Of Ruto's lofty, unfulfilled promises to youth and a string of fresh ones

NYOTA Fund beneficiaries during the second launch of the NYOTA Fund program at Masinde Muliro University of science and Technology on July 10,2026  [Benjamin Sakwa- Standard]

As the world commemorated the International Youth Day yesterday, youth in Kenya continue to bear the brunt of a protracted failure of successive administrations that have failed to address their plight. The Kenya Kwanza administration led by President William Ruto has become the latest Government that has spectacularly failed to address the concerns raised by the youth.

During his campaign in the run-up to the 2022 General election, President Ruto issued numerous promises to the youth in a bid to try and woo them to vote for him. During the signing of the Kenya Kwanza Youth charter on June 27th 2022, the President pledged to tackle the issues affecting the youth head on with the youth at the centre.

"We are determined to make sure that our young people are no longer considered part of the problem. They will be part of the solution if not the solution. Whatever we will be doing, the young people will be at the center." Ruto said at the event.

In his Bottom-Up Economic Transformation Agenda (BETA), the charter outlined the unemployed youth and those struggling with startups among the "Hustlers" to be uplifted. The Government promised to make investments worth over 100 billion for youth empowerment, pledging to create 4 million jobs per year for the youth.

But even with all the commitments made by the President, serious challenges continue to face the youth and the progress made has not been tangible enough inside four years of the administration. The administration has been guilty of attempting too many programs which have not resulted in a paradigm shift for the fortunes of the youth who are the majority of Kenya's population.

In order to implement the youth charter, the President's first assignment was to fulfil his promise to appoint someone who had demonstrated credible capacity in the field, to lead the Ministry.

"We are going to put people there who understand the priorities in matters of creative economy industry, sports and culture," he said at the charter signing.

In his first cabinet, current High Commissioner of Kenya to Uganda Ababu Namwamba was picked to lead the Ministry. The Talanta Hela initiative during Ababu's tenure received good reception from youth and goodwill from the Government. The initiative was designed to monetize sporting and creative talents. Much is no longer mentioned about it.

Since Ababu, the Ministry has had two more occupants inside 2 years. In a cabinet reshuffle after the Gen Z protests, Kipchumba Murkomen was moved to the ministry and he served for 5 months before being replaced by current holder Salim Mvurya. Questions have been raised about the capacity of the two and whether they fit the Ministry.

Unemployment persists

The President has tried to actualize some of his promises on addressing youth unemployment. Through the Climate Worx Mashinani program which is a modification of Kazi Mtaani, about 200,000 youth countrywide were to be hired to conserve the environment and fight climate change. 25,000 youth were inducted into the program in July last year. The number of jobs that was to be created is still just a drop in the ocean as compared to the huge number of youths. It is worth noting that it was launched in September 2024 after the deadly June 2024 protests pointing to a knee-jerk move.

The Affordable Housing program has also been spearheaded by the administration to create formal and informal jobs for the youth. The President said yesterday at the Broad-based Government retreat that over 650,000 jobs have been created by the program but still the unemployment crisis persists.

The National Youth Opportunities Towards Advancement NYOTA program is also a brainchild of this administration that was born in December last year. The world bank funded project entails a business grant of 50,000 disbursed in two phases to the 101,721 qualified entrepreneurs drawn from across the country starting up a business of their choice. Recognition of Prior Learning and On Job Experience is also part of the program. According to human Rights activist Allans Ademba, while no Government has previously been able to address unemployment fully, NYOTA would not address it either.

"It was a good initiative but the current business environment is not suitable. Opening a business with that 20k is a very big deal. The economy is high." he said. Governance and Leadership analyst Prof. Gitile Naituli says that the Government had no prior intention to help the youth.

"You don't walk around distributing money when you want to help somebody but when you want to play around with people thinking that they are fools, you walk around claiming empowerment." Gitile said.

The Kazi Majuu program is another program that has been surrounded with a lot of controversy, with claims of people being conned. The Ministry of Labour has however denied the claims and the President has been bullish that the program will continue. The Hustler Fund, which was the first Government initiative, also did not bear the desired fruit. Multimedia University President, Malcom X Odhiambo says that the fund as designed would not address unemployment.

