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"id": 199433,
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"speaker_name": "Mr. Odoyo",
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"legal_name": "Peter Ochieng Odoyo",
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"content": "Much obliged, Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir. May I add my voice to some of the positive points raised by previous speakers. I must say that though youth is a transitional period in ones life, according to this Sessional Paper No.3 of 2007; the National Youth Policy for Development, it is a 15 year period in ones life; from 15 years to 30 years. Even though the youth today may benefit from some of the digitally driven technology; issues like the Internet, Mp3, CD players and Mp4 computer-driven technology, I must say that today to be a youth in Kenya is a very difficult prospect for any individual. Today the youth in Kenya are faced with far much more hopelessness than has been in Kenya for the past 50 years. I believe that youth is a period of hope. It is a period when the impossible is, indeed, the possible. In today's Kenya, there are no guarantees for the youth. In my youth, if you were bright and capable, you went to school to the university and when you came out you got a job. There is no guarantee that you will go to school - no matter how bright you are - and will come out and get a job. It used to be that if you were healthy, strong and capable, there was a job outside there even though you may not be highly educated. All these are not available today. The National Youth Policy for Development has done a good job of highlighting some of these trouble times that are facing our youth today, not to mention HIV/AIDS and the others. For purposes of time, let me limit my comments to what the Minister has indicated in this particular youth policy. First of all, it would have done us a lot of good if the Minister took the trouble to tell us what exactly is wrong with the current various youth initiatives going on in the country. It is not as though there is nothing happening for the youth. There are some things happening for the youth but why are they ineffective? It would have helped us very much if the Minister was able to take a global view; a bird's-eye view to tell us what is wrong with all those things that are being done for the time being that necessitates a new Sessional Paper No.3 of 2007 on the National Youth Policy for Development. For example, I know that under his Ministry, he has taken certain initiatives. It would have benefited me as an individual to have had this global view. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, moving very quickly to some of the strategic focus of this policy, for example employment. Employment, indeed, is the biggest challenge to the youth because all the others we have mentioned like HIV/AIDS, drugs etcetera, are by products of unemployment. That is to say that, first and foremost, when the youth come to our offices as hon. Members, what is uppermost in their minds is employment. It is lack of employment that they now revert to some of these other extra-curricular non-productive activities like drugs and promiscuous sex which leads to HIV/AIDS. But the programme that the Minister elaborates in the National Youth Policy for Development is again not very clear. For example, I will take the Youth Enterprise Development Fund. It envisages, say, an average of Kshs50,000 to be given to a youth group to do something. It is a good idea but it is not October 17, 2007 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 4597 supported by an institution or training. I am imagining that a Form IV drop-out who is now about 18 years or 19 years old coming out, being given Kshs50,000 and maybe he has never done anything. The chances that he will succeed are very minimal. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, we have to move away from this political window-dressing type of policies to more concrete policies which will help the youth of Kenya today. So, I propose that under the Youth Enterprise Development Fund (YEDF), which is ongoing, the Minister should concurrently to it, have a Youth Enterprise Training Fund (YETF). It should say that unless someone is trained, he or she cannot access this Fund. The youth need to be trained in basic matters of planning, organisation, staffing, co-ordination, finance, accounting and so on. By so doing, they can run this Fund. For the time being, Equity Bank, which is banking the money, is the one profiting from it. However, the youth are not benefiting from the Fund. Therefore, I am asking the Minister to re-look at the best way that will target the youth who are going to help us. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, secondly, the Minister has talked about public sector projects. Indeed, history is available to us. Germany, after the depression, built autobahns. The youth were made to work. They worked like mad and got paid on a daily basis. They built street ways. Come the depression of the USA, to get out of it, they built motorways. I am sure the Chair, having spent time in the USA, knows very well about this stuff. However, in more recent history, is China. China has built roads using the youth. Let the youth build one thousand kilometres road and get them to work with shovels, picks and so on. Let them work and we put money in their hands. Once money is in the hands of the youth, they will buy shoes or clothes. So, the factories in Nairobi now will produce more clothes. Consequently, when there is a market, they employ more youth. This is basic reasonable economics that I hope we shall put into operation not too long from now. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I have seen your left hand signal to me. With those few remarks, I beg to support."
}