Monday, the world celebrated the International Day of Peace, where individuals, organisations and nations create acts of peace for the greater good.
In Kenya, this year’s theme is Peace, youth and Development and is focusing on addressing the largest and most critical constituency to poverty alleviation and peace initiatives.
True, young people, when left idle are the most easily brainwashed and malleable to unscrupulous elements who thrive on chaos. And perhaps, the best way to appreciate the resource we have is through comparisons of neighbours or contemporaries.
The scourge ravaging countries in the Great Lakes Region and the Horn of Africa is of murderous, restless, armed youths, raping and pillaging villages without a care for the future.
These hordes form the backbone of militias who have caused enforced immigration, destabilization of legitimate governments, widowed homes and orphaned families. Their activities are the subject of horrific, hushed hospital bed tales and humanitarian agency reports. Cases in point are Somalia, Northern Congo, swathes of Southern Sudan, bordering Uganda and now, Burundi.
Following the disputed 2007 General Election, Kenyan youths also took up arms and left a trail of destruction hitherto unseen in this country.
life is sacred
It took concerted efforts by a horrified international community to restore sanity. That is why Peace Day is important so that such scenes are forever banished from civilised society.
In the same breath, the message is the same for young people in the valleys of Lebanon, Yemeni sand dunes, Pakistani and Indian Kashmir, the unconquered hills of Afghanistan, and Palestinian camps. That life is sacred and the future belongs to the youth. Guard the integrity of your governance processes jealously.
Have a peaceful year ahead.
