Send the youth to National Youth Service and save the Nation

Let us save our young people. Let us save our nation. Let us make National Youth Service mandatory to all our young people. In May 2014, 48 years old Kamene lost her husband, brother and brother in law. Her two sons have been fighting for their dear lives and eyesight at Mutomo Catholic Mission Hospital. All victims of the toxic liquor which left more than 94 people. 94 people!!!  Barely a week earlier more than 10 people perished and dozens maimed in the suspected terror attacks in Mombasa and Nairobi. I would need another day to complete the litany of tragedies that have continued to bedevil our society.

Ladies and gentlemen the rains started beating us when thousands of young people stepped out into a life without meaningful engagement or employment. Idle, frustrated and hopeless. Their poverty and wretched destiny converted them to agents of death; Death to others through acts of crime and terrorism; Death to themselves through self-destruction. Drugs, illicit brews, crude weapons, guns, grenades and bombs – these time-bombs! We need change quickly!-  Let us make national youth service compulsory for all youth attaining 18 years of age. We may just salvage our nation! 

Established in 1964, the National Youth Service (or NYS) aimed at giving young people technical life skills training in carpentry, auto-mechanics, metal work, wood work, road construction etc. But also infused in them self-discipline, self-reliance, and most importantly patriotism through non-military national service national reconstruction and disaster response. For a period of time Kenyan high school graduates had to complete a three-month training session at NYS before joining University. This programme was scrapped in the late 1980s leaving the NYS for the few technical training students. We should re-introduce NYS training to give all the Kenyan youth a chance to be self reliant and patriotic

Take the case of the high levels of insecurity. Africa has been punched by an evolution of militia; such as Alshabab, Boko Haram, M23, Lord’s Resistance Army to name but a few. Taking advantage of youth’s desperation, militia leaders and terrorists arm the youth to unleash brutality.  Engaging the youth before they turn prey to these groups will prevent brainwashing and radicalization. It will give them a mental shift. And what better way than the NYS – The drills, the technical training, physical fitness training, the inculcation of high moral and patriotic standards will produce men and women willing to give faithful duty to their nation. A NYS graduate will not kill his fellow countryman at the whims of another.

Compulsory recruitment to NYS will also supplement our current education system, which is mainly academic. I am perturbed by the moral decadence of some of the young people in our Universities. In the NYS young men don’t walk with trousers sagging like soiled diapers, they don’t speak in coded dialect and concocted enunciation, nor will you find them idle chewing khat and drinking liquor. This is why we must send all secondary graduates to NYS for one year pre-university training. Later they can proceed to Universities or remain for further training.

National Youth Service will foster national unity, give our youth technical training and work experience. It will improve their self-reliance and instill discipline! When we send our youth to NYS we will achieve three things:
1. The NYS will protect our youth, our future, against negative influences such as radicalization. This will enhance our national security 
2.   It will give us a new disciplined generation that will be more patriotic and cohesive.  
3. Our youth will acquire skills to help them engage in meaningful employment 
I hope that in future our sons and daughters will not die from illicit brews. I hope that no youth will agree to shed blood or terrorize fellow countrymen. Because NYS will have given our country’s youth the fresh start they so urgently need.

The Plight of the African Elephant

Uncle! We have seen a dead Elephant! Exclaimed my 10 year old niece, after visiting the Tsavo National Park, tears dripping down her chin. She looked downcast and dejected. I later learnt that the elephant had been killed by poachers to serve the brutal ivory trade. At once I remembered the elephants of Tsavo, this big mammal, flapping its ears to send a breeze to the dry savannah. With a pair of tusks and a long trunk, browsing on the shrubs of the Nyika Plateau. But now it was no more, it lay down as carcass waiting to biodegrade and fertilize the soils of Tsavo. Today I will share with you 3 things about the plight of the African Elephant; the status of elephants in Africa, the Ivory trade menace and the way forward to curb poaching

1.        The state of Elephants in Africa

African elephants are being slaughtered at an unprecedented rate as demand for ivory continues unabated. According to World Wildlife fund, 35,000 African elephants were killed in 2012, representing the worst mass slaughter of elephants since the international ivory trade was banned in 1989.  African elephants have declined by 76 percent since in ten years; 86 elephants including 33 pregnant females were killed within a week in Chad. This story replicates in Congo, Tanzania, South Africa and Gabon. The Kenyans story is no different; we lost 384 elephants to poachers in 2013

2.        The Ivory trade menace

Ivory is in soaring demand in the Far East for ornaments. The UN secretary general says that illegal ivory trade may be an important source of funding for armed groups such as the Lord's Resistance Army and the Alshabab militant groups which terrorize East Africa. According to the global security body report, Poachers are using sophisticated weapons, high-technology to execute their mission.  They employ helicopters, night vision goggles, and satellite phones, gleaning information on the Internet and tracking elephant movements from satellite images. Very little of the wealth generated by illegal poaching trickles down to the people who actually do it. Local pigmy hunters of central Africa are paid as little as a carton of cigarettes for a pair of elephant tusks, which later fetch over $1,500 per kilo in Asia. And I ask; did these elephants have to die, so that we get nice ornaments

3.        The best way forward

Wildlife conservation society is calling for a suspension on the sale of all forms of ivory, which if implemented, would potentially cripple the illegal trade. Over 25 global wildlife organizations have committed to prevent further elephant poaching by directly targeting the chief drivers of this vice. This commitment dedicates funding to a triple pronged approach: “stop the killing,” “stop the trafficking,” and “stop the demand.”

It’s my hope that we’ll support our governments to retain this gigantic mammal in the national parks; I call upon African Presidents to make elephant tusks valueless, to help curb poaching, I call on parliaments to stiffen the laws against poaching and the judicial systems to ensure that poachers painfully pay for every blood of wildlife they shed.  With this I hope that one day my niece will get a chance to see a life elephant in the Tsavo national park. This is the state of African Elephants, the ivory trade menace and the best way to keeping the biggest mammal alive.