Democracy through the eyes of Gen Z

Greetings wherever you may be. Welcome to yet another international idea video podcast. And uh topic for today is democracy through the eyes of Gen Z. And uh true to that topic, I am here accompanied by two distinguished Gen Z activists. Uh there's Tashi Lazum who is a climate advocate Gen Z activist who had turned to uh be a politician and she ran in the last elections in Nepal in March 2026. Um and uh she hails from uh Himalayan village in uh Nepal um called uh Halji. Correct. Welcome Tashi. Thank you for being with us. And I'm also very happy to be accompanied by Ada Allens uh another Gen Z activist. Uh he comes from Kenya. um and he's been in the forefront of the uh campaign for uh young people's voter registration in Kenya and uh the uh campaign is called # Nikocadi which means um I've got the card correct uh and the card refers to the voter registration card. Welcome Adam. >> It's my pleasure being here. Thank you for having us on the board. Uh should I introduce myself? >> Yeah, sure. Um tell us and also tell us how you became an activist. >> Uh so my full name is uh Alansing Adam, but I love when people say Ada Islands. It has some power to it. So [laughter] I'm a Kenyan youth um 26 of age to be specific and uh I'm actively involved and my works uh is more of intersection between uh voter registration uh youth mobilization and also I work best in making sure that the youth are actively engaged in politics and I started that not not last month not the month before, but I started it way back in 2024 after the Jenzi protest that happened in Kenya that was championing for let me just say and to uh finance bill that Kenyans believed was not going to serve them but to serve the masters that is the government and that was going to bring down or that was going to make their lives worse and that was going to let me say just worsen everything in the country. So that's where I started and I was in the front line not as a protester but as a journalist freelance journalist. So I was mostly covering the protest and as a result I got to witness uh young people die. I got to I'm happy that I saved some of them and that is how I got to be known to the public. So by saving some of them is some of them were shot. We rushed them to ambulances. Uh we used our flags to tell the police that these people have been shot and they are peaceful. Uh they're not going to do anything else. What they need is medical attention. And at the same time we also went back while everybody was running. We went back for those who are dead in the street because we were in the line of active fire that was in front of the parliament. Uh so months later I got to be part of a documentary by BBC that is called the blood parliament. So the blood parliament was a documentary that was aiming that aimed at uh exposing those who killed the jenzes who were they working for who hired them and uh what actions were taken or where were they by the time the documentary was coming out. And through the documentary of course I came out as unsung hero. And so I became a national uh sensation and uh it was a national conversation of course but now few months down the line even after all that nothing was nothing happened to those people the people who killed the genesis the people who hired those rogue police officers because they were not the normal police officers in Kenya that is the Kenya police uh nothing happened no prosecution nobody was arrested it just went silent so as As a result, uh I said that we have to do something and if we can't if we can't win through the streets or through the ballot, we uh through the protest, we can win through the ballot. So as a result, I said that what if we do something that is going to push Kenyans, the young Kenyans to actively get involved in politics, not only as the voters but also as the aspirants. So we come up with a hashtag that is called Niko. So nicadi means I have the voters's card and I'm ready to vote. And it's also another version of it of t took. So when we say tukadi is for the plural form we have the voters card. When I say nicadi I have the voters card. So it uh it was a two-word phrase in Kenya that it is a two-word phrase in Kenya that is relating to everyone and fun word a fun phrase. So it's working and as a result we have been able to marshall up to 2.6 6 million Kenyans to register for voting within 1 month and uh the exact number is I have the exact number in my head. It's 2,612,725 new voters. >> Impressive. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. Uh what you said uh earlier, Alan, winning through the ballots. Is that something that prompted you, Tashi, to to run in the elections? And please tell us also what led up to that. Um, thank you so much for having me and uh I'm so happy to join this. This is uh also such a sacred space because I'm sharing with a Kayen uh Gen Z activist and leader. Uh cuz uh all Gen Z across the world have inspired each other to a great extent. Uh what happened in Kenya didn't just stay in Kenya. Uh what happened in Nepal also didn't just stay limited to our border only. It went beyond. It made us uh young youth protest, Jenzi protest across the world be it Kenya, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal or Madagascar. Uh it all show young people's resistance against incumbent and uh incompetent government, democratic government and it solidified uh our right as a young people in the democratic world. Um and uh so how I came up into the picture of this is it started a long time back. I started my journey as a climate activist. Uh the reason I started climate activities and it has to do with my participation in the Gen Z movement here as well is um the mountains are melting everywhere across the world. Climate change is affecting everybody every country but not