Youth in Kenya Hit Hard by Unemployment, Young Faith Leaders Respond with Media and Humanitarian Aid

The Kenya Interfaith Youth Network-Religions for Peace (KIYN) executive board members have been on the front lines of the fight against COVID-19 in Kenya, leading a series of youth-led activities targeting their fellow youth communities. From delivering messages of hope and resilience to providing basic necessities like food packages, there has never been a time for youth to express solidarity with their fellow young people like this current moment.

Five months have passed since Kenya reported its first confirmed case of COVID-19 in March, a mixture of fear, stigmatisation, uncertainty and impatience defines the dominant feelings of a battered society, particularly young people. Months of partial lockdowns, restrictions of movement and gathering, and a dawn-to-dusk nationwide curfew have required people to stay home and social distance, thus amplifying the psychological and mental impact of the pandemic. The population has grown weary as a result. With President Uhuru Kenyatta having earlier warned that over half of a million Kenyans could lose their jobs in the subsequent six months, young people–who are the majority holders of most of the temporary jobs in Kenya– have been the most impacted as they fall squarely in this bracket.

The negative consequences of COVID-19 have not spared the religious youth. The need for constant reassurances of hope and commitment towards resilience has been more apparent, as many religious young people have also lost their jobs. This was at the core of the need for the intervention of the youth in a peer encouragement and support initiative, that Keith Obiero, Ravi Shah and Edith Kemunto alongside their religious youth stepped in to support.

Mike Obiero, Youth Representative Organisation of African Instituted Churches (OAIC)

Mike Obiero, a member of the KIYN Executive Board, represents the Organization of African Instituted Churches (OAIC) and is professionally a medical social worker. He took the opportunity to give back to his community by working at the frontlines of the pandemic as a volunteer. Dressed in the now near-common personal protective equipment  (PPE) gear, Mike joined teams of community health workers and assisted in COVID-19 containment measures by spraying shared community spaces where transmission is most likely to occur including markets and youth hangout joints in the informal settlement areas. He also held information sessions as part of local efforts towards community education on the various prevention and safety measures to combat and contain COVID-19.

Mr. Ravi Shah, Director of Youth And Volunteers, Hindu Council of Kenya (HCK)

Mr. Ravi Shah, Director of Youth and Volunteerism at the HCK and member of the KIYN Executive Board, mobilised fellow youth of faith and joined activities to alleviate the direct economic impacts of COVID-19. Young religious leaders conducted a food drive that brought together youth from diverse faith traditions to donate food products and sanitation essentials like hand sanitizers and masks. Moreover, they invited non-Hindu families every Saturday to the HCK where food and clothing could be donated to those most vulnerable in a warm gesture of “welcoming the other.”

Mr. Ravi Shah was also an asymptomatic carrier of COVID-19. After overcoming the virus throughout a period of self-isolation, he was further committed to serving humankind through his efforts as a young faith leader.

Edith Kemunto, Youth Representative, Seventh-Day Adventist Church (SDA)

Ms. Edith Kemunto is a youth leader from the SDA Church and a member of the KIYN Executive Board. She teamed up with fellow youth leaders to mobilise over 100 colleagues in a mass messaging and digital awareness-raising campaign using SDA’s Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter accounts. The main goal of the campaign was to spread messages of hope and resilience to youth, most of whom were undergoing unsettling emotions of uncertainty and anger at the government’s strict measures to curb the spread of COVID-19. With music being an important tool of worship within the SDA Community, the campaign engaged musical composers and created musical pieces that conveyed strong messages of hope and encouragement under the hashtag #BeatTheVirus, reaching an impressive 10,000 youth from the SDA community and other faith traditions.

Whenever young people from diverse faiths unite to share ideas for common action, as witnessed at the Kenya Interfaith Youth Network-Religions for Peace, their individual capacity advances tenfold through the strength, impact, and power of collective engagement. This was witnessed when young religious leaders from various religious backgrounds led from the frontlines of the pandemic to contribute to global efforts to reduce the spread of COVID-19 in Kenya.