What matters?

The National Youth Summit was slated for Thursday the 31^st of January, perhaps to end the first month in style and to reflect on the role the youth can play in developing the nation. Ashoka, East Africa was invited as hosts to tackle the topic of the role the youth can play in social enterprise and the role of young people in country branding. I started interning with Ashoka on Monday the same week, 28^th January, and this was a pleasant opportunity for anyone passionate about leadership and empathy.

The summit brought together youth leaders from all the 47 counties in the country, and hence, effectively the most progressive youth leaders and future leaders of the country, and in their various capacities. The morning sessions comprised mainly of speeches, from various country leaders amongst them the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Information and Communications, first president of Seychelles, C.E.O. of Brand Kenya and various other leaders.

The passion for progressive leadership and for the strong patriotism of the country was summarised by the speech by Sir James, first president of Seychelles, who gave a History of Kenya, from the pre-independence days and the hope of envisioning a better country, to the current position of the country, and the new voice of the youth in country development. The flags waved by the delegates were a testament of this.

I could not help but take my mind back to those days. I was sure that there were progressive people then, just as there are today. I keep on wondering what then has prevented us from greatness, as a country. Perhaps as a country we don’t see how everyone has a part to play in this nation building process, or most importantly, there have not been sustainable platforms so that we build up on past successes instead of re-inventing the wheel and downplaying the synergy required for this process to be successful.

On the other hand, we have a bunch of Kenyans who have the ‘big’ opportunities, who’ve received quality education and who have the skills to bring this change but their efforts are not leveraged to bring this change. As one of the Kenyans in this group, the summit challenged me to think of what I am doing to spread this change making spirit to the rest of Kenyans, to my friends and family.

The youth venture of the office supports a group of ‘younger fellows’ who are effecting change in their community. Of interest were 2 youth: Tabitha who is a 14 year old girl, was saddened by the rate of accidents and fatalities affecting small children on traffic roads in the country, and went ahead with the help of her head teacher and area chief, to create a traffic signs literacy program for children her age; Jarvis, a 18 year old budding change maker, realized that the youth in his area were energetic but spent their energy on other unnecessary activities, and decided to engage them in using hands and crafts to create artistic products, and is currently working on expanding his market so that his project can be self-sustaining, with the help of his mentor.

THESE are the stories which make my heart skip a bit. THESE stories are the ones that matter, and THESE stories are the ones we need to keep on telling. If not, then our efforts should be to create our own stories such as this, ones that make our world a better place, one that challenges our human resources and mental resources that we have, ones that can draw the attention of the wider audience on contributing to development, wherever they are and with the little/much that they have.

Yesterday I was challenged beyond words, and I realize that we can always do more wherever we are. There are no excuses, and the possibilities have no limits. The great success stories presently and in the past, as well as the future, were / are and will continue to be crafted by people who do things differently. People who strive to defy odds. People who create change wherever they are. These ‘linchpins’ are very much individuals who are of value in their organizations, communities and to the world, and they bring flavour to this otherwise drab world. I am happy that I am part of a network of such individuals and I hope that we can continue to collaborate and to co-create solutions that will change this world, for the better. Let that be our calling, and let us never get tired of spreading this message.

These hardened hearts

These hardened hearts, they know of lead only,

These hearts are not smart,

To distinguish between right or wrong,

Morality is as fleeting as a goose,

Their life situations,

Live them hanging by a noose,

In the face of temptations,

They are drawn and falter by the two's,

Lack of empathy, lack of compassion.

Now back to the story of lead,

they hold those cold barrels,

And frequently cock the barrel,

"lala chini" and "hiyo ndio baridi"

they exhort with mean faces.

These hardened hearts, they know of lead only,

lacking in other traces,

They gather and scatter,

they gather on these nights,

and they scatter once they terrorize.

They turn a blind eye,

or so it seems,

to the whims familiar with the victims,

they hear no silenced cries,

they smell only money and material possessions,

they kick, punch, and scuffle for their fleeting 'rights'

Every victim a shilling away to diminishing their plight.

Is this right?

Is this right that they are doing this?

Is it right that we turn a blind eye?

That we act as if our lives offer us an escape from this daunting reality?

But you see, reality is relative,

And these brothers and sisters are our distant relatives,

We need to put an end to this food chain,

Because there is too much at stake - pain,

These hardened hearts, they know of lead only,

These hardened hearts, we need to soften.