By Jackie Adhyambo
There is a time to call a spade a spade and idle moments to toy with conjecture. With Kenya’s demography of under 35 years estimated at 75% and 70% of hospitality jobs being youth-held, social order and decorum are imperatives of economic survival but certainly not vacuous idealism.
Come to think of it… Beneath the majestic canopy of acacia trees in the Maasai Mara, some youthful Kenyans act as tour guides to awestruck tourists. Somewhere in Samburu, a charm of gorgeous young African beauties is immersed in beadwork for sale to visitors who adore and purchase our cultural mementos that end up funding village’s school and clean water projects. Along Kenya’s coast youthful digital content creators film hidden gems for global audiences while tens of tech innovators roll out brilliant TikTok content to market Kenya to the world. Clearly, many livelihoods of Kenya’s youth pulse with the rhythms of visitor flows.
The combined future of such dynamic and ingenious youthful Kenyans is inextricably tied to one industry – tourism, the proverbial golden goose that only thrives best in an atmosphere of unbroken peace. Given that fact, noxious hirelings, hoodlums and assorted anarchists who infiltrate peaceful picketing staged by well-intentioned youth are enemies of progress and ignoble antagonists of good order. They should be called out and banished from polite society to which an overwhelming majority of Kenyan youth belongs.
Let us point out solid examples of impactful engagements of youth in tourism in Kenya. In the heart of one of Kenya’s most iconic terrains you will find the Samburu Youth Tourism Initiative, which regales hundreds of travellers in local homestays. Profits accruing from their engagements fund diverse community projects to the satiety of both the locals and visitors. Consider also the Kenyatta University-based Global Tourism Resilience and Crisis Management Centre that is propelling young innovators in the tourism arena, a bunch of whom triumphed at Dubai’s Future Leaders Challenge earlier this year. Such opportunities easily disappear into thin air when instability strikes.
Tourism is by far the economic sector with the greatest potential for it is dependent on emotive connections visitors attach to destinations. What we make or promise to make visitors feel is the currency that drives tourism. Above all, if we project ours as an atmosphere threatened by chaos and unsafe shores we necessarily shoot ourselves in the foot because essentially tourism is a peace-dependent ecosystem.
Research by the Institute for Economics and Peace confirms that tourism and peace are mutually reinforcing and that sustainable tourism builds “Positive Peace”, whose backbone is a system of social structures that nurture and sustain harmony. Rwanda next door exemplifies this quite tangibly by paving the way for visitors to leave with transformed perspectives. This is hugely critical for a continent the West has serially dismissed as a maelstrom of perpetual tumult and a jungle of unending despair.
Before you accuse me of raining magma on a segment of Kenya’s society—the avowed anarchists among us—I happily acknowledge that peaceful advocacy for justice is every Kenyan’s right. But we should not entertain those hijacking legitimate dissent, misfits who target infrastructure for destruction or those who sabotage social order.
When airports shut down or cities burn tourists keep off, and abandon travel booking, investors in the hospitality and tour industry where many youthful Kenyans eke a living close shop and like a joke, jobs and sources of livelihoods suddenly vanish. Should Kenya really risk this self-sabotage?
Instead of waiting to be nudged to action we should use our globally renowned social media savvy capabilities to market Kenya’s unmatched resplendence in youth-driven initiatives through Instagram reels and virtual tours. That way, we can silence false narratives of unrest. With our ingenuity, we can advocate for policies that ensure tourism revenues reach communities equitably and preach order while benefits accrue, get shared and transform livelihoods.
We should also be intentional in isolating infiltrators into our affairs who vandalize infrastructure and those who incite violence. Their misinformed “resistance” steals our sister’s hotel job or our brother’s safari income. Moreover, we can innovate responsibly by pioneering causes for sustainable tourism by using our knowledge to support the set up of eco-lodges, plastic-free tours, and cultural preservation.
Let us be guardians of the golden goose through our unwavering commitment to the defence of stability that lets us all thrive.
Adhyambo is a Nakuru-based knowledge management consultant.