equally. So some countries are bearing more brunt of it and I believe countries like Kenya and Nepal are also some of the most vulnerable ones from the climate perspective. Um even though our contribution to carbon uh increasing uh is not was almost negligible. Um but to see the country pay for the crimes that it did not do that was too much to handle. And as someone myself who is from the mountains to see the the people in the mountain community paying even more price uh for this uh crisis that they have no uh part uh dead of uh in causing uh if it was injustice it was injustice and I couldn't stay uh okay be with it. I cannot be a mute spectator. Um and on top of that we have a government here. I mean we used to have a government uh that takes a turn that takes their turn in in uh what we call musical chair. There are three or four political major political parties in our nation that uh has in my perspective how they has run the nation is as if the nation is their personal property and keep passing down each other with and and the business and the political elite have some sort of of arranged communication where they protect each other business and the uh political elites. So and Gen Z is a group of young people who has never seen what it means to live under undemocratic regime in Nepal. But what we have seen is we have seen what a what a uh futile democratic country looks like. We have and we have also seen what a good functioning democratic country can do and what is not working in our country. So it's not undemocratic uh regime that uh we don't have an experience living under that but we have a experiences of what it takes to live under what prices we pay by living under an uh under incompetent democratic government. So lot of young people in Nepal are forced to leave the country for the sake of foreign employment and uh there's a massive um brain drain happening and the how government previous government have re reacted to that is some saying some tend to scold the young people saying oh if you are leaving the nation then who's going to build the nation as if it was by choice and then the other is some government oh we're going to look that thing as a positively we're going to see this brain drain is positively they're going to learn their skills and perhaps come back to Nepal. But what is not happening here is the return rate is is not increasing and understandably so because the government and the system is not improving enough to accommodate the great talents uh of Nepali diaspora. You have good talent but your market cannot be able to give you the the same amount of salary and value ranges that uh the other better markets could and that is also the reason that was uh because the economy inside nation wasn't doing well cuz it was the economy wasn't doing well in my perspective is because a lot of the stuffs are rooted in corruption and systematic inefficiencies like I mentioned earlier uh business elite and political elite they always have a synchronized uh stuffs going on behind the backs and it's the it's the middle class lower middle class that pays the prices of it. Um so and for me this is even more important because I come from a multi-layer marginalized community. Why I say this is not only am I indigenous and a woman h I come from a area that is uh physically geographically much more difficult to access very uh remote area. So if the pe if the middle class if the poor people in urban area are paying huge price for uh having in in inefficient government imagine those that are at the fringes of the government or those are very far away from the power. So there are lot of areas in Nepal that are politically ne neglected for years and years in such a way that people have internalized this instead of uh some of them instead of uh finding hope in the government uh they started internalizing okay our government is XYZ this and that they're not going to do anything for us instead of feeling we will be protected by the government or the state and the service delivery will come to them Um so when the when Jenzi movement was happening spreading across social media like a wildfire uh the first thing that came to my mind is how do I engage the people from marginalized background to take part in this mainstream thing this mainstream um revolution against the government. It was not to topple the government. We did not went to the um on the street to topple the government. We want accountability from them. We want uh accountability. We want more uh transparency and less corruption. In fact, in fact, elimination of corruption from the uh from the government and its system. But uh unfortunately young people are hardly seen as a important political stakeholder in the country. So they really underestimated our protest. >> So where did you position yourself then? >> Yes. So well while I was at the forefront of the of the movement and doing there was 30s and 30,000 40,000 people on the street um post Gen Z I'll tell more about what happened during the post Gen Z there were a lot of Gen Z friends and activists who wants to continue being an activist in Jen uh on the street active on the street will continue raise their voice and that is important very important and what's also important is some of us if if they if we want to if we can should go to uh active politics to sustain the politics of Gen Z to sustain the demands of Gen Z in in the parliament. Um because activist at some at some point uh uh so I would say something I really want to uh sustain the vices of Gen Z through parliament >> and also the kind of exposure I got from the Gen Z movement is something that not many get it and I got it because there are so many reasons. One of the major reasons is because this structurally people like me are not supposed to come out and be on top cuz you structurally you we