For youth, the tomorrow promised is here

By KYALO KIMEUPosted Monday, January 31 2011 at 18:16

I have watched with amusement as old and tired politicians fall over themselves trying to justify why they should cling to power, and not allow young people to take up the challenge.

A few years ago, the same politicians were heatedly urging the old guard to vacate office on the basis of age, never mind their credentials.

If they are true nationalists, democrats, and visionaries, they would not be bothered about the youth wave sweeping the country.

President Kibaki was not worried about the generation change talk in 2002, nor did it scare him in 2007 because of his solid credentials.

Kenyan voted him for twice, ignoring the younger politicians. The same Kenyans are now saying it is time the old guard joined President Kibaki in retirement. They want the youth, whom they have tested and evaluated and found fit, to take the country to the next level.

For eons, every time the older politicians stopped to address youth, they described them as leaders of tomorrow, because they thought they knew that tomorrow never comes. But what if tomorrow is already here?

To my mind, the tomorrow we have all been waiting for is here. The question, therefore is: Are the youth ready for the big challenge?

I think they are ready and eager to take this country to the next level. Like one columnist said, President Kibaki is the last high priest of the independence-era leaders. He will retire with his generation.

But I hasten to say that when Kibaki took up leadership positions, he and the likes of Tom Mboya were bubbling youths in their late twenties and early thirties. They went on to have illustrious careers in the various dockets they served. They proved that they were workers and their youth was not a barrier but a source of strength.

It is for this reason that the attacks directed at Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta, Mr William Ruto and Mr Eugene Wamalwa are out of place.

It is the duty of youth to stand up and support their own. But this support cannot be blind. Why do I say this?

In the short time Mr Kenyatta and Mr Ruto have been in public service, they have proved that they have fresh and innovative ideas whose implementation quickly transformed the sectors they were engaged in and translated into improved lives for Kenyans.

So demonising the two leaders as Kanu is a warped argument. They have been tested and proved that they have fresh ideas in their fresh minds that will easily catapult this country to the industrialised economy that everybody is yearning for.

I posit that if the youth take up leadership, Vision 2030 will be realised in half the time. They have the energy, drive and oomph required.
The youth are now standing to claim the leadership of this country. Their moment has come.

Looking at the signs of time and the kind of enthusiasm youthful leaders are attracting across the country, no amount of branding will stop them.

This is the dilemma the older generation is grappling with because, for the first time in Kenya, tomorrow has come.

Mr Kimeu is a youth leader in Nairobi.