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{
    "id": 685535,
    "url": "http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/685535/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 168,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Okoth",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 12482,
        "legal_name": "Kenneth Odhiambo Okoth",
        "slug": "kenneth-odhiambo-okoth"
    },
    "content": "Thank you, Hon. Deputy Speaker. I represent the people of Kibra Constituency and Nairobi in general. Many young people expect to get a chance through the Youth Enterprise Development Fund, the Women Enterprise Development Fund and the Uwezo Fund. These were the opportunities to help young people, women and vulnerable groups get loans and funding for their businesses as individuals or groups. This is meant to economically lift them. If you look at the Jubilee Manifesto, you will find that it talks about uchumi and inclusiveness in the economic life of this nation. When you see funds from a project that was started under the Kibaki regime being mismanaged and being stolen, that is theft, denial, killing of dreams, hopes and ambitions of our young people, it is really a double tragedy in very many ways. First of all, the young people who could get the money to do business are denied that opportunity. Therefore, they cannot create employment; they cannot provide competitive services and they cannot pay taxes to the Government. This is the case and yet this money is just being taken away and mismanaged. For instance, the money is unprocedurally and unquestionably managed. It is not good to hear accounts of Government being operated by one signatory in a bank like Chase when we have a serious bank like Cooperative Bank which is Government-owned. Cooperative Bank has Government shareholding and it is a stable bank. It is very painful to see the levels to which people entrusted with public good can abuse the trust that has been placed in them. My prayer is that the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), once investigations are complete, pushes aggressively not only for the prosecution and the jailing of these people but also for the recovery of those funds which were lost. That is so, so that young people can use them or have access to that money in the revolving fund. That will enable them get more loans. We know that amendments to the Uwezo Fund Bill have been proposed to combine the WEF, the YEDF and the Uwezo Fund to benefit from the Kshs5 billion from the last elections. An amount of Kshs5 billion had been set aside for the presidential runoff. If we streamline and put this together, we must make sure that this House vets annually or twice or thrice a year the reports and status of the work of the YEDF, WEF and the Uwezo Fund. That is to make sure that the right beneficiaries are benefitting and those funds are being run in an accountable way. That is because young people are today not guaranteed of getting jobs in the old way. This is where after school, you lined up for a job at a factory or for a white collar job. These days, the young people have to go out and be entrepreneurs. We have young people in my constituency who all they are asking for is a bridging loan of about Kshs20,000 or Kshs40, The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
}