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{
    "id": 1106289,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1106289/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 178,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Tigania West, JP",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. John Mutunga",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13495,
        "legal_name": "John Kanyuithia Mutunga",
        "slug": "john-kanyuithia-mutunga"
    },
    "content": "My proposal is that we need to look at this Bill and ask ourselves: do we not think it is time we changed into the mode of asking those who can employ to increase the numbers instead of reducing them? We need to stop lying to our youth. There are many things that we say as individuals, institutions and even as government which are lies. I remember the BBI proposed that there was going to be creation of a youth commission. We are alive to the fact that in this country, there is a whole Ministry of Youth, which is sufficient. We do not need a constitutional commission for us to attend to the issues of the youth. Let us tell the youths the truth; that we are not creating jobs and, therefore, we need to wake up to the reality that we need to create these jobs. We need to employ all levels of flexibility at the institutional level and at the training level so that even the jobs that we are training for should be known so that we package these youths usefully to get to the job market. There are opportunities to create jobs; one of them is in the agricultural sector. If you look at the entire value chain that we operate in, and we look at the supplies management within those value chains, we can create many jobs. However, we have left our agricultural sector unorganised. We have left our farmers to survive somehow. We cannot declare quantities of anything. We have progressively lost our quota in the world market and even in the East African market. We have retrogressed in value addition, which are opportunities to create jobs. It is time to reorganise the agricultural sector so that we may be able to create jobs. When you look at the SME’s in this country, the best targeted agencies for destruction are the SME’s. You will hear that Gikomba market burnt down; or Mukuru kwa Njenga has burnt down and businesses have been destroyed. We normally throw the hawkers out of our towns so that we have better streets to walk through and promote other shops. We have travelled widely in this world. We know that in other jurisdictions, there are days that are set aside for the hawkers. Streets are closed, hawkers are organised and they are allowed to sell their wares. Can we not do such simple things? Is that rocket science? We will need to look at how we can deal with these issues. The other issue is recycling very old people. We are in a situation where we have many young people who can share the salaries of old people who are supposed to retire. If someone is retired, let them retire in peace. Let us look at the individuals who have retired. They are people who have been there for a long time. Possibly, they have stolen from the government, they have invested, they have institutions and businesses, yet we give them jobs instead of giving these jobs to the youth, who are suffering. Why do we not have a policy that bars anybody who has reached the retirement age from being given a job? Who says that somebody who is 35 years cannot head a board? What does somebody who is 70 years have that is so significantly different from a 40- year-old person? We are making mistakes, yet we know what we are doing. We need to ensure that in this Bill, anybody who has retired is not qualified to be given a job. End of story. If they want jobs, let them go to the institutions of higher learning and teach at universities or go to research, that is where we need long standing experience. If we analyse the situation as it is right now, we have very qualified youth in the market, yet we discharge them into wastefulness. We are wasting these people. They become permanent job seekers. If they are just job-seeking and we have nothing to give them, how do we consider ourselves to be a growing economy? Kenya is a young economy which should have more of young employed people than the old. As I summarise my support for this particular Bill, let me look at one thing that is likely to happen in this country. Equity does not play out when it comes to employment opportunities. When 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."
}