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Yesterday President Mwai Kibaki and Hon Raila Odinga reached a political agreement to end the current crisis that has left over 1,500 people dead and 300,000 persons internally displaced.

I was interviewed last night briefly by the BBC on air show Have Your Say- Who controls Kenya’s destiny? Below are my comments to the debate.

Who controls Kenya’s destiny?

President Mwai Kibaki and the Orange Democratic party leader, Raila Odinga, have reached a power-sharing deal to end the political crisis in Kenya.

Negotiations between the two sides led by Kofi Annan were adjourned on Tuesday following bitter disagreement over power-sharing.

What is your reaction to this deal? Can power sharing work? Can power sharing heal the nation? Send us your views.

If you would like to join Africa Have Your Say to debate this topic LIVE on air on Thursday 28 February at 1600 GMT, please include a telephone number. It will not be published. You can also send an SMS text message to +44 77 86 20 20 08.
http://newsforums.bbc.co.uk/nol/thread.jspa?sortBy=1&forumID=4373&start=30&tstart=0&edition=2&ttl=20080229064112#paginator
Added: Thursday, 28 February, 2008, 11:28 GMT 11:28 UK

A 14yr old advocating refugee rights for internally displaced persons(Respect Refugees) recently wrote to me and said this… [I am quite relieved that the violence did not escalate into another full-blown Rwanda or Burundi or Sudan. What do you think, Mr. Makana? What do you think would be a good solution? I mean, it looks as if the only thing that will satisfy each opposing political leader is power.] I responded… [Power consumes a lot of leaders. It intoxicates their judgment] Why Kenya?

Jeff Makana, Kisii, Kenya

To add to this debate I decided to add the following comments to dissect unemployment amongst the youths in Kenya.

To my audience, I truly apologize for few updates to the site. As things return to normalcy in Kenya so will be my updates. Just understand that in Kenya Internet is still slow and expensive.

The Youth Control Kenya’s Destiny

When will the youth be engaged to understand some of the major anti-social and social issues they face? In Kenya the youths are part of the highest segment of the population unemployed.

With the cost of higher education sky-rocketing many youths have lost hope in the government system turning to alcohol and drugs which creates petty crimes to support those habits. Politicians only make promises during campaign seasons only to return 5yrs later with more promises just to get votes. These politicians of course in the 5yrs become rich and richer by becoming part of the corruption syndrome entrenched in our society.

The government… now that a political agreement to the current crisis in Kenya has been reached… should speed up the process of creating jobs or micro-loans for higher educations or to start small businesses to help the youth come out the shadows of unemployment.

The government should speed up ICT Millennium challenge goals implementation that can absorb a big portion of the population without college degrees or higher education.

Teenage pregnancies are at a record high in Kenya… how can a child take care of a child? The government doesn’t have social welfare programs equipped to give assistance in these sad situations.

Families in Kenya cannot even say that they are fighting for bread and butter issues since bread and butter are luxuries that only the “well of” can afford. The average families struggle to Just have even “ugali” and “sukuma wiki”(collard greens) let alone shelter since over 300,000 persons are internally displaced from their rightfully owned properties.

The youths are tired of rhetoric and it is time for taxpayer’s money to be put into good use… Simply act.

Jeff Makana

Chief Editor.