Kenya Muslim Youth Alliance -

About Kenya Muslim Youth Alliance (KMYA)

Youth after attending a KMYA organised workshop.

The Kenya Muslim Youth Alliance (KMYA) is an independent national youth network founded in November 2003 to empower young Muslims through constructive engagement and encourage participa-tion in nurturing democratic, healthy, and peaceful and a just society for all. KMYA accomplishes its goals through capacity building, networking, dialogue, research, health related programs, advocacy and information dissemination.

The leadership of KMYA appreciates the fact that young Muslims require specific programs that are designed for their special needs to facilitate acquisition of knowledge; skills and attitudes to enable them cope with the demands of a fast changing world without compromising their Islamic values. Currently, the Alliance boasts of broad membership comprising of 153 youth led community based organizations (CBOs), subscriber base of over 50,000 youth spread all over the country, relatively posi-tive profiles and an entrenched institutional goodwill. The organization is served by a professional and competent team of nine Board members with proven abilities and passion for youth development and well-being.

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Vision, Mission Objectives and Values

VIsION The Muslim youth potential are nurtured and positively harnessed.

MIssION To ensure that the Muslim youth have a voice, access to resources, promote knowledge creation and dis-semination, and nurture community’s future leadership.

OBjeCTIVes i. To provide a functional consortium that is charged with the responsibilities of promoting the interests of the Muslim youth in Kenya. ii. To focus on integrated program approach towards addressing challenges facing the youthful Muslim community. such challenges include grass root leadership gaps, illiteracy, poverty alleviation, participatory governance, human rights observance and HIV/AIDs among other emerging challenges. iii. To strengthen the capacities of the Muslim youth organizations (e.g. societies, CBOs, FBOs etc) in their efforts to realize their specific objectives and aspirations iv. To pool human and financial resources together to achieve the members’ objectives.

VAlues •Democraticgovernanceandmanagement. •Holisticandintegratedapproachesinprogramminginterventions. •Genderequityandfullenjoymentof humanrightsbyallincludingtheminorityand disadvantaged. •Transparencyandaccountabilityinresourceutilization. •Entrenchmentof stabilityandsocialsustainability.

Garissa youth: KMYA promotes the interests of the Muslim youth in Kenya.

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KMYA has two fully-fledged modern secretariats that coordinates and implements its programs in Kenya. The National secretariat is based in Nairobi and coordinates activities in the North east, Western and Central regions of the Republic of Kenya while the Mombasa regional office manages programs and activities in the entire Coastal region.

Secretariat

KMYA Regional Secretariate along Moi Avenue-Mombasa.

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Muslim youth outside the KMYA Mombasa office.

Core Programs

since inception the Alliance has designed and implemented a number of projects that include the following:

1: Muslims Youth leadership Development Program

2: Issue Based Advocacy and Awareness Creation

3:GoodandParticipatoryGovernance,DemocraticDevelopmentandHumanSecurity

4: Networking, Partnership and Coalition Building

5: Media

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1: Muslims Youth Leadership Development Program

Kenya Muslim Youth Alliance hosted the Muslim youth parliament.

The basic principle and intention of the Muslim Youth leadership Program (MYlDP) is to encourage young Muslims to dream, discover, design, and create their destiny by challenging existing systems that are not corresponding to the demands of the modern society.

KMYA experience of working with a variety of organizations and groups has proven that by focusing on young peoples skills, strengths and abilities; society will significantly increase propensity to perform better and maximize individual positive potential.

under the MYlDP thematic area, the Alliance has trained 1200 youthful Imams and leaders of youth initiatives and those drawn from institutions of higher learning. In line with its objective of nurturing community’s leadership, KMYA has developed capacities of youth leaders drawn from youth led initiatives at the grassroots across the country.

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2: Issue Based Advocacy and Awareness Creation

KMYA meets the Interim Independent Electoral Commission, Chairman, Issack Hassan.

Involvement of youth in leadership requires concerted efforts, awareness creation and articulation of youth specific issues through well-designed and tailored advocacy campaigns and related strategies. Development of IeC materials and messaging plays a significant role.under Issue Based Advocacy and Awareness Creation thematic focus, KMYA has worked successfully on the following areas: 1.Monitoring and Advocacy of the Implementation of Agenda 4: Truth justice and Reconciliation Commission (TjRC). Through this project, the organization successfully managed to develop the capacity of the local Muslim communities inNairobi,Nakuru,Eldoret,Kisumu,Nyeri,Garissa,IsioloandMombasa.

Communities’ leadership was also organized to be able to prepare and present memoranda to TjRC on historical injustices and to seek reparations.

2. Carried out national level advocacy campaigns through publication of issue based articles and opinions in both the New Dawn and The star publications with the aim of guiding the national discourses and raising the youth voice.