are designed uh to to be suppressed under the system but fighting against the odd um my name popped out for to be a minister of um women, children and senior citizen by the interim government. that was led by Sushi Ki uh who was appointed by Jenzi uh as a prime minister to lead the nation after J after the protest via discord virting and uh and yeah so my name came up and then there were a lot of backlash there were a lot a lot of stuffs going on uh but the most important thing for me was I got the national so much attention enough to consume myself but I didn't let it And I cannot let that just go away. Not that I want the the attention, but this is the first time in the bloodline of indigenous mountain community where a woman from that indigenous marginalized community came uh to the top of the to the top of the what is the word political stage. And that becomes um that spoke a lot that uh that resembles a healing for so many people in the community community and also I represent a a district called Humla district a much marginalized district. So again people from that district hardly make it top. So layers and layers of marginalization I carry and I still manage to be some sort of a a political figure enough to come on on the mainstream media. So that is one reason I wanted to continue because what I represent is something what what I represent for my district for the community that I belong to for the gender that I belong to it was lot of it was a moral responsibility for me to carry that forward if I sustain that pressure media trial uh then I can sustain everything that was one thing and second was some of the Gen Z have to go into parliament not everybody of us can be I think in my opinion should be on on the street. Some of us should really go into cuz asking for change and doing the change are different >> and if you want to do the change systematically try to get into parliament and that's what I did. Um and that was important for me to sustain the movement systematically because movement will have its own expiry date or I would say it will slow down it will cool down after some time but there are some people if there are some people in the parliament that continuously raises the essence of Gen Z uh that is anti-corruption uh transparency accountability good governance um then we really have a long shot of changing the system because changing the system requires a lot of time. Um, so that was my main ambition cuz I really want to not just give a fancy speech about uh about uh the anti-corruption stuff but want to systematically and in a legal manner procedural want to bring that. >> Right. Right. And if if we look at uh so so it looks like Gen Z uh um instigates the protests because of various underlying [snorts] issues in the country. Um and uh these can be seen as economic hardships, corruption, inequality, maybe even exclusion of young people from uh democratic uh processes. Um but then in your eyes, why do you think young people have to then go to the streets and protest? Are there no other means? >> What do you think, Alan? Uh Uh, one thing that I've learned in the past two days is that protest or violence is the voice of the unheard. That is from Martin Luther King, right? >> Uh, so you've asked why the Jesus have to go to the street. Now, this is it. In Kenya, uh, we have a population of 56 million people. And if you do calculations, the young people make the biggest percentage of this population. That means that the future of these young people are at risk many a times when some calculated more non-calculated moves are taken by the politicians or by the government and some of this move is for example when education is not in the picture when the health sector is not in the picture when infra infrastructure is not in the picture. when unemployment is big enough that uh unemployment is big enough that most people now resort to things like violence and drugs. uh when sports is not working yet we have an active population of young people who are actively involved in sport and uh when the government itself is not accommodating enough for the young people to be involved or be their voices be counted in the policym tables now that is going to push these people to the street for the longest time protests have been happening in Kenya but they were partyled politics, politicians politics. Now, there was a shift in the whole in the whole spectrum of politics in Kenya and this happened in 2024. It was a citizen uh protest. It was a citizen it was Kenyansled protest, not Kenyan politicians protest, not Kenyan political parties protest. This was a citizens protest and it happened for almost uh let me say two months because the months that followed after June there were also protest different protest for example there's a point that Kenyan had Kenyans had a protest because our biggest airport our only international uh let me say the biggest airport that is Jen international airport was to be sold to an Indian guy called Adani who is apparently a developer with all with a lot of uh corruption cases around him across the world not only in Kenya. So protest followed but now this is the right answer. The reason the young people have to resort to protest is because it comes to a level that we say that if they're not going to listen to what we are saying, if not if they're not going to follow the constitution, if they're not going to respect our future, then you have to demonstrate it through the protest. Our constitution is very clear in Kenya and we have the best constitution in Africa and the first chapter of that constitution says the sovereign power belongs to the people and it might it may be implemented through the representative that is the MP or directly by the people and when you say directly by the people it's simply saying that these people can come out