Community Mentoring as a Basis for Youth Empowerment in Kenya: A Proposal

Violence among the youth, especially politically-related violence, is not only a mounting problem in urban areas in Kenya, but also now in suburbs and rural regions. Youth from low-income backgrounds are the most susceptible when it comes to participating in political violence as they seek to assert themselves and gain revenge against society for fundamentally ignoring their needs. Regrettably, their involvement in violence hardly helps to make things better for them. In fact, majority of them end up in serious problems if not worse. It is with this in mind that the author in this paper looks at how the community contributes to social-economic disengagement by the youth. It is argued that lack of role modeling and mentoring projects are some of the reasons behind youth disempowerment. There is need for the youth to learn to become participants in community development through proactive engagement in decision-making. It is further argued that adults should not assume a ‘know it all’ stance when dealing with the youth. They should instead mentor youth to air their opinions on various issues. Adults should not to talk to the youth or at them but with them. The youth should be involved in assessing community development needs and coming up with suggestions on ways forward through structured focused youth groups. The paper proposes what can be achieved in empowering the youth through positive mentoring. It also addresses the challenges that have in the past militated against youth empowerment at community level. The author concludes by looking at the various approaches that can be used by leaders at community level to mentor the youth and how in turn this could help in engendering positive values among the youth. The paper also examines the different levels and modes of engagement in the face of the current technological advancements to bring about peace and stability in the country.