on training and insufficient youth
engagement of the private sector
to guarantee sustainability (UNDP,
2000).
Youth climbing up the corporate and
even political world is as a result of
deliberate programs on mentorship
and youth empowerment. The
political class keeps promising the
youth that they will be considered
in the government of the day in
leadership positions but what is
given are token positions. The
corporate scene is equally a victim
with the exceptions of a few
multinational and some few local
companies. For example Centum
Investment Limited has a CEO who
just shy of reaching 40 years old.
This is laudable and other corporate
organizations can follow suit.
Youth empowerment is the
interventions that regularly
involve young people as partners
and participants in the decision-
making processes that determine
program goals, planning and/
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or implementation. With the
support of caring adults, programs
engage young people in program
leadership as a characteristic of
their involvement in safe, positive,
and structured activities outside of
formal education.
Youth empowerment involves a
collective, democratic, and pro-
social process of engagement, which
implies group interaction. Youth
empowerment is the interventions
that regularly involve young people
as partners and participants in the
decision-making processes that
determine program goals, planning
and/or implementation.
Youth empowerment is an
attitudinal, structural, and cultural
process whereby young people gain
the ability, authority, and agency
to make decisions and implement
change in their own lives and the
lives of other people and society at
large.
Ecological theory of empowerment
combines both “individual
determination over one’s own life
and democratic participation in
the life of one’s community. It
conveys both a psychological sense
of personal control or influence
and a concern with actual social
influence, political power, and legal
rights. This has been applied to
programs with youth through a
community empowerment approach
to prevent substance abuse, an
issue traditionally addressed by
health education models that focus
primarily on behavior change (Delp
et al., 2005).
Manufacturing companies play
an important role in the Kenyan
economy, but increasing competition
through globalization puts them
under considerable pressure.
Therefore, one basic question
is whether youth participation
in organization innovation of
these firms is happening as they
understand better the emerging
trends in the global platform.
However the answer to this question