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{
    "id": 188294,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/188294/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 226,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Ms. Mbarire",
    "speaker_title": "The Assistant Minister for Tourism",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 78,
        "legal_name": "Cecily Mutitu Mbarire",
        "slug": "cecily-mbarire"
    },
    "content": " Thank you, Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker. I want to begin by saying that I stand to support this Motion whose time has come. This Motion will truly help us to deal with certain issues that are bedeviling the youth of this country. Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, from the outset, I want to say that we need to get to the root cause of the existence of these militia, gangs and groupings. I tend to feel that the real reason why the youth form these groups is that they have been socially, economically and politically deprived of their rights to participate, to be heard and to be part of the mainstream policy processes of this country. If you look at many youths, you will see that they participate a lot in the elections. They are the ones who actually campaign for us. If we look at what happens immediately after elections, then one gets to know why the youths get betrayed by the leaders. We forget what they do for us, as leaders. We forget the roles they played in the political parties. When it comes to appointments, we do not even consider young people to appointments in political offices and running of the Executive. We do not even remember their existence. 2036 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES July 23, 2008 Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, I am sure there are youths who participated in the campaigns for ODM, ODM (K) and PNU who never ate and walked around villages across the country to campaign for those political parties. Today, these youths are jobless and have nothing to eat. But the leaders have got into power and forgotten them. That is why they resolve to these kind of groupings to make a statement to be heard. I think this is the time we ought to start thinking about how we should help the youth of this country. The youth are stripped of by unemployment in a way that has never happened before in the history of this country. Because of unemployment, there is increased crime rate and increased abuse of drugs. This has now trickled down to our secondary schools because nobody listens to the young people. Five years have elapsed without us sitting here to seriously address the issues affecting the youth as a sector. The National Youth Policy has not been looked into to date. What do you expect them to do? I hope this Select Committee will truly address the real issues and bring a report to this House that can, finally, help the youth of this country. With those few remarks, I beg to support."
}