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"id": 199424,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/199424/?format=api",
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Dr. Kuti",
"speaker_title": "The Minister of State for Youth Affairs",
"speaker": {
"id": 60,
"legal_name": "Mohammed Abdi Kuti",
"slug": "mohammed-kuti"
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"content": " Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I beg to move:- THAT, this House adopts Sessional Paper No.3 of 2007 on National Youth Policy for Youth Development, laid on the Table of the House on Tuesday, 16th October, 2007. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, the youth in this country, as, indeed, in a number of other countries are a wonderful resource that can greatly contribute to national development. If not properly addressed, however, they can be a veritable time-bomb. This is a fact that all Members of this august House are aware of and I am sure that all of us want the issues concerning the youth addressed urgently. The following amazing statistics illustrate the extent of the problem we are grappling with: About 75 per cent of our population is below 30 years of age. Those between 15 and 30 years account for 32 per cent of the population. Over 50 per cent of all convicted criminals are young men aged between 16 and 25 years. About 67 per cent of all those who are unemployed are between 15 and 30 years old and 45 per cent are under 24 years old. About 92 per cent of those unemployed, especially the youth, have no vocational or professional skills training. Over 60 per cent of new HIV infections are among the youth. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, Kenya will not meet its Millennium Development Goals without addressing youth development. While many challenges face young people, undoubtedly, most acute is the inability to access employment and the lack of opportunities to earn a decent and honest living. It is this that drives young people into crime and drugs and a general state of hopelessness and despair. The issue of creating employment opportunities for the youth; be it formal, informal or self employment, needs to be addressed urgently with the kind of resource, focus and commitment as that has been directed towards HIV/AIDS. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, the youth are Kenya's most wasted resource. If two million unemployed young people could be given jobs and produce at the average industrial output per worker, they would add Kshs504 billion to our Gross Domestic Product (GDP). This constitutes 50 per cent increase in our GDP. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, with a view to focusing on the research for solutions to this robust development, His Excellency the President created the Ministry of State for Youth Affairs under the Vice President's Office on 7th, December, 2005. The mandate of the Ministry covers the National Youth Service (NYS), Youth Development, Youth Polytechnics, National Youth Policy, development of Youth Resource Centres and coordination of Youth Organisations. Since its establishment, the Ministry has worked tirelessly with the major stakeholders; that is the youth, in order to start the ball rolling on mutually acceptable programmes that will not only benefit the youth, but also the country as a whole. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, the Ministry has drafted the National Youth Policy to address the challenges facing the youth. We have identified the following eight key areas to be addressed urgently. First, is the youth and employment. About 500,000 youths join the labour market every year ready to enter the job market. However, due to the slow economic growth, corruption, nepotism and demand for experience by potential employers, 75 per cent remain unemployed. The Ministry of State for Youth Affairs is developing policies that will address 4590 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES October 17, 2007 unemployment and create an environment where the youth can exploit their potential through value-adding initiatives. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, slow economic growth, rapid increase in the number of youths graduating from secondary and tertiary education institutions and inability of both public and private sectors to accommodate these large groups of skilled graduates, account for youth unemployment in the country. In the absence of opportunities in the formal labour market, young people turn to self employment in the informal sector. The Government has addressed youth unemployment in several policy documents such as Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper which extensively elaborates on youth employment strategies through youth entrepreneur training, micro credit schemes, vocational training and career guidance service development, youth leadership training and ICT skills training. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, the Ministry of State for Youth Affairs intends to collaborate with other stakeholders to implement these strategies with emphasis on increasing financial commitment to youth employment initiatives. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, the Government has formed an inter-Ministerial task force on employment creation for youth mainly through reafforestation, road construction and labour export. The task force draws its membership from the Office of the President, the Ministry of State for Youth Affairs, the Ministry of Labour and Human Resource Management, the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources, the Ministry of Roads and Public Works and the Ministry of Planning and National Development. We believe that through structured labour export schemes, it will be possible for the youth with the right skills, experience and education to get international jobs in other liberalised external markets. Locally, the use of labour intensive technologies will generate employment opportunities for the youth, especially through large scale public works and road construction. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, as hon. Members are aware, the Government is establishing the Youth Enterprise Development Fund that will enable young people to access credit to start or scale up small and medium scale enterprises. The proposed Fund is premised in the recognition that micro-enterprise development interventions are likely to have the biggest impact on job creation. The informal sector has, over the last decade, emerged as the main source of employment outside small scale agriculture. The Government has committed Kshs1.75 billion towards this Fund in the year 2006/2007 and 2007/2008 Budgets. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, finally, a pilot project on entrepreneurial training has commenced and will soon be rolled out countrywide, especially through the youth polytechnics. I am happy to present the draft Sessional Paper on Youth Development and the National Youth Policy Sessional Paper No.3 of 2007 for debate. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, the other areas that the Ministry is addressing youth issue concerns youth participation and empowerment. This is through the creation of youth councils across the country. Through these youth councils, the youth will have voice and will be able to articulate youth issues at the district, provincial and national levels. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, the other area that the Ministry stresses on is youth, crime and drugs. This is because abuse of illicite drugs is on the increase, especially among the youth. This has had an effect on crime as research reveals that the use of drugs and crime are inter-related. The Ministry is working closely with other agencies like NACADA and the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, in order to seek solutions to these problems. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, the other area of concern to the Ministry is that of ICT. We know that if the rural-urban digital divide is minimised, many young people could benefit from ICT, especially in setting up businesses and improving education opportunities. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, the other area is youth and health. From statistics, we know that October 17, 2007 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 4591 90 per cent of new cases of HIV/AIDS are among young people aged between 16 to 24 years. The Ministry, in collaboration with the Ministry of Health and the National AIDS Control Council, would like to reverse this trend. We have also come up with a policy on youth and health which we developed in collaboration with UNSPA. This is in the realisation that due to hopelessness in the villages, the youth tend to engage in illicit drinks. This leads to irresponsible sex and, therefore, unwanted pregnancies and illegal abortions. Beside other diseases like tuberculous, malaria and other normal diseases, the areas of HIV/AIDS, unwanted pregnancies and illegal abortions is a major concern to young people. The Ministry, in collaboration with other stakeholders, would like to reverse this. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, without boring the House with a long speech, I would like to state that, we, at the Ministry, have developed this Policy Paper for debate. We request that the debate on this Paper be prioritised as its adoption will enable us address youth concerns more comprehensively. The implementation of the policy will not only have a major impact on the perception of the youth, but also start addressing in a concrete manner the many challenges that face and enable them to play their rightful role in national development. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I beg to move."
}