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"id": 193394,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/193394/?format=api",
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "[Mr. Jirongo]",
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"speaker": {
"id": 29,
"legal_name": "Cyrus Khwa Shakhalaga Jirongo",
"slug": "cyrus-jirongo"
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"content": "If we do not have a prototype design from the Ministry of Public Works, hon. Members will end up putting up structures that are irrelevant. We also need a clear management structure on June 18, 2008 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 1255 how those centres are going to be run. Again, I want to repeat that if you want to deal with the youth, let us get the young people in this country who have education but no jobs to run youth groups in the villages. Therefore, they can use the youths who loiter in the villages as labour. The Government needs to move a step further and facilitate those young people. I want to repeat again that, if a young engineer formed an engineering or construction company, he cannot develop the capacity to purchase machinery. If the Government can purchase construction machinery for constituencies, we can have those young men forming construction companies, leasing the machinery from the Government and, in three years, the Government will have recovered the investment in that machinery. The Government can also deploy drivers from the National Youth Service (NYS). We also have mechanics from the NYS who can run that equipment. It is the only reasonable way we can engage the youth in construction activities at the constituency level. Today, a lot of money is wasted at the constituency level. If you look at what the Ministry of Public Works allocates at the constituency, almost 80 per cent goes to what they call earthing. Earthing is merely pulling out the top soil and thinking that you have opened a road and yet, all you are doing is exposing the land to erosion. That is an area where public monies are spent and nobody can seriously account for it. Not even the engineers at the Ministry of Public Works. If we can restrict ourselves on serious murram roads--- We know a murram road can last for five years. It is better to do a shorter distance of roads in each constituency but you have effective roads, than wasting public monies on the so-called earthing and, at the end of the day, those roads do not last a year. Mr. Speaker, Sir, the Minister for Finance, in his Budget, tried to think about the young people. I want to request him to look for an opportunity and engage stakeholders. People have ideas! The young people themselves can propose and come up with means and ways of creating employment in this country. Mr. Speaker, Sir, education is one of the biggest investments this country has engaged in for a very long time and yet, the educated in this country; the young people who graduate from colleges, are the most wasted. To any investor, it does not make sense to invest a lot of money in something and you get nothing out of it. We need to utilise the investment in education in this country. Opportunities abound and it is only the Government that needs to take time and sit down with leaders, the business community and the youth in this country and unemployment of our youth will be a forgotten thing. Further, Mr. Speaker, Sir, one of the issues that has been an impediment to the growth of our economy is security. When you look at what was allocated to the police, it was a mere Kshs2 billion for housing. We have not seen how much is being given in terms of equipment. Mr. Speaker, Sir, in this country, everybody is aware that our regular Police Force has been challenged by irregular forces in the names Mungiki, Kaya Bombo, the Rift Valley Warriors and the Mt. Elgon Sabaot Land Defence Force. That means that our security has lost the monopoly of force. The only way we can return this country to normalcy is to equip our police so that they are able to disarm those irregular forces. Mr. Speaker, Sir, as I support the Speech, I would like the Minister for Finance to understand that this country, at the stage that it is, it is important that he involves everybody in finding solutions to the many problems that bedevil our country. With those few remarks, I beg to support."
}