and say that we are going to implement the constitution and there's an article in our constitution that is article 37 that give us right to protest right to pick it, right to peaceful assembly. So the protests are a guaranteed in our constitution. >> So when you see it comes to the level that these young people have to come to the street to exercise their voices then means that the government has failed them to the highest caliber. So that is the main reason and now we have to also look at past the protest. What are we going to be doing? We have tried the protest. it worked. It didn't work. If it worked, what are what are we going to do next? If it didn't work, are we going back to the protest or are we going to use other means? So, yeah. >> Uh but now I'd like to drill down as to how the young people, the youth, the Gen Z organized themselves. Uh you know, I was a university student um in Indonesia in the '90s. Um that doesn't make me a Gen Z, by the way. Um >> you're a retired Gen Z. [laughter] Um uh back then there was no WhatsApp, there was no uh these social media platforms, right? So um uh it took uh longer I suppose to mobilize and organize themselves. So the the the Gen Z's how did you organize yourself yourselves and and therefore able to mobilize what happened uh in uh we've we've seen what happened in in Nepal and also in Kenya Kenyans the first main the main agenda that made Kenyans to have a mega protest was the finance bill 2024 and uh In all the years that Kenya got its imp independence, there has not been an active participation of young people in political matters like the finance bill like the way it happened since 2024 and today. It actually changed the trajectory of everything. how people perceive politics, how people engage with politicians, how the politicians engage with the young people and how the politicians actually walk around, what the politicians say, the places that the politicians visit and even the people that they meet. >> But now this is how our protest was organized. So the Kenyan protest first we were against the finance bill and until we were in the streets nobody was aware that the protests were going to happen. >> So there was a a tangible object objective. Yeah. >> Uh we had an objective we had an agenda and it was not ending at the finance bill. It was also including transparency uh competency the track record what these people have been doing the corruption that has been happening in Kenya because we felt like we are having this expensive finance bill but this finance bill is most importantly going to finance the lavish lifestyle of these politicians what she has just said now this is it social media has been a key factor in protest that happen across the world. Uh let me say since this protest started, if you can see Bangladesh, Kenya, uh uh Nepal and any other country that has gone to the protest in the recent year. So we are in 2026. What we have to do or what we have to give credit is adaptations. So if protest were organized a certain way in the past, it's not going to be organized the same way because at the same time when you want when young people want to go to the street, the first place that they're going to start the protest is through the social media platforms. In Kenya, we are mostly active on X. We are active on Instagram. We are active on Facebook and Tik Tok. Now days before the protest, there was a active conversation around the finance bill. There was an active conversation about the corruption that that that was happening in Kenya at that time. There was active conversation about the how these politicians finance their lavish lifestyle. There was active uh conversation on how our president is able to have at least 20 international trips within one month and all these trips are costing the taxpayers a huge amount of money because we are the people paying for these things. So there was active conversation online and this conversation started uh just from one person then it grew it became organic that it was a national conversation. Uh Kenya is very big and if you find everybody talking about this thing and it also moved from X to Tik Tok people holding Tik Tok lives discussing matters politics. People holding Instagram lives discussing matters politics. some people having uh YouTube uh live streaming discussing matters politics, content creators creating content around matters politics and this finance bill. So one day to the protest the okay the protest happened to before the mega protest that happened on June 24th there were two other protest but on the second protest somebody died is called Rex Masai and has become the symbol of Jenzi revolution or Jenzi protest in Kenya since then. So he was shot by a police officer and people now went to the street in solidarity with one of their lost comrade that is Rex Masai. But the day before that the day before 20 uh 25th of June Kenyans held a 12 hour x space debating whether they should be on the street the next day, what they were going to do in the street the next day, which streets were they going to use to occupy Nairobi. We even had the maps of Nairobi where you can if you are in this area join these people now come this is where we are going to meet. We had the dress code. Our dress code was black. Everybody should be dressed in black. Everybody should be carrying the Kenyan flag as a symbol of uh resistance as a symbol of let me say nationalism as a symbol of patriotism. We even invented our own ways of making sure that should we be tear gas in this process we won't uh feel the effects of the protest. So we said everybody should carry toothpaste. So we were carrying toothpaste. So if you apply toothpaste in your eyes you're not going to feel the effect of uh the tear gas. Yeah. So those were some of the inventive ways and we also had our own uh ways