Let the youths decide their future, ODM says
Politics
By
Okumu Modachi
| Jul 21, 2025
The Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) has urged the older generation to give young people a chance to decide their future even as the party backed calls for dialogue to resolve challenges ailing the nation.
Secretary General Edwin Sifuna insisted that dialogue is an important avenue to address the concerns by Kenyans and especially the youth.
"You must never refuse an opportunity to discuss your issues and to talk. And when you sit down and listen to them, you get different perspective on the issue. We need to get to a place where certain decisions are only left to younger generations," he said.
He spoke last week when he met female university students leaders at Chungwa House during the launch of "Young Captains," a movement, he said, seeks to foster inclusion of the young people in decision-making processes.
This follows a recent call by the ODM leader Raila Odinga rallying the country to have a "intergenerational national conclave" to address Kenya's socio-political and economic crisis that has seen a series of protests in the recent past led by Gen-ZS.
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“I propose an inclusive intergenerational national conclave to hear our people across all divides and come up with irreducible reforms and changes necessary to take the country forward,” he said on July 7, when the country marked Saba Saba day in protests that left at least 30 dead.
Yesterday's meeting of the young people by the Orange party appears to set the stage for similar conversations geared towards "listening to their grievances."
He said the young generation must be allowed to speak for themselves and left to lead the conversations.
Sifuna, cited a proposal by a section of leaders to urge the government to initiate the expansion of Nairobi City to address congestion and accommodate the growing population.
“We must use the national park land around Nairobi. We must take those animals to Maasai Mara,” Central Orgnisation of Trade Unions boss Francis Atwoli proposed in June.
“When we were young, Nairobi had about 200,000 people in the city. Now it hosts over 15 million people, and it cannot continue like this,”
He dismissed the talks, saying that "we should ask the children whether they want to continue seeing animals at Nairobi Park or they want to see apartments."
Beth Siengo, the party's Women League President, said the movement will give "the young people a platform to make sure that they actively participate in decision-making."
Roseline Alionya urged their young women to join political parties, saying they 'must be restructure' in their revolutionary calls in order to succeed in to bring back sanity to the country's leadership.
"We address our concerns while inside. We can't continue to be party-less and leaderless," she said, in sentiments echoed by her counterpart Letisha Mary.
"We want to bridge the gap between the old and young generation," she stated, maintaining their resolve to continue pushing to be heard.