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"content": "or the KEBAGOs of this world, you forget about the youth. Some \"stones\" become too heavy to be turned because you cannot turn your own weight, because it is too heavy. It starts with us in leadership. Most of us have used those boys. Let us own up in a reconciliatory tone. As Ms. Shabesh said, we will still be spiting this country or putting this country on fire. We must start by owning up by saying: \"Here we are. We made a mistake. We need to address the issues of the youth\" and address it genuinely, without making political statements. Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, in the last Parliament, somebody in Government issued a stern warning to members of the Mungiki sect, and said that he would firmly deal with them. The same Mungiki leaders replied: \"We will start with you and expose you.\" That is why the leadership of this country must lead by example. I want to support the issue that was raised by Mr. Mungatana - that, we must start with the leadership, so that we can set an example. If we are going to do it for the small boys, who have been arrested and jailed out there, we will be wasting time. We had better not even bother about constituting the proposed Select Committee. We must explain matters to the youth and bring them to account. Let us bring the culprits to account, so that when the Mungiki leader-turned Christian points a finger at one of the Ministers of the Government, that issue is fizzled out. We cannot pretend to understand the issues of Mungiki, because we never gave birth to them. The \"fathers\" of Mungiki ran away from Mungiki . You cannot pretend to breastfeed a baby you never gave birth to. Such a baby can even bite you if it has teeth, because you are not its mother. Issues of economic suppression and social injustice must be brought to the fore. We should nurture a culture of fairness in terms of involving the youth in decision making. Do not just buy an aircraft for the youth when you have not even allocated them a field on which to land the aircraft; or buy for them a ferry when you do not even have the water on which that ferry can float. Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, we must start by stating the facts as they are, so that we can address the root cause of this matter, including the issue of social injustices. We take people to school, but when job opportunities come up, we recycle grey-haired fellows to fill up those positions. Thank God, my grey hair is not about age. By recycling grey-haired people and giving them public appointments, what are we telling the youth? We are telling them that they can go to school and continue clapping for your grandparents. We cannot pretend to be a good father and give our children a lovely kind of parental care and pretend to take care of our grandchildren, who are the children of our children. For heaven's sake, one of the terms of reference of the proposed Select Committee should be to address the issue of people wanting to be fathers because they take responsibility, and not grandfathers taking care of people's children. It is also immoral. We must stand to be counted. The proposed Select Committee, through the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, should let the youth to its Members what they want to do. Perhaps, because the Executive will keep on burying its head in the sand, we should involve the youth out there and come up with appropriate policies. Once you bring those policies to this House, we will give you wonderful support, so that we do not have to talk about the youth for the sake of it, but rather we talk for them, with them and for their benefit. In the Ministry of Trade, where I sit, I am incapacitated. I cannot help the youth to trade with the Government simply because the draconian rules of procurement are such that we must have a ten year old company to be able to trade with the Government. So, some boys from the 2030 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES July 23, 2008 university, who have wonderful prowess, cannot engage with the Government, because their companies are not ten years old. Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, how do you start walking before you crawl? Open up these areas for the youth to participate in dealing with the country's biggest consumer of goods and services, who is the Government. We will absorb them in there. Sometimes we use the youth to give us positions, because they have the energy to run around. However, once we get those positions, we put them in the back banner. We forget that it is because of their energy that we got what we wanted. Thereafter, we tell them that their time will come, but their time never comes. I have a right, as a Kenyan, to also say that the youth need to demand from us, leaders, that their tomorrow is today. We will give you the support you require in this particular case. Of course, as one of the previous speakers said, let us be sobber in addressing this matter. Let us not create emotions because, sometimes, when you raise a matter that excites the youth, you will be losing, as opposed to guiding them. Let us be more reconciliatory in terms of the wording of this Motion. Reach out to everybody else, since if the Committee holds its hearings in camera, certain matters may never reach the Floor of the House. So, I suggest that the Committee holds its meetings in public. What is so secret about this matter? If the youth come to the Committee and explain themselves in public, maybe those of us who have moral obligations can own up and say: \"Sorry, we have offended you enough. After using and dumping you, we can now partner and work with you\", because the youth have the energy with which to work. Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, we are losing a generation. Colleagues, we are losing a generation because we have blocked the youth. They are suffocating. That is why they are expressing themselves in various forms. Unless we do address the youth's plight, the issue of solving our problems at hand will be far from over. It starts with all of us. This is a country which we must nurture. Let us grow together. With those remarks, I beg to support."
}