Factors Affecting Youth Participation in Capacity Development Initiatives in Slums: the Case of Makadara Slums, Nairobi County

Abstract

Poor urban areas (slums) in Kenya are growing at an alarming rate, Nairobi city not exempted. 60 to 80 % of Kenyan urban population lives in slums with 60 % of Nairobi population living in slums (UN-Habitat Report 2010). Majority of the slum dwellers are the youths who are faced with a lot of challenges like unemployment, poverty, illiteracy, early pregnancies, HIV/AIDs, crimes among others. With regard to the above mentioned challenges facing youth in slums, special attention to promoting youth participation in capacity development initiatives is wanting as this will help youth build their capacities, create job opportunities for them and increase their livelihood. Kenya government has made effort towards youth development programmes and policies like youth fund, uwezo fund and current youth empowerment program in slums. However, youth problems in slums have been worsening despite the remarkable initiatives offered by the government and other development actors. The uptake of these initiatives by the youth has remained low. Therefore this study investigated the factors affecting youth participation in capacity development initiatives in Makadara Sub-county slums. The Probit model was employed in the data analysis and the statistics was presented in through means, standard deviations and frequencies. Hundreds youth and five lead informants were interviewed through use of questionnaires. Youth participation was the dependent variable in the study, while explanatory variables were education level, expenditure, gender, age, awareness, willingness, and political connections. The results from the estimation model showed that education level, expenditure, political connection, age, gender and awareness significantly explained the variability in youth participation in capacity development initiatives. Therefore, the study recommends the development and implementation of various policies and key initiatives that will address youth participation and issues related to young people.