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"id": 189664,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/189664/?format=api",
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Mr. Langat",
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"content": "Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, I want to clarify that I made my maiden speech a few weeks ago. I rose to contribute to this Vote of the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports. First of all, I want to thank the Minister for the manner in which she presented the Vote. The youth, as we all know, form a substantial proportion of our population in this country. As we all know, they are the most vulnerable group in our country, and are prone to such things like drugs and alcohol. Therefore, they need to be engaged, so as to refrain from activities such as drug and alcohol abuse. I want to thank the Ministry because they have realised that they need to engage the youth, so that we are able to protect them from such activities. The youth need to be empowered in two main areas. The first is through training. Training is very important, because it gives the youth the power to be employed and, therefore, to support themselves. After training, the youth also need to be empowered with employment and business opportunities. I have already thanked the Ministry because they have realised those two things. In terms of empowering the youth through business, I have seen the Youth Enterprise Development Fund (YEDF), which is a very good programme. I only want to say that though the programme is very good, we will need to be sure that the funds that are allocated to the YEDF are actually reaching the people they are supposed to be reaching. One of the things that hinder those funds from reaching the youth is the vetting process that is being applied. Some of the youth will come from backgrounds under which some of them were not well educated. When we use stringent vetting processes, we recall them to make some amendments and the second time we send them back, they will never come back again. Therefore, July 15, 2008 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 1817 they cannot access the funds because of the process. So, I wish that we could make the vetting process under the YEDF less stringent, so that we can capture as many youth as we can. Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, I also want to look at the idea of training, where we have talked about youth polytechics. This is a very important programme but when I look at the Budget provision of Kshs1 million per constituency for construction of youth polytechnics, I think it is too little to even complete a single youth polytechnic. The idea is very good, but with the funding allocated, we may not realise that project. If we were to use the Kshs1 million allocated to our constituencies for the construction of youth polytechnics, I am sure that we will be starting a white elephant project; I think we should not take that direction. Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, the issue of youth empowerment centres is also a very important idea which has come. However, I want to urge the Ministry, that we should have a strategic plan of what we want to do in the constituencies. Let us work in phases, so that we identify which constituencies have the best youth polytechnics. If we are satisfied that the youth polytechnics have been completed properly and they are functioning, then we move to the next phase, which is the youth empowerment centres. But if we allocate Kshs1 million for each constituency to do the polytechnics, and then another Kshs1 million for the youth empowerment centres, I do not think both projects will be completed if we do work in that manner. Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, I would wish to see a situation where we start from the youth polytechnics then within them, we see the youth empowerment centres also developing as a value addition centre within the youth polytechnics. This will ensure that we come up with projects that we can see in the constituencies as opposed to coming up with very small projects, which may not add a lot of value in the constituencies. Otherwise, the idea of youth polytechnics and youth empowerment centres is a very good one. But we need to ensure that any funding that we allocate to it is enough to complete the projects. As regards the sports, I also want to say that we need to engage our youth in sports. We have seen countries where people make money from sports. I think it is only fair that in Kenya we also recognise the importance of sports, and empower our youth so that we can prepare them to make a career from sports. Otherwise, I support the Vote of the Ministry and it is a very good idea. With those few remarks, I beg to support."
}