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{
"id": 189916,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/189916/?format=api",
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Prof. Olweny",
"speaker_title": "The Assistant Minister for Education",
"speaker": {
"id": 122,
"legal_name": "Patrick Ayiecho Olweny",
"slug": "patrick-olweny"
},
"content": " Thank you, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir. I want to support this Motion. The Government is seriously focused on engaging the youth in socio-economic activities in our societies. It has set aside Kshs465 million for training the youths through the youth polytechnics. The money is not sufficient given the amount of work that we expect this Ministry to do but the problem is that we have limited resources. I would like to have, at least, one youth polytechnic per location. This is because we have many youths in this country who are actually idle. Majority of them already have basic education. They have gone through Standard Eight and some have reached Form 1V, but they are at home doing nothing. If we establish one village polytechnic per location, we will engage many of these youth in training. It is good that the July 10, 2008 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 1785 Government has set aside, at least, some money for rehabilitation of polytechnics that we have in the country, although they are few. The level of training in these youth polytechnics need to be addressed. The youth should not be left at the level of Jua Kali training. We need to have the training level in these youth polytechnics to be at such a level that graduates from youth polytechnics can join the universities. After all, some of them are Form 1V graduates. If we had the training at youth polytechnics being comparable to secondary school education, we will have graduates of youth polytechnics going straight to the university; those who do well in that training. That means that the instructors and people who train in these youth polytechnics, in my view, should be thoroughly trained instructors. They should be graduates; people who have been trained at the universities. After all, we have graduate teachers in secondary schools. If some of the trainees in the youth polytechnics have come from Form 1V, why do we subject them to people who do not have degrees to train them in youth polytechnics? We are simply pulling them down because in secondary schools, they were trained by teachers who have university degrees. So, according to me, the level of training in these youth polytechnics need to be addressed. The quality of the training personnel, that is, the instructors and lecturers needs to be addressed. With the devolved funds, we have a lot of work in the rural areas. We have CDF and LATF which have provided very good opportunities for employment for graduates of youth polytechnics. If well trained, the youth polytechnics graduates will be our contractors in the rural areas to do the Constituencies Development Fund projects. Some CDF projects have problems of very poor quality workmanship, because you give money to schools and they just give it to their relatives. The Parents-Teachers Association (PTA) pick people from the village, who do not have good training in construction. If we had our youth properly trained, then they would do the construction. So, the quality of the CDF projects would improve. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the Youth Enterprise Development Fund is a very good idea. This is one way of training our youth to be businessmen and businesswomen. They are being trained in how to manage loans and do business. That is one of the weaknesses of many people in this country. They get a little loan to do some business, it is poorly managed and they end up in problems with the banks that gave them the loans. We should start with the youth by giving them the loans and ensure they are trained by the youth officers on how to manage the money. At the end of the day, they will turn into very good business men and women. So, the Government is creating employment through this Fund. The Government is training the youth to do business through this Fund. It is just a question of inadequate resources, otherwise we could have given more money to this Ministry. Look at the population of the youth in this country. We definitely need much more money to train them to do business and also train in various skills in the polytechnics. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, Kshs1 million has been set aside for every constituency for sports. That is a good move by the Government. Previously, the Government paid very little attention to sports. We know that the Government has just been paying very little attention to sporting activities like athletics, football and others in training institutions like schools and colleges. But, there are youths who are not in those institutions and they have never had the opportunity to participate in sports. This will give them a little opportunity. The money is actually too little. If you look at the sports facilities in this country--- Go to districts and look at the kind of stadia they have. Look at what people call a stadium; it leaves a lot to be desired. Go to Kisumu today, the stadium is in shambles. It is not well-maintained. If a provincial headquarters like Kisumu does not have good sports facilities, what about the villages? We have very few sports facilities and they are very poor. Those ones which we have are in a very poor condition. So, something needs to be done. As I have said, it is just a question of resources. I listened to Eng. Gumbo lamenting on how we have ignored our sportsmen and 1786 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES July 10, 2008 sportswomen in this country. It is bad because for them to realise the talent and develop it, most of them have to resort to being foreigners. Most of them have resorted to competing against us. If they come back to compete for us, they do not do as well as they do for the foreign countries, because we do not take care of them well, we do not facilitate them and we have ignored them. Look at the performance of the Kenya Football Federation (KFF) in this country. The KFF takes care of soccer in this country. The way the KFF has been managing soccer in this country has been very poor, very demoralizing and very disheartening. Maybe that is because they do not have enough resources. Some of the people who are in the KFF thought that they would make a living out of it, but there are very few resources for them. Something needs to be done, and done well so that we promote sports in this country. But it is good that now there is some move towards that direction. The money set aside will take us somewhere. With those few remarks, I beg to support."
}