not nipped in the bud soon will lead to a lot of hopelessness.

The meeting therefore brought together sober minded representatives in a participatory process that advocated for "youth solutions for youth problems". Many documents end up shelved because the are full of assumptions and prescriptions from policy makers , by involving the youth in this process it will ensure the document will speak to its intended audience.

The document will identify key challenge areas and recommend policy interventions, it will also envisage youth of the future.

This meeting was just but a primary step towards in a long  process which will later see the document go for public participation after which it shall be  considered the county planning and guiding tool in as far as youth issues go.