College students will now be able to engage with the Government on some of the challenges affecting them and suggest possible remedies following the launch of the Jukwaa la Wasomi forum.
Speaking to the press on the sidelines of the debut forum in Nyeri yesterday, County Commissioner Nicholas Mwiwawi said the event will also be used to sensitize students about the structure and working of the government and how they can benefit from some of its policies.
The event was attended by government officials and student leaders from Karatina University, Dedan Kimathi University of Technology, Tetu Technical Training and Vocation College and the Mathenge Technical Training and Vocational College.
“We are hosting the Jukwaa la Wasomi on matters to do with peace and security. We brought the students’ leadership from our universities and Technical Training and Vocational Colleges and we had an in-depth discussion on issues that are affecting our youth and what we are going to do to bridge the gap between young people and the government. It has occurred to us that most of our young people really don’t understand how the government operates and our role as a government,” he said.
The administrators said through such discussions, government officers will be in a position to interact with the students and demystify the misconception that students cannot be involved in key decision making programs of their country.
He noted that the majority of the students finishing their studies rarely know how they can tap on some of the government incentives such as access to funding to start income earning initiatives such as the National Youth Opportunities Towards Advancement(NYOTA) among others.
NYOTA is a five-year Government of Kenya initiative on improving youth employability by creating employment opportunities through programs like apprenticeships, fostering entrepreneurship and social enterprises and expanding financial security.
“We have also discussed issues of unemployment where we are telling our youths the different opportunities that the Government has put in place, that the youth can utilize instead of indulging in drugs or being misused by politicians. The government has come up with programs suited for young people and if they are utilized well our youth can be empowered to be financially stable,” he emphasized.
One of the critical cross cutting issue that emerged during the forum was the need to entrench sex education and counselling sessions in institutions of learning as one way of addressing early pregnancies, gender based violence and mental health problems.
It also emerged that many of the students in colleges who were battling mental health illnesses, alcoholism and substance abuse were a result of peer pressure and tough financial challenges.
Mwiwawi said lack of proper sex education for those joining colleges could be counterproductive in the war against new HIV infections, unplanned pregnancies and gender based violence among adolescent and young women.
“Among other issues we have discussed affecting our young people is drug abuse and substance abuse. Drug barons are using students to peddle drugs by luring them with gifts such as state of the art vehicles. Young people are also joining colleges as first years while devoid of any knowledge on sex education and that is why we are having issues of Triple threat in our institutions. We feel that sex education should be mainstreamed in our institutions together with mental well-being so that we can have sober people who are dependable in this country,” stated the commissioner.
Statistics from the Kenya Health Information Service (KHIS) show HIV prevalence in 2022 among adolescents aged between 10-19 years in Nyeri stood at 32 per cent.
In 2023 Nyeri Town MP Duncan Mathenge told a sensitization forum on the Triple Threat campaign for community gatekeepers that despite the town boasting of four government colleges and one private medical training center, the sheer number of learners who are admitted in the institutions needed aggressive sensitization forums to educate them on how to protect themselves from being infected by the disease.
The lawmaker noted that while a number of learners reside within such institutions of learning where rules may be stringent, the majority rent hostels in town where they may be prone to engaging themselves in unprotected sexual activities owing to peer pressure and indulgence in alcoholism and drug abuse.
Mark Collins Kalama, Karatina University Student Union President and also Nyeri County College Student Coordinator lauded the government initiative to launch the Jukwaa la Masomo forum terming it a game changer for learners.
Kalama said while it was the first of its kind in Nyeri, he was optimistic the issues and deliberations that were aired will go a long way in helping students make informed decisions in regard to their future careers and their general wellbeing.
“We have covered a number of issues especially including on drugs and substance abuse and what we can do as university students in order to address it especially given that there are some of us who are taking courses that are less engaging and have idle time at their disposal. Again we have discussed how the government works and we have learnt how to address our issues, where to start and how to go about it including working with the Police,” he said.
“We cannot live in a society that has no problems. There will be problems on a day to day basis but it is how we address them that makes the difference.”
Kalama promised to incorporate both the administrators of the colleges in coming up with practical solutions to problems affecting the student fraternity in conjunction with other stakeholders such as the Kenya Red Cross Society.
He also appealed to institutions of higher learning to incorporate mechanisms that will help learners suffering from mental health illnesses recover and complete their studies on time just like their peers.
by Samuel Maina & Diana Odipo
