By now, the phrase “economic empowerment” must have acquired a new political meaning.

According to the World Bank, economic empowerment is the process of enhancing the capacity of individuals or groups to make choices and transform those choices into desired actions and outcomes.

It involves increasing access to resources, opportunities, and decision-making power, enabling individuals to improve their economic well being and participate fully in economic life.

But in recent weeks, this meaning has taken a dramatic turn. Today, it often refers to well-fed, triple-chinned politicians landing in choppers and sleek convoys of fuel-guzzling cars, waving bundles of cash at hungry crowds of mostly women and youth.

Moments later, they slip the cash back into their pockets and drive off, leaving the poverty-stricken crowds pleading for more.

Alternatively, “Economic empowerment” can mean profiling and ferrying selected groups of unemployed youth to a politician’s palace, where they are treated to lavish meals and drinks paid for by undisclosed taxpayer funds. After posing for photos with shiny new equipment, they are dismissed with little to show for their trip.

This is the new definition—at least according to oral accounts from youth who attended last week’s much-publicised State House youth empowerment launch.

Footage from the event, which went viral on social media, showed thousands of young people singing and dancing against the backdrop of a freshly renovated State House. They were later addressed by President William Ruto, who pledged to expand his government’s youth economic programmes.

State House visit

According to the Presidential Communication Service, the event on August 9 brought together more than 10,000 youth drawn from 1,115 groups across Nairobi’s 17 constituencies.

The groups were said to have received equipment tailored to their requests -from tents and chairs to motorcycles, salon kits, posho mills, ovens and other items meant to boost income-generating activities. But a section of youth from Jacaranda in Embakasi who attended insist they left empty-handed. They claim the motorbikes and other items paraded at the event never reached them. Some now say they fear for their safety after posting videos online demanding answers from the President.

One of them, Dickens Kamau Odhiambo, popularly known as Kamau wa Kisumu, told Bunge la Mwananchi at Jacaranda that he was deceived. He recounted being photographed with a motorbike but later ordered to leave State House without it. “When I asked how the motorcycle would reach me, I was told they would use Truecaller to trace my home.

 After pressing further, I was chased away,” he said. Odhiambo now claims he has received threatening calls urging him to record a video retracting his story.

Another youth, Collins Otwala, said his group of 50 members was shortlisted to 10, but none received the promised equipment. “Our proposal was for media tools, but we were dismissed. Even boda boda riders never got theirs. That’s why we decided not to keep quiet,” he said.

The claims have sparked controversy. Nominated Senator Karen Nyamu, who was involved in mobilising groups for the event, has dismissed the complaints as exaggerated.

 “One or two individuals out of over 10,000 attendees cannot tarnish the credibility of the programme. Some people are being paid to scandalise empowerment,” she said.

Prime Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi has attributed the delays to the formalisation of ownership documents, while Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua has continued to lead similar empowerment drives around the country.

Flashy contributions

But even as the government struggles to shake off accusations of untrustworthiness from the youth, this is not the first time such concerns are emerging.

 At each event, flashy contributions are announced, but beneficiaries often say the benefits are negligible.

 In Nyamira, for instance, widows and widowers in one group of 31 members were left with only Sh2,000 to share, a figure that translates to a paltry Sh64.55 each. It was meant to “empower” them.

“I don’t know what to do. They will think I squandered the money, but this is all we were given,” lamented Sarah Gechebe, the group’s leader.

Analysts say such drives are less about alleviating poverty and more about politics. Associate Professor Halimu Suleiman Shauri of Pwani University believes the events are part of President Ruto’s strategy for 2027.