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{
    "id": 1016865,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1016865/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 469,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Sakaja",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13131,
        "legal_name": "Johnson Arthur Sakaja",
        "slug": "johnson-arthur-sakaja"
    },
    "content": "I would like to urge because I was given an opportunity to comment on this BBI process, I want to connect it with these Bills. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, I have been with you in this and the last Parliament. You know the kind of work we have put in for young people. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, I know this Bill is not just about the young people. However, in a country where you have more than 80 per cent people considered young, only five per cent of Kenyans are above the age of 50. About 91 per cent are below 50. It is a young country. All issues are of young people. There is a level of disillusionment that is setting in that all of the initiative we have put in place for young people are not implemented. I hope this does not become one of them. This is because Access to Government Procurement Opportunities (AGPO) was one of them. We had Kazi kwa Vijana and we saw what happened to it. We have had the issues of Biashara Kenya and we have seen what is happening to it. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, there was Stawi Fund. We have had the ministries trying to do something called Ajira . It has not been implemented properly because it is just computers in constituencies. The young people are not getting these jobs. What we are doing is telling people Kazi Mtaani is what will transform your life. Those things will not transform the life of any young person. Young people are not hoping to just have a carwash or to own the next bigger carwash. Young people’s dreams are not just to get an extra boda boda. In as much as those are essential services, the dreams that you had when you were young were not about that or to get a hair drier. However, we have imagined that youth empowerment---, and all our political leaders have failed in this. That you sit and you are in charge of government and think that youth empowerment is carwashes, laundries, hair dries and bicycles. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, young people want to be known by more than just an over quoted statistic of these kind of jobs. They want to be Chief Executive Officers (CEOs). They want to own enterprises and businesses. Even if it is that person who is on a boda boda, he wants to own a transport enterprise that moves from a boda boda to have tracks. That young person wants to own a stream of Ashley’s saloons and not just one drier. We need to change our thinking. Even within this BBI, the place for young people must be solidified otherwise we shall have a revolution. The young people will be tired of seeing their destiny pass them by, while they continue being led by nine per cent of the republic as opposed to 91 per cent of this Republic. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, that is a rider I wanted to add just to say how important such initiatives are and for Sen. Farhiya to realize. You said that it is a simple Bill and you would not move it for long. However, it is not a simple Bill. This will go a long way in strengthening what we already have in the Public Procurement and Asset Disposal Act and what Public Procurement Regulatory Authority (PPRA) should be looking at. I urge you that do not make the mistake some of us have made before. Once this Bill passes, immediately start oversighting its implementation. Many of us assumed goodwill and gave some lead time for entities to start implementing our Bills. We have The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor, Senate."
}