This blog post is fourth in a series highlighting the work of the 2024 Charles F. Kettering Global Fellows for Advancing Inclusive Democracies. CFK Global Fellows is an initiative of the Democracy around the Globe focus area with the goal of fostering an international community of partners to promote and defend inclusive democracies.

Youth participation—or lack thereof—is a growing concern in many democratic countries. Across Africa, the topic is even more pressing because an estimated 70 percent of the population of the continent is under the age of 30. Kettering Global Fellow for Advancing Inclusive Democracies Anne Rose Osamba lives and works in Kenya, where much of her work has focused on youth involvement in democratic processes.

Young people in Kenya are not disinterested or apathetic. While they do prefer democracy over other forms of government, they have less trust in institutions or leaders compared to older generations. They also feel that their voices and concerns are discounted in favor of those of other generations. To counter this, Osamba’s work has focused on responding to the lack of meaningful opportunities for youth representation and inclusion.

For her fellowship project, Osamba expanded the youth engagement and empowerment work that she has been doing as executive director of the Uzalendo Afrika Initiative. To better understand the views and concerns of young people, she organized Democracy Cafés to provide safe space for focused discussions. To ensure a broad range of perspectives, Osamba’s cafés gathered youth from six sub-counties, including university students, non-university-bound young people from underserved communities, those involved in gangs, and youth who were already active in civil society.

The Democracy Cafés, and other conversations held with young people, surfaced a number of challenges, including government intimidation and tokenistic pathways for engagement that have fueled lack of trust and faith in both democratic processes and leaders. That in itself is something to overcome.

To encourage youth engagement in democracy, Osamba recommends further expanding youth civic education and capacity-building efforts. She also suggests that those in civil society could incentivize civic participation and establish youth networks for information sharing and support. Osamba notes that “despite the challenges, increasingly youth have demonstrated not just the interest in participating but making critical contributions that have shaped key outcomes within the policy space.”

Kenyan youth are finding creative and unconventional ways to organize. They use the internet and shadow assemblies to make their voices heard and add their concerns to governing agendas. Civic tech tools have also helped. Additionally, they express themselves through popular culture, using memes and socially conscious music and art to collectively organize and amplify their voices.

As Osamba explains, “While acknowledging these efforts it is also worthy to note youth in informal settlements or those in informal jobs do not have a stake in democratic process as they are usually called when everything is done.” She also underscores that youth involvement in the democratic process cannot fully take place without first addressing systemic issues such as unemployment, lack of civic education, and the exclusion of youth from political spaces.

Reflecting on her work, Osamba noted that the project reinforced her belief that efforts to support youth participation need to go beyond encouraging them to vote. She emphasized that young members of society need safe and supportive spaces where they can become meaningfully involved in the functioning of their local and national governments. To hear some of these young people in their own words, watch a video highlighting some of the Democracy Café gatherings as well as other interviews conducted by Osamba.

Lisa Boone-Berry is the content development specialist for Democracy around the Globe.

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The Charles F. Kettering Global Fellowship for Advancing Inclusive Democracies is a six-month program designed to promote leadership in global civil society and to nurture and support those working to build inclusive democracies around the world.