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"id": 189922,
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"speaker_name": "Mr. Muthama",
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"legal_name": "Johnson Nduya Muthama",
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"content": "Thank you, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir. I also rise to chip in my few comments and support this Vote of the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the youth are the future of every country. I have known, from the word \"go\" that the day this Government will work towards the promotion of youth affairs, is the day this country will be laying down the strongest foundation that can be realized now, and for the future days to come. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, our youth have tried their level best in every sector; whether it is looking for jobs, creating their own issues or participating in sports. The commitment and support from the Government has been very minimal in the first place and from the word \"go\". Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I want to cite a good example of one of our local football club, Gor Mahia, that won the Africa Cup of Nations some years back. I do not think there was the right recognition towards that achievement. Gor Mahia won that cup and came here, in their own country! Not even the President of this Republic at that time volunteered to meet and congratulate them! So, to them and to some of those players who did a wonderful job and brought pride to this country, they felt like their efforts, energy and love for their country were not recognised. Since then, I do not think Kenya has ever won any other continental tournament. If at all our Government wants to recognise what these young men have done and the achievements and glory they brought to this country, I think we would have had Gor Mahia winning more continental tournaments. That way, our sports, especially football would not be where it is now. It is has become extremely difficult to produce footballers in this country. This is because their efforts were not recognised and they do not see why they should continue playing. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, football is one of the most paying sports in this world. I read in the newspapers today that one player can be bought for Sterling pounds 30 million to 40 million. It was only recently when players like Dennis Oliech and others have been accepted in the world of sports. There is a way of promoting sportsmen. Lack of recognition has diminished the efforts of our young people. The issue of our young men changing their citizenship, which is a mother right of their country, has become the order of the day for Kenyans. This is because our young men are convinced and seduced to become citizens of other countries so that they can promote the glory of those countries. They are not doing this for free. They are offered peanuts July 10, 2008 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 1793 here. In those countries, they are offered citizenship, a car, a house and they become citizens of some Arab countries just to perform sports. If the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports will promote the activities of the youth and more so sports, this country stands to gain a lot. Despite the fact that every constituency will get Kshs1 million to promote sports, in the Budget that was read the other day, the NSIS was allocated Kshs8 billion Service to monitor and gather intelligence on what these young people are doing. That money is not helping us. The same youth, because of lack of jobs, are used to do dirty jobs just like the way they were used during the post-election violence to kill one another and yet the NSIS spends a lot of money to gather information from the youth. This expenditure should be turned the other way round. Instead of allocating Kshs1 million to every constituency which amounts to Kshs210 million, we should talk about Kshs6 billion. The NSIS should be given just Kshs2 billion to listen to what these young people are saying. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the money that the Government intends to spend in this Ministry will go into promoting the activities of the youth. In every constituency--- I want to say this on behalf of other hon. Members: In my office I have over 3,000 curriculum Vitae from Form Four leavers and university graduates who are looking for jobs. Kenyans have been moulded to believe that after school, the only place where someone can find a job is in Government departments, private companies and multinational companies, which do not even belong to Kenya. When I look at the money that could be allocated to the youth--- We are talking about a group of 60 young men getting between Kshs30,000 and Kshs50,000. If you do a simple calculation of that, you end up having something like---"
}