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"id": 189921,
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Mr. Wetangula",
"speaker_title": "The Minister for Foreign Affairs",
"speaker": {
"id": 210,
"legal_name": "Moses Masika Wetangula",
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"content": " Thank you, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, for the opportunity given to me to contribute to this Motion. I am sure - I came in late - that everybody who has spoken has supported this Motion. I am sure that everybody has mentioned the importance of the youth, and what we need to do in this country for the youth. It is gratifying that we have a Ministry dedicated to the youth of this country. Because the youth of this country are vulnerable and delicate, they have been used and abused with abundance by politicians. When politicians want to settle scores, they erect unlawful militia of youths whom July 10, 2008 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 1791 they unleash on their opponents. When we want to do something positive, we still go back to the youth. If the youth are in excess of 60 per cent of the population of this country, then a real and positive programme for them must be put in place. I want to urge the Minister of State for Youth Affairs and Sports not to sit and wait for budgetary allocations from the Treasury, because there is never enough money in the Government, particularly in an economy that has so many outlets like ours. There are a lot of opportunities available for the Minister to ingeniously raise funds for programmes for the youth from well-wishers, friendly governments and international organizations. I would hope that the Ministry will put in place a desk at the directorate level that can work with international organizations over and above the Government of Kenya allocations to raise money for youth programmes. I say this because there are - you will get to see this if you check on the Internet, whether it is through the UN, the UNESCO or all organisations and friendly governments, large sums of money dedicated to activities for young people. Whether you are talking of the fight against HIV/AIDS, job creation, capacity building, name it. I hope that the Minister and her staff will look into this. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, we also have talented youth in this country, particularly those excelling in sports such as football, athletics and other sports. We must, as a country, formulate a clear policy on how to assist these youth come out of the clutches of a group of profiteers called agents, who market and sell them to organisations that exploit them to the maximum. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, you will find that a successful athlete in the United States of America (US), in the United Kingdom (UK) and in Europe is a multi-billionaires in US Dollar terms. Our youths here are bled dry by European agents, who run them on circuit upon circuit, and they are the ones who pocket all the money. These helpless young people come back with a few US dollars just enough to enable them buy a house and set up a local business locally. All their money is taken by agents. My Ministry would wish to work in collaboration with the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports. I have, in the formulation of the new foreign policy for the country, given a prominent chapter to young successful athletes and sportsmen of this country as part of our diplomacy. I will avail at every request, senior protocol officers, to assist these young talented Kenyans whenever they go out there to run or play, so that they are assisted and protected from marauding agents. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, this will help the youths to not only earn legitimate and just income for themselves and bring it to this country to boost our foreign exchange and their own fortunes, but it will also put them on the map. There is no difference between the Williams sisters and Ezekiel Kemboi! There is no difference between Tiger Woods and some of our youths who have excelled in this country. How much does Tiger Woods earn per year? He earns close to a billion US dollars. Our youths come back home with US$10,000. The rest of the money is gone. The Ministry has also formulated a programme for village youth polytechnics and other training centres. This is very critical. Recently, I was talking to President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa, and he told me that South Africa is now importing labour from Malaysia, Sri Lanka, India and Thailand. What kind of labour? Welders and fitters! These are people we can train in our youth polytechnics and village polytechnics. Obviously, it is easier to have Africans working within Africa than to bring spanner boys and fitters from Malaysia to work in African establishments. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, in any event, this economy has to grow in order for us to achieve the objectives contained in Vision 2030. I believe that if we stop bickering and start working, we can, in fact, achieve the targets in the next ten years. This economy will turn on the middle-level mechanics. As you know, in medicine, for every doctor, you need about 50 to 60 nurses. For every engineer, you need about 100 fitters, 100 welders and 100 other auxiliary service providers to enable the engineer perform. Do we have those service providers to turn round our 1792 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES July 10, 2008 economy? We do not, because we had not, in the past, paid attention to training young people. Now that we have a positive and conscious policy to revamp tertiary institutions for training young people, we must back it up. The Ministry should liaise with the Ministry of Education so that they post properly qualified teachers, so that we do not just send those youths to those polytechnics to sail through as a ritual and come out half-baked and ill-trained! We must have proper teachers so that, if it is masonry, welding, mechanics or whatever it is, they can come out qualified. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, we have the Youth Enterprise Development Fund that was rolled out by the Government in the last financial year. It is a wonderful thing! Unfortunately, not all the youths in this country, particularly those who come from the communities like the one I come from, have got the mind and orientation of enterprise. I would want to see a situation where, instead of telling the youth: \"Money is available, walk into the bank and borrow! There is Kshs1 million which an hon. Member, with a lot of difficulties, can be able to distribute!\" You should set up training facilities on how to run enterprises! Those youths do not know what a trial balance is. They have never held a bank account. When they go to the bank to borrow money, they do not even know that the right to borrow has a corresponding duty to pay. You find a youth has borrowed Kshs50,000 and is walking home with a mattress and a bed! That is, certainly, not productive money use! If we are able to train them on how to run enterprises, it will be very helpful and it will turn round that Fund to help the youth. With those few remarks, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I beg to support the Motion."
}