Varsity students urged to participate in national budget process

UCSPAK CEO Allan Chacha at TUM on Wednesday / BRIAN OTIENO

Even university students fall into this trap, yet they are supposed to be the cream of society, according to Allan Chacha, CEO of the Universities and Colleges Students Peace Association of Kenya.

The association is training students to give greater contributions to society. Currently, the national conversation is about the 2025-2026 budget, and Chacha said students need to participate more in such conversations.

“Last year, many youths said they were not involved or did not participate in the making of the Finance Bill 2024, and that is why they were not able to unpack it.

“Two, there was also no channel to have their concerns heard and addressed. They felt the Finance Bill 2024 had many issues that were of concern to them that were not addressed.”

He spoke on Tuesday at the Technical University of Mombasa during the third leg of the Coast region student leadership fellowship programme, under which student leaders from over 13 universities and colleges were trained on how to promote peace.

Chacha said his organisation is working with the National Treasury to train students on the budget-making process.

He said students need to contribute to national conversations from informed points of view.

“The current national conversation is about budgeting. The National Treasury is helping us unpack the Finance Bill 2025,” Chacha said.

He said previous public participation exercises initially did not target students.

“That is why we are pushing the National Treasury to take the public participation exercises to learning institutions, just like we saw CS Mbadi go to Bunge la Wananchi.

“It was a good initiative. Now, we want him to come speak to students, but before that, the students need to be informed about the content of the Finance Bill 2025 so they can have a conversation based on facts, not hearsay,” Chacha said.

UCSPAK Coast region coordinator Stephen Mandela said the budget-making conversation is key to maintaining peace in the country.

Mandela said firm knowledge of the content of the Finance Bill 2025 is key to understanding it.

UCSPAK brings together student leadership from all universities in the country. It has already carried out two such programmes in Eastern region, where they trained student leaders from seven universities and colleges on peace, and in Central region where about 10 institutions participated.

The trainings are divided into five sections including mindset change, digital peace building and activism, the national budgeting process, alternative dispute resolution, and the concepts of patriotism, national values and leadership transformation.

In digital peace building and activism, the student leaders are trained on how to responsibly use digital spaces to promote peace.

Omar Kibulanga, the director of Kiwandeu Creative, said the youth need guidance on their use of the digital space so as to be more responsible.

“We are here to give guidance especially in digital peace building and activism. It is possible for youth to air their grievances without using violence,” he said.

Chacha noted that students also need negotiation skills. “Every student has a phone, and can communicate well. So, we needed to tap into this and make them use these two positively.”

“Sometimes students get into problems that require them to negotiate with the institution. But if they do not have negotiation skills, they will either be unnecessarily punished or suffer difficulties,” Chacha said.

The UCSPAK CEO said students must be patriots, which means they must support their country.