Bringing young people into democratic participation

Introduction

Across Kenya, young people participate in public life in many ways. But democratic participation extends beyond voting. It can include accessing information, engaging with public institutions, organising around issues and having a voice in decisions that affect their communities.

Sauti Yetu, a civic organisation wanted to better understand why some young people participate actively while others feel disconnected from political institutions and decision-making.

Through a WatchTower deployment, young people could share their experiences, concerns and ideas about participation in democracy in their own languages.

“We talk about politics all the time, but we do not always feel heard.”

One report captures one young person’s experience. But when similar reports emerge across different communities, they can reveal patterns that individual stories or election statistics may not show.

WatchTower was used to bring these experiences together and make barriers to youth participation easier to understand.

Hearing what the numbers can miss

Voter registration and turnout figures can show how many young people participate in elections. But they do not always explain what shapes participation between elections or why some young people choose to engage while others remain disconnected.

Young people can describe challenges around access to political information, civic education, youth representation, political organising and participation in local decision-making.

Community reporting creates another layer of evidence, grounded in what young people are experiencing and identifying in their own communities.

How we listened

WatchTower was deployed to make it easier for young people to share their experiences and for the organisation to understand what was happening across communities.

Reporting in familiar languages:

Young people could share their experiences in languages they were comfortable using, making it easier to participate without first translating their experiences.

Voice and text reporting:

Participants could submit reports by voice or text, giving them different ways to describe their experiences and concerns.

Translation and organisation:

WatchTower helped transcribe, translate and organise reports so experiences shared across different languages and communities could be understood together.

Connecting related reports:

Reports could be explored across location, age group, theme and time, helping recurring experiences and barriers to participation become easier to identify.

Privacy by design:

Reports could be handled with appropriate safeguards for personal information, particularly where participants shared sensitive experiences about political participation.

A picture began to emerge

As reports accumulated, individual experiences started to connect.

Related reports

94

Communities

18

Languages

56

Reporting period

8months

Where reports came from

Reports highlighted concerns around political information, trust in institutions, civic education, youth representation and opportunities to participate in local decision-making.

Together, these reports helped build a clearer picture of the experiences shaping young people’s participation in public life across different communities.

From evidence to action

Listening is only useful if what young people share can inform what happens next.

The organisation could use the evidence to shape civic education, youth leadership and participation programmes around issues young people identified themselves.

The reports could also help identify where young people experience barriers to participation and where additional opportunities for engagement may be needed.

Why it matters

Democratic participation is not only about voting. It also depends on whether people can access information, engage with public institutions, organise around issues and contribute to decisions affecting their communities.

When young people can share these experiences in their own languages, and those experiences can be connected and understood together, individual reports can contribute to a clearer picture of how young people experience participation in public life.

WatchTower helps organisations listen to the people they are trying to engage.