Here is the number that frames everything else in Kenyan youth politics: 75.1% of Kenya's population is below the age of 35, according to People Daily's reporting of the Kenya Youth Devolution Festival 2026.

Youth Affairs Principal Secretary Fikirini Jacobs urged young Kenyans to take active democratic roles at the festival, held at Pwani University and drawing young people from all 47 counties. The festival ran on 29 October 2026 under the theme "The Kenya We Want: Youth Participation in the Electoral Process and Peaceful Elections".

Jacobs highlighted the KSh 20 billion NYOTA Project, TVET modularisation, labour mobility and digital skills — the jobs-and-skills agenda that sits alongside the democratic one. The point, in plain terms: participation is not only voting. It is showing up in the rooms where electoral, education and employment decisions are made, with the numbers to matter. Three in four Kenyans are under 35. That is not a youth niche. That is the country.

For students, the practical thread is the same one Campus Pulse keeps returning to: register, skill up, and organise. The festival's theme — participation in the electoral process and peaceful elections — lands a year out from a general election, and the NYOTA and TVET items are the ones to track for real openings, not just speeches.

What we could not verify: the exact attendance figure for the festival, the full programme of resolutions, and the NYOTA application details for the next intake were not in the sources checked. Those will be added when published, not guessed.

Sources:

- People Daily, 30 Oct 2026, 11:16 EAT: https://peopledaily.digital/inside-politics/why-kenyas-youth-population-could-shape-the-2027-election-conversation