of communicating. There was a app I can't remember the name but through the app somebody could say that don't come to this area the police are blocking this area go through the other it was more like how the police usually communicate and we were receiving massive support online we were there were medical camps that were set up by ordinary Kenyans they say that we are going to if somebody gets injured we are going to attend to them Kenyans in the diaspora were supporting us financially so everything we wanted we were And also Kenyans themselves were contributing in a single day on the day of that protest. Kenyans raised up to 30 million Kenya shillings for the people who got injured for the people who got arrested and bodies like uh the bar association. So the Kenya Law Society uh the law society of Kenya came in handy. Everybody that was arrested was getting free representation at the court and Kenyans stood with. So by the time we were going to the street, everything was planned. We have the medical team, we have the lawyers, uh we have uh even cars that could take people to the hospitals if the ambulances were not there on time. We have people who are trained uh in first aid who could actually attend to people before going going to the medical camps. And also one thing that made the protest success was the resilience that the Kenyans had, the respect that the Kenyans served on following what they discussed the day before. So everything that happened on that protest was organized and I was lucky that I was in the street as early as 8:00 a.m. in the morning. So I witnessed everything that happened. I witnessed people get getting killed and the protest were peaceful. I have to give credit to that until the government now started making it not peaceful because if we are peaceful and you throw the first year guys how do you expect us to react. So that is how it happened. Yeah it is so disheartening to uh to see that there has to be loss of lives first >> before leaders listen. Um I don't think you mentioned discord. No, which was instrumental in Nepal. >> In Kenya, X was instrumental. >> Okay. >> X Tik Tok >> because I could live I live stream the protests the whole day >> and Kenyans had conversation on X the whole day. Yes, internet was shut down but we resorted to VPNs and Kenyans just have inventive ways of doing things. So minus the government trying to control media X was at some point down. It was not operating but it had not it didn't have a lot of effect because minus it being shut down we were already in the streets so there's nothing that you could do but for us it was not discord it was the ex uh the formally Twitter now X >> and Tik Tok was good for live streaming Tik Tok was also good for the short video so uh what actually brought most people in the street is the people went to the street were recording video say We already here where you guys you should join us. So Tik Tok and X were effective. >> I see. I see. Um so just to be clear, you you you mentioned internet shutdown but you were able to get bypass it through VPN. It means that they were blocked not it's not that internet was was stopped around the country, wasn't it? So the those those apps were blocked which what happened in Nepal as well. So, so this is a known uh it's a known measure by governments uh to to to stop protests. Um and and thinking of the some governments of the day uh when we uh think about democratic backsliding these governments came into power through democratic means. I mean through elections, right? But then once they're in power, they weaken the democratic institutions by controlling the legislature, by co-opting the judiciary, therefore amassing their power uh into the executive hands. And this is what we international idea have observed um around the world for the last uh several years already actually. Um, so in in this context, how how do you think this how how do Gen Z see this and um you mentioned earlier that you need to control and you need then to control through elections. So, so do you still believe then that elections is a means to rectify this situation? >> Yeah. Um I think that uh all these uh politicians who who were one of the major who who made Nepal's system very corrupted um inefficient and favors and made it more favorable to the political and business eli are the same people that people have elected uh the so but what is missing here is once you elect somebody for 5 years. Um it is not that you are giving them rule the nation for 5 years in whatever way however they would like to govern. The question the thing here is you elect them for 5 years and you continue to question them through and through and always be critical of it. And when and that's why they say politicians love stupid people. They say cuz if if the citizens don't question them then it's like you giving them a power to be autocratic for 5 years in however way they would like. But Jenz decided not to be uh mute spectator. We questioned a lot. We asked for spaces and when we don't get the spaces, political spaces in traditional platforms, social media become our alternative space. We raise our voice there. We do activism there as in climate activist. I've also done some of the climate activism and mobilization on via social media as well. So it wasn't the first time that a lot of Nepalese are doing it for the first time. Uh mobilizing on social media for young genz's mobilizing on social media is is a very common thing in the case of Nepal it just got a lot weaker and also there's a term called for more fear of missing out. So the more you see your friends participating in the uh in the uh protest and you see them on the social media you too would like to be there's a fear of missing out too. So [snorts] in the middle of the protest also I've I've gotten a call saying is the protest