Interview with Dr Josephine Etenyi on the draft Youth Bill 2024

By Peter Ochieng

The Ministry of Youth Affairs, Creative Economy and Sports is currently seeking views from the public in relation to the draft Youth Bill, 2024.

The Bill seeks to enact legislation that will among others, promote youth development, participation, empowerment, innovation, talent and entrepreneurship.

Nairobi Review caught up with Dr Josephine Etenyi, Director, Youth Development in the State Department for Youth Affairs and Creative Economy in charge of policy, research and mainstreaming during a public participation exercise in Kisumu on Thursday.

Here are excerpts from the interview:

PO: What is the Bill all about?

JE: Well, the development of the Youth Bill has actually been guided by the Kenya youth development policy 2019. The essence of the draft Bill is to put in place a legal framework (Youth Act) that protects the youth of our country. 

For the longest time, the State Department has not had an act that anchors youth development and as guided by the policy, we came up and decided to develop the Youth Bill so that we can be able to address youth issues.

PO: That means the Bill originated from the State Department?

JE: Yes, the Bill has originated from the State Department for Youth Affairs and Creative Economy, and it is guided by the Kenya Youth Development Policy 2019. The policy guides that we develop an act to anchor youth development.

That's why we've developed the Bill, and we are now in the public participation process.

PO: What are some of the takeaways from the Bill?

JE:  This Bill has proposed the Youth Fund that is addressing several issues, and especially supporting youth programs that we undertake. The programs include talent and innovation, where we'll be identifying talents from the grassroots level, nurturing those talents and also commercializing the talents as the ultimate goal of talent development.

Another program is capacity building for the youth. You know, our youth lack skills in different areas, and there will be an aspect of capacity building where we intend to equip the youth with employable skills so that they can either employ themselves after acquiring these skills, or they can be employed and earn an income.

The overall objective is to ensure that youth are empowered for sustainable livelihoods, that they can be able to put money in their pockets.

PO: What happens next after the public participation exercise?

JE: We are actually gathering views from the youth and also other stakeholders. Some views are verbally given while others are given in a written memorandum. So, we are going to collate all these views from the eight regions and then incorporate them in the draft Bill.

Our main objective is to make this Bill better so that even when it is presented in Parliament, it can pass the test of time.

PO: How long are you taking to collect these views?

JE: We started on the 11th of December, and we are supposed to complete today, on the 19th of December, but we have an allowance in the portal where we are telling the youth and other stakeholders to give their views through this email: info@youth.go.ke through the Principal Secretary's Office.

PO: Can you assure the youth that their views will be incorporated in the Bill?

JE: We are open to all the views, and of course as I told you, we have not been working alone. We have been working with legal experts and representatives from the Attorney General's office.

So, they'll guide us on how to incorporate these views so that we ensure that all parties that gave their views at the end of it all, they are satisfied.

PO: What is the current population of youth in our country?

JE: Well, from reliable sources, and especially the surveys that are taken up by the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics, 29.1% of Kenya’s population are youth aged between 18 to 35, a population we cannot ignore.

PO: What is your parting shot?

JE: It is just to call upon the youth to give it their all. This is a Bill that aims at improving the livelihoods of the youth in this country. It is a Bill that caters for the rights of youth in this country.

And by the way, this is a Bill that is going to actualize several articles in the constitution of Kenya, 2010, like Article 55, Article 10, and Article 27 of the Constitution. Article 55 talks about affirmative action programs to ensure that youth are participating in these programs, that they are included and they are empowered.

The top leadership in the Ministry of Youth Affairs, Creative Economy and sports, is supporting this exercise fully, and they have committed the resources to support the public participation exercise.

And of course, again, also relying on the support from the World Bank through the Nyota project. Nyota stands for National Youth Opportunities Towards Advancement.

That project is upcoming and it is going to empower the youth, give them skills, employable skills, so that they can be self-reliant, they can seek employment, or they can employ themselves.