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"speaker_name": "Mr. Karaba",
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"content": "Thank you, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, for giving me this chance to contribute in support of this very timely Motion by our friend, Mr. Angwenyi. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, this Motion should have come in the 1960s and 1970s, so that we could take care of our growing population. Our population is even outgrowing the economic development. My friend, across there, talked about tripartite. This is something Kenya Government should have thought about, not only in the 1960s, when it was started, but also in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s to cope with the growing demands of unemployed youths in our country. If we are not careful with youths over 18 years old; arising from unemployment rate and high completion rates at secondary schools and universities, Kenya is sitting on a time bomb. We should, therefore, think about it. This is the reason that this Motion should be supported and passed. We need to have several agro-based industries. We need to have an increase in cottage industries like in Korea, China and India, so that we can employ labour-intensive techniques. By so doing, we can employ more people into these industries. However, this has not happened. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, we need to accelerate agricultural development in our country, so that crops which are basic raw materials can either be grown by our farmers or be imported from overseas. We can generate money through export of the raw materials or by using them for manufacture of goods. That is not happening. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, you will also note that when this does not happen, insecurity cases increase. In one way or the other, these people must get a way of earning a living. If the way is not there and the Government is not taking note of the increase of the number of unemployed youths, we have many youths getting into problems. They have engaged themselves in crime which leads to some of them losing their lives. Through this great Motion, we are going to pass today, we should create jobs for those who are not employed. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, most of infant industries are not protected by the Government. The Government still charges high taxes on industries and products from outside the country. In fact, we still charge taxes on our finished products from industries. This is not necessary. If we have to protect our industries, we need to make sure that whatever is produced by our infant industries is protected. This can be done by zero-rating some of the products which are grown here, so that we do not have the industries closing down. This has happened in the past. We now give room to some giant manufacturing industries at the expense of our home-made infant industries in the country. If this policy is adopted, we are likely to have an increased number of our own industrial products coming from our own original raw materials. We can, therefore, make use of our raw materials here. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, we also have the related infrastructural development in the country. If we are not able to cope with the industrial growth as regards to the provision of infrastructure, that is a mistake. We have industries that process very important agricultural crops. I have in mind tea in highland areas, particularly where I come from. You will find a factory processing tea, which is very labour intensive, but it is very difficult to get the tea leaves to the factories. When the tea does not get to the factory, there will be a lot of waste. Those in charge of 26 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES July 25, 2007 curing tea leaves lose their jobs just because tea leaves rot in tea-buying centres, without reaching the factory for processing. If we improve the infrastructure in this country, I am sure, the employment rate will increase. We will have unemployed youths get jobs in similar industries in our country. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, we also have the Youth Enterprise Development Fund. I thought this fund was meant to accelerate some basic economic activities in our country. I do not think it has taken off properly. Initially, we were made to believe that every constituency was to be given Kshs1 million. This money was to be given to a group of 20 members. Every group would have been given Kshs50,000 for pursuit of its economic activities. This has not happened. We are seeing that instead of them getting Kshs50,000, they are getting as little as Kshs20,000. They have to subject their proposals to the Youth Development Officers. When this happens, the amount is reduced from Kshs50,000 to Kshs12,000 or to even Kshs10,000. It is a waste of time because the time taken to process these proposals has more value than the amount they get. I will, therefore, propose that the initial grant that will be given to the youth--- They cannot be given without any strings attached. The Kshs50,000 should help every group to take off. Consequently, the youth will borrow that money from the banks. That is because they would have been encouraged by the first Kshs250,000 lot. But that is not happening today. The Ministry of State for Youth Affairs is not encouraging youth groups to take up those loans. That is because they have already been discouraged by not getting what they were promised. I, therefore, call upon the Ministry and the Government to encourage the youth to take up many economic activities. That is closer to what the Motion is asking us to do. Let us have many savings and credit organisations all over the country so that the youth could easily borrow that money, without necessarily going for very laborious and stringent banking processes. That is discouraging the youth. So, to encourage the youth, they need to be given softer terms. Otherwise, what will happen is that the Youth Enterprise Development Fund will go back to the Treasury for not being utilised. That is because the youth have not been sensitised enough. They have not been educated on what to do. They are not being encouraged by the Ministry officials. It will affect the growth of industries and economic activities. Unemployment will continue rising."
}