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"id": 189895,
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Mrs. Shabesh",
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"speaker": {
"id": 377,
"legal_name": "Rachel Wambui Shebesh",
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"content": "Thank you, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, for giving me the opportunity to contribute to this debate. I rise to, reluctantly, support this Vote. I support the Vote reluctantly, because I feel that there are lots of gaps. I must say that I am very encouraged by the attitude of the Minister and her Assistant Ministers. Since they came into office, they have had an open-door policy of accepting a lot of criticism, especially positive criticisms. It is in that spirit that I want to make the following suggestions. With regard to the issue of lack of employment for the youths, we, as leaders, have played into the notion that the youths must be supported to start their own businesses. The issue of job creation has taken the back seat. This is very sad. The truth of the matter is that I have a son who is now in Form Three. I expect that when he completes Fourth Form and goes to university, he will get a job. I do not expect to look for Kshs100,000 to give him to go and start a Jua Kali business. However, that is what we have been preaching as leaders. I have heard it said even from within the Ministry itself, with the idea of the Youth Enterprise Development Fund (YEDF). Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I want to say that, from that very basis, we are getting it wrong. The YEDF can supplement job creation by providing funds to the youths who have not been able to get education. The truth of the matter is that most of our youths are educated. It is unfair for us to tell a university graduate that the best we can do for them, as a Ministry, is to give them money to start a business, especially given that the kind of money we give them is not enough to start a sustainable business. We did have a national youth policy, which was put in place through the Ministry sometime back, which has not yet become a policy. Even when the President opened this Parliament, he mentioned it. I wonder at what point it will become a priority to bring the national youth policy to this House, so that it becomes a policy of Government, so that it can start guiding us on how to deal with the youths of this country. I feel that we are making the youths of this country to move from one Ministry to another. I believe, this is the Ministry which should be taking into consideration the issues of the youths. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I would like to ask the Minister why, for instance, the National Youth Service (NYS) is not under the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports. If the NYS is supposed to work with the youths of this country - even going by its name - why then must it be under another Ministry? This is where the confusion is. There are also some departments that are in different Ministries. For instance, the Directorate of Personnel Management (DPM). If employment is about young people, why would the DPM not be under the Ministry of Youth Affairs and July 10, 2008 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 1769 Sports? If training is supposed to be for young people, why would the Directorate of Industrial Training not be under the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports? What am I saying? I am saying that the formation of the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports could have been a good idea, but in terms of the way it was formulated, in terms of departments, and the kind of work that it has been given to do, it will never be effective; if certain departments are not put under the Ministry. We are debating this Ministry's Vote as the first one. I hope that this is because of its importance, and not because we want to get rid of the least important Ministries as we wait to debate the more important ones. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, there is the issue of leadership among the youths. Any country that has been successful on issues of the youth, has taken seriously the issue of mentorship, or developing leadership among the youth. Unfortunately, again, under the Ministry, I have not seen any disbursement of funds towards leadership training, or mentoring. It will be a big mistake to give money to youth who do not know how to look after it, and who do not even have the capability to be leaders in their own organisations. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, if you go to many of the youth groups that we are part of, you will find that the patrons are people of the older generation. They comprise of Members of Parliament and village elders. Never will you find a youth group that is run solely by the youth themselves. This is because they believe that leadership is still not within them. Then how do we expect the youths of this country to ever develop into the leaders that we are today? Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I also want to raise the issue of retirement. I am worried that in this country, we are not retiring people at the right age. Therefore, we are not creating space for young people to take up positions. I dare you to visit any Ministry, including the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports. You will find that the people working there are not young. Why? Because, they have either not been retired or when recruitment is done, it is not done with the aspect of young people in mind. Therefore, I am asking the Government to be serious on the issue of job creating. The Government should retire people when they reach retirement age. If money needs to be given to people to develop businesses, let us give it to the older generation to go and start business and give an opportunity to young people to work and acquire the experience they need, which can only come through working. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I also want to talk about education. I think it is the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports which needs to take seriously the issue of education, which is becoming an issue of concern. In the last few days, we have had issues being discussed about the education system in this country. I want to say categorically that since the advent of Free Primary Education Programme - and now Free Secondary Education Programme - the young people coming out of these schools do not have the quality that was there before. It is a problem that we must face head on! We have said that we do not have enough teachers and facilities. The truth of the matter is: The young people who are now coming out and going to universities cannot be compared with the past generations. Therefore, even the job market is not ready. That is a problem that I think the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports should take up squarely with the Ministry of Education. If the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports must be effective, it must produce young people who are marketable. If the education system continues the way it is going, the Kenyan youth will no longer be as marketable as it used to be. I really think that issues cross-cutting across Ministries, when it comes to young people, please, let the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports take the lead! That is without apologies because the young people are in your hands! Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I also want to address the issue of sports. If sports could be taken seriously by the Government in terms of the allocation of funds, then we could be solving half of the problems that we are trying to solve in trying to keep the youth occupied. The 1770 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES July 10, 2008 kind of sports that we excel in are known! We excel in athletics. We talk about football. But I am wondering what happened to cricket! That is because there was a time it was doing very well in this country. There was a time when we were the African champions in boxing. I am talking about issues of tennis. We had young upcoming ladies who were playing very good tennis! But what is happening? We have brokers in the name of sports development agencies. I call them \"brokers\" because if you look at the background of those people, they do not, necessarily, have any qualifications within that sport. In fact, most of the people who are running sports in this country are people who are looking for political mileage. I would advise them to look for constituencies to vie for, and not go to meddle in sports. I think the Ministry should keep those people away from sports! Let us look for credible past athletes who are here in this country, really doing nothing and yet, they have international status. Why can they not run cricket, football, boxing, et cetera . Let us take those people on board so that, even as young people are taking on sports, they know that they will be recognized. Lastly, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, let me say this about Harambee Stars, because I am a mother of boys. Please, pay the team good money. They will not let you down. It is a matter of taking care of your sports people, pay them well and let them not be embarrassed to go out of this country like paupers and beggars! That is why they are changing their citizenship status. Our athletes are going to other countries because of the payment. I believe that if we can have the kind of money that we had for the Initial Public Offering (IPO) of Safaricom, we can get people who are willing to support you, Madam Minister, to pay our athletes well, so that sports in this country do not take a back seat. With those few remarks, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I beg to reluctantly support."
}