Effects of second generation alcohol consumption on youth’s political participation: the case of machakos county

Abstract

Although perceived changes in political participation patterns amongst young people in recent years have attracted much academic research in Kenya, this remains an understudied area in the newer post counties of Kenya. Generally, researchers have shown that although many young people are increasingly shunning traditional forms of political involvement, such as voting, political party membership, instead they are turning to more direct methods such as volunteering and protest. Despite evidence that young people in recently established counties may also have low levels of electoral participation and party membership, there is little understanding of whether this is due to negative perception of politics, economic and social hardship, incarceration by drugs for example alcoholism(second generation alcohols) or indeed reflect trends in the established counties.As active political participation plays a vital role in the improvement of the quality of democracy and governance, this represents an imperative gap in our knowledge. From this standpoint, the aim of this project was to address the logics behind lack of or lessening of political participation among youths in Machakos County majoring on second generation alcohols as a core contributing factor. This project aimed to examine the effects of second generation alcohol consumption on youths’ political participation with regards to voting, joining and membership to political parties, attending political forums, trust of political institutions, political violence and protests. To examine the effects of this menace on youths political participation in Machakos County, the researcher used various data collection methodologies both secondary sources and primary sources, in which youths consuming illicit brews and key informants in the county were interviewed. It was unraveled that, second generation alcohol consumption is widespread in Machakos County and that; the people with second generation alcohol problems are mainly youths. Many factors contribute to the problem such as idleness, poverty, unemployment, and more, and the problem affects many more people than just the people drinking the liquor. The researcher found that many young people in Machakos County have indulged in consumption of illicit brews and this has had a negative impact on their political participation. The information gathered was meant to help the providing suggestions to help solve this problem in Machakos County. The researcher has provided strategies to enhance youth political participation and also Strategies to combat the menace of second generation alcohol consumption in Machakos County through the recommendations made.