Claiming the space: The inclusion and participation of the youth in Kenya's 11th and 12th Parliaments

CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
Introduction
This Report is an assessment of the law and practice on youth inclusion and participation in Kenya’s
political processes, with specific reference to the 11th and 12th Parliaments, being the first and second
terms following promulgation of the new Constitution in 2010. The report analyses gains made, challenges
experienced, and opportunities available for mainstreaming youth participation in critical electoral and
governance processes in Kenya.
The study was commissioned by Mzalendo Trust, in the context of a project titled ‘Civil Society Organizations
Impact on Kenya’s Policy Making and Governance, implemented with support from the Netherlands Institute
for Multiparty Democracy (NIMD). The overall goal of the project was to deepen the linkage between the
public and political actors, enhance access to information on Parliamentary decisions, and document the
contribution of special interest groups, particularly women and youth, in Parliament.
The expected outcomes of the project were to encourage women and youth already engaged in advocacy
work to vie for office in the next election cycle, to demonstrate to citizens how to evaluate potential leaders
in their communities, to influence political parties’ inclusion processes ahead of the next elections, and to
inform the respective strategies of the existing women and youth parliamentary caucuses.
The Constitution defines youth as all persons within Kenya who have attained the age of 18 years but
have not attained the age of 35 years. 1 Article 55 further requires the State to take measures, including
affirmative action programmes, to ensure that the youth have opportunities to associate, be represented
1 GoK (2010), The Constitution of Kenya, Article 260. Universally, there is no uniform definition of who constitutes ‘youth’. For
instance, the United Nations considers youth to be from the age of 15-24 years, the Commonwealth of Nations is from 15-29 years,
while the African Youth Charter defines youth as someone aged between 15-35 years.
CLAIMING THE SPACE: 1