Netherlands Institute for Multiparty Democracy

Fixed seats and a shared history in Uganda
Josh Maiyo explains that the situation in the three countries in East Africa is quite distinct. In Uganda there seems to be integration between youth and political parties. Some parties have youth wings, although the level and strength varies. The Democratic Party (DP) youth wing (Uganda Young Democrats) for instance, is quite independent and relatively strong. They are able to play an activist role and sometimes hold differing opinions expressed within the party as well as in the media. The Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) has a youth wing, but it is not that easy to assess their funding or the amount of power they have within the party. The Uganda Peoples Congress (UPC), on the other hand, has the youth integrated in party structures. Maybe more importantly, the Ugandan Parliament has a distinct feature: it allocates a fixed number of seats (5 out of 319) to youth (as it does to the army, workers, women and people with disabilities).

While the leadership of political parties may be seen to be pulling apart, the youth across the party divide seem to share stronger affiliations with each other. Uganda Young Democrats’ (UYD) Sulaiman Kidandala attributes this to a shared history in the sense that almost all youth party leaders across the country were natured in the UYD as student leaders at universities and other higher institutions. This is because at its inception in 1995, UYD was a non-partisan platform for all youth who cherished and agitated for political pluralism. There was also the non-partisan, government sponsored National Youth Council (NYC) which helped to groom young people in leadership skills. The NYC has fallen dormant since the introduction of multi-party democracy and the creation of distinct youth wings in each party.

Lack of confidence in Tanzania
The situation in Tanzania is quite different. The party political environment is dominated by the main party, Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM), in power since 1961 (under different names). The enduring strength and dominance of the ruling party can be attributed in part to the country’s political history and the role that its predecessors, the Tanganyika African National Union (TANU) and the Afro-Shirazi Party (ASP) in Zanzibar, played in the independence struggle. The fusion of the two parties in 1977 following the Union of Tanganyika and Zanzibar led to the formation of CCM, a formidable national mass party. The adoption of socialism and the personal influence and charisma of Tanzania’s founding president Mwalimu Julius Nyerere under the Ujamaa (African Socialism) system played a significant role in entrenching the party throughout all structures of leadership, government and the wider society. The popularity and dominance of CCM thus has remained strong even as the country reverted to a multi-party political system in 1992.

Josh Maiyo indicates that it was difficult for him to really estimate the role that youth play in Tanzania. Some interviews, especially with youth and women representatives, were conducted in the presence of other senior party officials. In many cases, the respondents appeared to feel intimidated and showed lack of confidence and limited appreciation of their role in the party and the political environment in general.

In general it seems as if the high level of civic awareness among the youth in the wider society has not translated into significant participation within political parties. CCM has an elaborate recruitment structure targeting the youth and has a well-established youth wing with its own separate offices, structures and funding. The situation is however different among opposition parties. Most opposition parties have provisions for youth wings within their party structures as stipulated in their constitutions and manifestos. For example they have youth leaders incorporated within the executive organs of the party at different levels. In practice however, they do not have any significant influence in the formulation of party policies, programmes or decision making structures. The participation of the mass of the youth is largely limited to election campaigns. While many youth wing members would like to run their own programmes, they are limited by lack of internal party support, organisational capacity and limited funding.

The youth are, however, pushing for a more prominent role in the nation’s politics. This is a relatively recent phenomenon. There is a generational struggle between the youth and the older party stalwarts for political power and participation. Dar es Salaam University professor Benadetta Kilian states that, influenced by the increased information flow and higher levels of education among the youth, young people are getting restless and all political parties have a youth problem. The parties have to deal with an emerging segment of members who are aspiring to become leaders and are demanding generational change.

Many parties therefore recognise the significant potential of the youth. Opposition party Chadema, for instance, says it is putting in place deliberate measures to bring them to the mainstream. To develop and strengthen their own autonomous organs (wings) and empower them to conduct their own programmes. The other strategy is to step up membership recruitment targeting these groups and give them a significant share in the running of the party. Opposition party TLP on the other hand is pushing for the establishment of a national youth committee.

Unlike Uganda, there are no reserved seats for the youth in the Tanzania national assembly but those elected competitively have formed a vibrant ‘young parliamentarians association’. They define their own agenda around specific issues of common interest and whenever they find anomalies in the working of parliament, they speak out against the older MPs.

A World Youth Parliament in Kenya
“Party caucuses for special interest groups such as women and youth wings are crucial in achieving greater intra-party democracy”, Josh Maiyo argues. These are, however, not fully developed and are not operational in most political parties in Kenya. There is not much evidence of a strong focus in revamping and strengthening these institutions which are only mobilised during election campaigns and soon after neglected once they have served their purpose.

The political context in Kenya does not really allow the growth and development of youth wings, since the political landscape is very fluid and volatile. The formation of political parties and coalitions has changed very often over the past years, without solid consent of the membership. The new ‘Political Parties Act’ is, however, trying to stabilise and regulate political parties, including internal democracy, coalition formation and party funding. However, this new Act, although accepted by Parliament, is highly contested and political parties fear deregistration in case they fail to meet stringent requirements under the new law. This has encouraged parties to form a coalition to challenge the Act in court, considering it to be unconstitutional.

Although the youth may currently experience limited possibilities for meaningful political participation within political parties, they are highly active in many other spheres. They have, for instance, founded a ‘World Youth Parliament’, in April this year, to unite and empower the youth to become a political actor. International cooperation could be really valuable in the further development of this initiative. “Youth are very proud and bolstered by contacts and cooperation with international networks”, Josh Maiyo argues. “It is important to encourage the youth to be more assertive and claim power from the party leaders, and to fire them up!”

Josh Maiyo (36) is a Kenyan researcher and political scientist currently based in Amsterdam. He holds an M.Sc. in Political Science from the University of Amsterdam and an M.Phil. in African Studies from Leiden University in the Netherlands.