still going on cuz I'm I'm going I'm coming and some of them the calls I got the call when uh the curfew was uh you know curfew was um announced even when the curfew was announced people were still protesting after the genz's uh appointed new new interim government the main goal of mean interum government is to hold the election in next 6 months and uh there were So a lot of progress were going on and most active thing that Jenz's did during that phase was uh be beyond uh having a agreement with the government beyond uh having a genz agreement with the Ethereum government was uh um involving uh registering Gen Z for water card making water lot of Gen Z's become first time voter card in this 2026 election as well and uh by the time uh the ele the registration was done. I think 800,000 Nepali has made a new election card and most of them are genzies. That shows that they really won not only from the street. Now they want to do it via ballot and indeed the ballot worked um ballot work and as the result of 2026 election would have it, it uh was uh well came in the favor of a new political structure that appointed the current prime minister Mr. Balindra Sha from National Independent Party. I also contested election and I did not manage to win. And the reason here is Gen Z was again a digitally driven very decentralized urban centric um protest in Nepal. And I contested from relatively much ruler area called Humla district where internet connectivity is not a thing is not a normal let alone internet connectivity phone connectivity is still a far dream a far cry. So regional imbalances um digital division um is there but I decided I deliberately decided to uh represent my my district >> even though it means more challenge it more challenging for me more expensive for me cuz infrastructures are not in place. So you ended up spending more money on transportation during your campaign and all of this. Yet still I did it because I wanted to show Nepal that uh uh that people from rural area can indeed participate and show the gut to participate and not only that lot of people who died during the Gen Z are people from the provinces like Karnali and Sudarashim. We I belong to Karnali province. So these two are economically and politically uh left out by the system. So a lot of people who are outside of the who are outside of the who belongs from outside the city and came to the city for education and whatsoever purposes lost their life. Um yes and while 800,000 Nepalese more than 800,000 Nepalese young water voter were registered there were also one issue we faced lot of the voters are from during the voting you have to go to your own constituent you cannot vote uh while being in Kathmandu if your home district is not here so you have to travel there and [snorts] uh and that become an issue because a lot of young people's has to come has to travel somewhere where there is better education and opportunity which means they are uh they are located in the city area not in the home district. So that restricted them from participating and we are now advocating for new law that says that interdist district voting should be there. As long as you are in the Nepal there has to be interd district voting has to be enabled so that the people don't have to spend lot of money just to go and vote. The voting should be accessible and affordable. And we also have lot of young Nepalese population diaspora uh who have left the country for uh employment and education purposes abroad and their voices should be heard too. So for that uh the government I believe I mean we are encouraging our government to work more on the uh uh proportional representative voting uh that has to be enabled for our friends in diaspora cuz diaspora population is huge and most of the diaspora are young people and the im and it's increasing the young people leaving the country is increasing. >> Yeah. [laughter] Yeah. that that deserves another podcast actually about um uh people living overseas needing to uh to be able to vote from overseas. There's actually already a podcast on that. So check out International Ideas uh YouTube channel. Let me turn uh to you now. Um, so it sounds like through your movement you are putting elections front and center because because you are uh um mobilizing uh young people encouraging them to vote uh to to register to vote >> right. So do you then be interested in participating contesting in the elections itself? So I've not made my mind whether I'm going to v or I'm not going to vi because another sad reality in as much as I'm talking with a lot of optimism another sad reality is a lot of money is needed in the Kenyan elections just to v for the most uh the smallest position you can v for in Kenya is member of county assembly. So you are a representative of a ward in a county assembly that the smallest position that you can v for. But the Kenyan elections have made it so expensive for the young person to v for these seats. So I'm not coming from a rich background. I'm born and raised in Kra slams. Now Ka slam is actually some of the biggest slams in the world. So that means I'm not that well financially and I'm not going to lie to myself that now because I'm not nationally I'm in a position to win this seats. If I don't convince these people to vote for me, then I'm not going to win this seats. And also money is a key factor in deter determining whether you're going to win or you are going to lose in Kenya. The problem is as money is uh being another determining factor, we have also other issues for you to win elections in Kenya. There's party politics in Kenya and all these party or these political parties are owned by the old politicians who actually don't believe in the leadership of the young people and they believe that young people are there to distract the system and take over. So