By Stella Mwangi

Youth leaders have demanded to be represented in all organs of East Africa integration process.

They want representation in the East African Community (EAC) secretariat, Parliament, major task forces and commissions.

The youth made the demands in a communiquÈ read on their behalf by Ochieng Kanyadudi of Kenya’s Liberal Democratic Party Youth League after a two-day conference in Nakuru.

"We want to put young people at the centre of democratisation and regional integration in East Africa," said Mr Kanyadudi.

He said the participants had agreed to engage their governments to establish a regional youth council at EAC level.

The delegates, who represented various youth leagues in East Africa, said they would push for their political parties to have a shared agenda for integration and democratisation.

Kenya National Human Rights Commission vice-chairman Hassan Omar, who attended the conference, said unity among youths in East Africa was only possible if they did not allow political power, ethnicity and tribalism to influence their quest.

"We are beyond political parties, ethnicity or tribe, we are one people with a similar goal as we all face the same vice of impunity in our respective governments," he said.

Added Mr Omar: "Youth are better educated, better informed, better interacted and exposed than former generations. We hold the power in our hands, let us use it."

The participants were drawn from Sudan, Burundi, Tanzania, Uganda, Ethiopia, Rwanda and Kenya.