"It was a debt which you were going to pay back. They were supposed to create jobs and absorb youths because you are going to school and they expect when you finish you pay the HELB debt." he said.

University Funding Failure

A bulk of the youth are in the universities but their fate has been up and down courtesy of the trial and error with the funding policy. After appointing the Presidential Working Party on Education Reforms to overhaul the funding, a new funding model was birthed that funded students according to their financial need before it was varied to factor in the cost of the courses being taken by the students.

However, the President has recently admitted that it has failed and he has now proposed a new bill that would make higher learning completely free.

But even before it is discussed in Parliament, the bill has already attracted dissenting opinions after it emerged that students will accrue huge loans that will be used to fund their study. Higher education has become expensive and with employment not assured, figures from the Ministry of Education showing that the completion rate has gone down.

Malcom X warns that even if the new model is passed, universities will crumble if money is not released in time. "The Government should release the amount of money needed to universities. If they do not, there's nothing that you are solving." he said.  Ademba believes that education has become for the rich. "We have reached a point that the youth are not seeing education as the key anymore because education has become expensive." he added.

During the 2024 Finance Bill Protests, while the main issue was the Finance Bill, the youth complained of exclusion. It was against this backdrop that the President dissolved his entire cabinet which had no youth and appointed Agriculture CS Eric Mugaa at 32 years, to pacify the youth. The state department of Youth Affairs in the Ministry of Sports was not being led by a youth in the first PS appointments but PS Fikirini Jacobs was appointed to that department in April last year.

In spite of this, the number of youths in Government falls way below the threshold that the President had put for himself when he pledged to ensure the youth are 70% of his government.

"There's no way you can sit in a room with 10 old people to discuss what affects the youth. It is the youth who know their problems." said Ademba.

Goonism

The culture of goonism in the country has been attributed to lack of jobs. While the President has called upon the youth not to allow to being used, the political class continues to hire them to cause disruptions at political gatherings.

Part of that ecosystem is the hand out economy which has also become a fertile ground for the goons to survive. Allies of the President have been notorious in this including Nyaribari Chache MP Zaheer Jhanda, Kakamega Deputy Governor Ayub Savula and even the President himself has been criticized for his State House meetings where handouts are allegedly issued. Other events that have been christened as empowerment are the youth and boda boda empowerment events that are political campaigns in the real sense. Ademba believes that the Government is to blame for this culture.

"I would blame the person empowering goonism because the youth is vulnerable. If you give 1000 bob to someone who has not been able to get it in the entire week, they will definitely work for them." Ademba said. Prof. Gitile Naituli adds that poverty is also a contributor but urges youth to resist.

"They should take that money and go home. They should go take the money and go home because that is the money that has been stolen," he said.

New Vision

Vision 2030 as envisioned, was supposed to transform the youth from job seekers to job creators. But even before this aspiration is attained, President William Ruto is set to lead the country into formulating yet another blueprint beginning Wednesday, which he has dubbed a national charter destined to succeed vision 2030. Already, critics are skeptical about whether there would be youth inclusivity in formulating it with others asking why not implement the other one. Ademba believes that if there would be a conversation, it should be held differently.

"The Government should talk with the youth not talk at them because talking to them is like you are projecting what you feel is right and not getting their grievances." he said.

The lack of proper goodwill from Governments is one of the biggest problems. A classical case is the Harambee Starlets who represented Kenya at the WAFCON 2026 that is ongoing. The players staged a strike just a day after they had been flagged off at State House over unpaid allowances. They refused to board the flight to go to the tournament up until their money was released. Additionally in sports, with the Government constructing a number of stadia across the country targeting the youth, much remains to be done to tap the talent.

"We have a lot of grassroot talents and the bigger question is where are these talents going and then, will the national team opportunities be given to them fairly on merit?" said Malcom

The President apologized to the youth during the 2025 National Prayer Breakfast in what was interpreted to be an admission of guilt but since then other atrocities by the Government against the youth like abductions and enforced disappearances have still continued begging the question, did the President mean it?