3. Carried out campaigns through Bulk sMs system advocating for peace and peaceful coexistence during the referendum.

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3: Good and Participatory Governance, Democracy and Human Security

GoodandParticipatoryGovernance,DemocraticDevelopmentandHumanSecurityconstitutesthematic planks of the Alliance’s programmatic engagements. since human security is tri level i.e. individual, institutional and structural, it is therefore necessary to base peace building efforts in the lives of the marginalized people- ‘frustrated youth”. KMYA has established that the unemployed youth are forming an ‘army’ of idle people who could easily be manipulated to swing into directed actions and cause political instability and social chaos in the region and the country as a whole.

Peace and human security is core to human development and societal progress. Taking into account the fact that Muslims inhabited areas are characterized by incessant conflicts and instability in the neighbor-ing countries, participation of the Muslim youth in peace building and conflict management initiatives is critical.

under this thematic area, the Alliance has implemented the following programs:

1. Peace and security for Development (PsD) PsD program is considered to be one of the most successful initiatives KMYA has undertaken. The objective of the program is to promote peaceful coexistence by building linkages between youth led initiatives, community leadership, institution of the village elders and the provincial administration. The program successfully bridged the gap between the Muslim youth and the provincial administration, human rights organizations and clerics. This program managed to develop capacities of 240 young men and women through learning Circles (lC).

2. National Civic education Program II (NCeP II) KMYA participated in the National Civic education Program II with the main objective of imparting knowledge on the content of the new constitution so as to make informed decisions when voting during the referendum. The program trained and deployed 30 paralegals across the country. During its implementation, the program applied the following strategies to reach out to the communities; youth parliament, Village Barazas, soccer tournament and road shows.

Mombasa Katiba Road show.

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Participants in group work during the National Youth Forum Conference in 2010.

4: Networking, Partnership and Coalition building leadership involves networking around issues, partnerships and coalition building with like-mindedindividualsandinstitutions.GivenmyriadchallengesfacingKenyanMuslim youth in particular, networking, partnership and coalition building with likeminded individuals constitutes an inescapable step in contemporary leadership. under this thematic area, KMYA implemented the following programs:

a) National Youth Forum (NYF) KMYA is the current host of the National Youth Forum (NYF). Through its leadership, NYF has grown to be the leading youth movement in Kenya. NYF membership currently stands at 20, 000 with a subscriber base of 1.5 million across the country.

b)PartnershipwithInterimIndependentElectoralCommission(IIEC)-GetOuttheVote Project GetOutTheVoteprogramwasimplementedjointlywithIIECSouthRift,SouthWest and North Coast. It was aimed at sensitizing the community particularly the youth on the need to register as voters to vote during the referendum and subsequent elections. In Coast region, the project directly mobilized 142, 300 voters in 8 constituencies thanks to the partnership and cooperation of IIeC through house-to-house and media campaigns, village barazas and public rallies.

c) Partnership with the Committee of experts (Coe) KMYA distributed 102, 000 copies of the Harmonized Draft Constitution (HDC) in partnership with the Committee of experts and through its own network and that of the National Youth Forum (NYF) grassroots network.

d) live Televised Town Hall Meetings As the host organization of the National Youth Forum, KMYA hosted live Televised Town Hall Meetings during pre-referendum period to mobilize young people to vote and vote peacefully.

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5: Media Strengthening and Support Program-The New Dawn Publication

New Dawn

The New Dawn publication have recorded the following successes since its inception:

•Carriedout8regionallaunchestargetingtheMuslimleadership,businesspeopleandother stakeholders with the aim of increasing its market portfolio and to attract advertisements for sustainability. •PromotefeedbackfromreaderstounderstandissuesaffectingtheMuslimyouththrough Bulk sMs system. •Reducedpublication’spublishingtimeframefrommonthlytobi-monthlypublication.

Broadcast Radio Programs

KMYA have been running a number of radio programs with the aim of imparting civic knowledge and promoting dialogue around issues of concern to young people and the society at large. Radio Rahma in Mombasa airs Tuzungumze 1 hour live radio program on sunday evening. A New Dawn newspaper distributer.

The media plays an important role in shaping the opinions, ideals and practices of the society, espe-cially the youth. The advent and penetration of Information Technologies (IT), presents both oppor-tunities and challenges for the youth. IT presents great business opportunities for the youth. However, IT also predispose the youth to social ills such as pornography. Cognizant of these opportunities and challenges, KMYA uses it’s in-house media-the New Dawn to positively influence the youth.

KMYA has published and distributed the New Dawn in Kenya since 2007.The New Dawn provides readers with general news as well as news and stories about the Muslim community, the Islamic religion, and the importance of tolerance in a pluralistic society. Many articles clearly focused on democratic institutions, good governance and accountability.

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6: KMYA Partners

•BritishHighCommission

•USAIDKenya

•RoyalDanishEmbassy

•CanadianHighCommission

•Embassyof theUnitedStatesof America

•CordaidFoundation

•URAIA

•NationalEndowmentforDemocracy(NED)

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