they're not going to be uh accommodate these young people. So the best way young people are going to v is through independent uh go in as independent candidates which we don't believe it's going to work. Yes, it has worked in one, two, three cases, but we want to occupy these seats massively so that we can control change from inside. So, God willingly, we are going to be in those positions. And Godwing, God willingly, if I say I'm going to v, I'm going going to get the funds to do my campaigns. And if I'm going to v, I'm going to v for the member of uh as member of parliament because I believe the legislature has the biggest power in Kenya. They make the laws. They make the policies. They are in a position to initiate an impeachment for the president. It is one of the biggest powerful houses in Kenya. But the sad truth is it is suffering from what we call in Kenya as state capture. It is there to serve the master that is the president and they also there to serve the highest bidder who pays them the most. So it is a problem that we are trying to fight but yes hopefully I'm going to be on the ballot and as I say reality check money is needed funds are involved and sad reality is the young people don't have the funds it's the old people who have the funds and if the old people are funding you then you are going to be working for them they are the people who put you in position you're not going to be working for these people who you say I'm here to represent them so those are the two or three things that we have to look at before we say that we have to be pushing these people. Unless we say that we are going to unanimously vote for young people to occupy these seats minus being in these political parties minus being affiliate of these people. If we say that we have six elective post in Kenya that all this post what we are going to do is youth for youth that's the campaign that I'm trying to run. So youth for youth vote for youth in those positions. We have 15 million Kenyans that can vote in anybody in those position. So if a youth decides to vote for a youth, the youth can win all this position. And another sad reality is the levels of literacy that I have is not the same as level of literacy in other parts of the country. If we do our campaign on social media, most youth in the rurals are not on social media. So we have to find ways. that since it worked in 2024 that there was unity in whatever was happening in the country so it can happen again. Nothing is stopping us. >> I'm sure I'm sure many people lots of our audience will be wishing you all the best in um in your endeavors. >> Yeah. >> And your political endeavors and um and and the issue of cost of elections. I'm sure that's uh it resonates well in in Nepal as well and in many countries actually and this is why we have another podcast on cost of elections already. Um so please um check it out on our uh YouTube channel. But um this whole issue of campaign financing, political financing is is is a a key pillar of democracy. Um because as you say, if if the people who have the good deeds of wanting to uh to run uh in politics and also be able to um uh uh develop policies that are good for the greater people, but they don't have the money. They they they have a barrier of entry here. And only those who have the the the bad deeds and have the ingredients of becoming bad leaders will be occupying these seats. And and this is what brings um the fateful situations in many countries uh around the world today. And this is also the um what brought about the the decline in democracy. So we've come to the end of our podcast now. um in despite these challenges, what hope do you have for your country's democracies in 5 years time? So despite all the challenges that we face with democracy in Kenya, my hope for the next 5 years as far as democracy is concerned in Kenya would be a state where the constitution is followed. A state where participatory democracy bears fruits. If we elect a leader is going to deliver what he promised. If we are taking down a leader is because whatever he promised he did not or she did not achieve. And if we are going to vote in the young people, it is going to be uh let me say through credible, verifiable and trustable election. and I'm praying for change through the ballot and nonviolent ways. Um, so my hope for my country in the coming five years would be that uh to have a more accountable and stable government because we have been traumatized with having having to change our prime ministers every one year or so in the past government's time and to have a stronger economy so that we don't have to rely on foreign aids a lot and and I hope to see Jenz's continuing to question again and again and may they not lose their patience um and keep questioning uh and pass this spirit of questioning and wanting change to the next gen alpha as well. Um so yeah keep questioning the stronger the democracy uh I mean the stronger the the critical questions are the stronger democracy would be. >> All right uh thank you so much we we've come to the end of our video podcast. Thank you so much uh Tashi and also uh Ada for being our guests um at this podcast. Um we have uh actually gathered in here in Kathmandu Nepal uh for a uh two-day uh conference on reimagining democracy and we have brought um uh civil society activists from uh 11 countries in Asia and also Africa. Um so uh Tashi and Ada were uh uh two of the participants in that uh conference and this is done to bring together um these collective minds in trying to uh assess the state of democracy in the world today in these two regions at least Asia and Africa and try to um deliberate together how uh the various uh challenges to democracy can be resolved. So stay tuned. Uh this conversation will continue and um uh see you at the next video podcast. Thank you.