I wake up every morning with anticipation,
waiting to see how the day will unfold, and what it has in store for me.
The last few weeks weren’t necessarily
good, in fact the happenings made me feel small, and that I couldn’t make a
difference in the society, as if I have to walk a million miles to achieve my
dream, the dream to become the first female president of the republic of Kenya.
To achieve my dream, I had decided to go
out to the world and lay a foundation for my already set plan. What I hadn’t realized
is that nothing comes easy and that the well set out plan would have to go
through a few hiccups in order to just make a single step.
I had previously met an agent of my area
Member of Parliament during the August 2017 General elections and seeked his
advice on what to do to nurture my political leadership ambitions. He promised
to introduce me to the member-of-parliament himself for mentorship purposes but
before that, I had to go to his political party to get more information and
also to register as a member. He advised me to go to the youth offices of the
political party.
On the D-day, I set out very excited and
couldn’t wait to sit down in the evening to review the happenings of the day. I
started off at the offices of the political party office. When I got there, I
first looked like a confused person as I seemingly didn’t fit in that
environment. The guards were hesitant to let me in but I eventually convinced
them to let me in. I proceeded to the reception desk and asked to be directed
to the Youth officer. The receptionist told me to go to the fourth floor.
I was anxious while entering the office but
I built up my confidence and walked in. I took a seat and started to explain
the nature of my visit to the Youth Officer, I was out to seek information. I
explained to him that I initially wanted to run for a youth representative seat
in my constituency and that I was very confident that I could immerse a large
constituency to vote for me. He smiled. I didn’t understand why he did so but I
thought he was very impressed by what I had told him. This built my confidence
even further.
He told me that I was in the right place
and explained to me the party’s constitution, the membership and the programmes
that the party was currently following up on. I was excited because most of the
programmes he mentioned were meant to target the youth and women. I asked him
to invite me to the next workshop, seminars or summits they would hold
concerning the same. He encouraged me to keep my fire burning and to follow up
on my dreams.
I left the office feeling better, as if I
had made a great stride. On my way home, I realized one thing, I didn’t get the
information I had wanted. Instead, I was a member of a political party and had
just received a summary of the constitution. I didn’t get the information on my
goal, to become the youth representative of my area.
I decided to go to the District Youth
Officer. I got lost a few times because many people didn’t and still don’t know
that the office existed. When I finally found the office, I was amazed, it was
in the furthest corner of the district offices premises and it seemed that no
one ever visited the office. In fact, the youth officer even remarked that they
usually don’t get people coming to make inquiries and the most visited office
was the youth fund office. Basically, what he meant was that a high percentage
of the youth were actually not aware about the existence of the office, that
there is a law that states that they could elect a person to represent them in
the National Youth Council or that there is actually a National Youth Council.
He gave me the background information about
the Youth Council and gave me a very interesting point. The Youth Council
elections had not been held for the longest time, specifically since 2013. The terms of the elected persons is that,
you have to run for a period of three years. After the completion of the term,
the candidates could vie for office for a second term and if they had already
been in office for two terms they could not run for office again. I asked him whether there was an existent
Council and he said yes. I wondered how that was possible since there hadn’t
been elections.
I left my contact details with him and
asked him to contact me once there was more news on when the next elections
would be held.
Thereafter, I headed to town to meet a
student leader in my school. He was also a member of the stated political party
and had really been resourceful in giving me information. When I got there, the
conversation changed. It became more of a social meeting rather than a serious
business meeting. He talked about himself all through and asked me why I wanted
to venture into the men’s world. He told me I was doomed for failure and that
if I wanted to make it in the political arena, I would have to make a lot of
‘friends’ and ‘invest’ in my friendship with him. He had already objectified me
and created a stumbling block for me; Sexual favours in exchange for mentorship
and networking opportunities.
I declined the proposal and that’s how my
communication with the individual ended. I didn’t let this weigh me down and
decided to take up a new approach; getting a mentor among the present leaders.
I went back to the agent who had directed
me to the political party to follow up on his promise but he told me that the
member-of-parliament was not open to offer mentorship to people since he had to
concentrate on the job he was elected to do.
I looked up among my friends for contact
details of people who could help me out and I got phone numbers and email
addresses of some leaders. I sent constant emails, made various phone calls but
never got a response. Thereafter, I went on social media and websites of most
of the politicians trying to contact them but that wasn’t fruitful either.
As I was not successful in these methods, I
asked a friend to add me in a particular youth leadership group which he did.
From there, I started getting updates about Youth Leadership trainings. The
main problem was, the only postings were about how the trainings were but not
links for applications to be part of the trainings. I would ask some of the
people in the group about the application processes but I never got a response.
At some point it became frustrating as I
saw that most of the doors were shut. Most of the leadership programmes I had
applied for didn’t give me hope either as I would not get a response or if I
did, they were acknowledgement of receipt of the application.
I have not been able to reach these people
but I am hopeful that with time and with my continuous efforts, I will finally
reach my destination. I am still applying for youth leadership programmes and
am hopeful that eventually I will receive confirmation to attend the trainings.
Article by Esther Wambui
Mentoring and Empowerment Camps Alumni
Group of 2015
