More than 80 university and college students from the six Coast counties have joined electoral agencies and civil society leaders in Mombasa for a forum aimed at curbing political goonism, hate speech and misinformation ahead of the 2027 General Election.
The one-day conference, organised by the Human Rights Agenda (HURIA) under its RESTORE programme, brought together the National Cohesion and Integration Commission (NCIC), Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) and Office of the Registrar of Political Parties (ORPP) to engage youth leaders from institutions including the University of Nairobi, Pwani University, Technical University of Mombasa and various TVET colleges.
HURIA Executive Director Yusuf Lule Mwatsefu said the timing of the forum was deliberate, coming days after a gazette notice declared the country officially in an election period running until August 2027.
He warned that political goonism, though not new, had intensified in recent months and posed a serious threat to national stability.
“The problem of this country is not laws; it is enforcement, and we cannot allow ourselves to go into the Haiti path,” Mwatsefu said.
Speaking on behalf of the NCIC, Deputy Director of Legal Services Kyalo Mwengi said the commission, established following the 2007/2008 post-election violence, had intensified its crackdown on hate speech through a newly formed multi-agency team.
“It is not business as usual, and we are not going to condone hate speech,” Mwengi said, cautioning political aspirants against incitement and misinformation ahead of the polls.
HURIA Senior Programmes Officer Antony Maganga said the organisation’s RESTORE project was focused on building resilience among young people to resist being drawn into harmful groups during the electoral season.
He said, beyond goonism, other forms of youth mobilisation for conflict could emerge in different counties, urging young people to exercise caution when consuming and sharing information online.
“We have to be careful with the information that we share and the information that we consume, especially during this period of election,” Maganga said, flagging the growing threat of misinformation and disinformation on social media.
Youth participants echoed calls for accountability and greater involvement of young people in electoral processes.
Precious Ombele, a law student at the University of Nairobi’s Mombasa campus, said young people should be treated as rights holders today rather than merely “leaders of tomorrow”.
“It is time that the law meets reality so that we are not creating systems from abstract or from a vacuum,” Ombele said.
Mohammed Jailani, outgoing chair of the university’s Student Association, said Generation Z youth were rejecting attempts by politicians to recruit them as goons for short-term political gain.
“We refuse to be used in a manner which is against the national interest and against the public interest,” Jailani said.
He urged young people to remain peaceful and participate actively in democratic processes while resisting political manipulation.
Mwahanje Masoud Mangale, Secretary General of the Kaloleni Student Leaders Youth Network (KSYL) in Mombasa County, cautioned that normalising goonism was discouraging young people from participating in elections altogether.
“Goonism influences voters; it influences the electoral process, because when young people see that goonism continues unchecked and those responsible for security enforcement are unable to act, we as youth will not come forward to participate in the electoral processes of this country,” Mangale said.
By Ramadhan Nassib
