Opening

Sen. Naisula Lesuuda opened the meeting by welcoming the participants and different youth organisations. She highlighted the relevance and importance of the political participation of the youth for the functioning of the Kenyan political system, but moreover for the future of the country. In addition Sen. Naisula Lesuuda by presenting the Youth in the parliament herself underlined the crucial part the youth plays in the Kenyan society by presenting 70 per cent of the population.

Presentations

The Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung (KAS) was presented by programm coordinater Jane Murutu, who welcomed the present MP’s and representatives by highlightning the interest of KAS to work with the Kenya Young Parlamentarian Association. Moreover, she described the projects, topics and funding possibilities that the country programm of KAS offers.

The second presentation was held by Gilford Kimathi and introduced the premier youth organization The Youth Agenda (YA) that pursues the aim of a “just, equitable and progressive society in which young people fully enjoy social, economic and political rights and opportunities”. The presentation underlined the most important aspects and urgent issues of the work of youth organizations but also formulated important questions towards the politicians important for the future design of cooperation. In this regard the aim of the consultative meeting was set, to exchange knowledge in both ways from the grassroots level of the organizations with the parliamentary level represented by the MP’s.

KYPA Strategic Plan

After a short break, Mr. Washington Makodingo an expert in Human Rights and Governance Issues, introduced the KYPA strategic plan, which will be launched mid of March with which he opened up the plenary discussion for future cooperation between the KYPA and the youth organizations. Both sides agreed on the aim to establish close ties in working procedures. In order to facilitate the important knowledge transfer, which both participating sides consider as highly relevant, the youth organizations need to pass on information towards the MP’ level to enable them to adjust the legal frame for youth development. Therefore, consultative meetings shall be held regularly. KAS shall be involved in the process and offered to host the consecutive meetings.

Universal Periodic Review of the Youth Sector Report

The afternoon session was facilitated by Gilford Kimathi in cooperation with the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights (KNCHR). As the KNCHR is about to conduct the research for the next Universal Periodic Review of the Youth Sector Report it was taken advantage of the many youth organisations present in the meeting. It was decided that the voice of the youth organisations is crucial for the outcome of the report and therefore a strategy of how to coordinate the process was discussed. Gilford Kimathi representing the Youth Agenda volunteered to coordinate the information collected by the other youth organisations and to compose the information into a draft report which will be discussed with the stakholders before passing it on to KNCHR. This is an important step to get the youth involved and to get their issues published. That way information will be made available to other stakeholders dealing with the youth to be considered in their planning. The meeting officially closed at 3pm but was followed by further informal discussions among the participants.