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"id": 255018,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/255018/?format=api",
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Ms. Mbarire",
"speaker_title": "The Assistant Minister for Transport",
"speaker": {
"id": 78,
"legal_name": "Cecily Mutitu Mbarire",
"slug": "cecily-mbarire"
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"content": "Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, our youths have suffered for many years. At the time of Independence, young people went to school and they were told: \"Someni vijana na mwisho wakusoma, mtapata kazi nzuri sana\". I heard that song every single morning before I went to school and that made me want to read very hard. I believed that after reading, I was going to get a good March 29, 2006 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 159 job. Today, you read, get your first and second degrees and you do not get a job. At Independence, young people found jobs waiting for them. The Government was keen on exploiting their potential. Indeed, at the time of Independence the Government was run by young people. The successes of the Independent Government were made by the young people. We had Ministers and Permanent Secretaries in their 20s and early 30s at the time of Independence because the then Government realised the potential that lay in those young people. The Government knew that they were full of energy, had great ideas, were not resistant to change and they meant well for the nation. Over the years, we have demonised being youthful. Being youthful today means that you are a drug addict, an alcoholic, jobless and a foot soldier for the politician. That is what being youthful today is equated to. Because of that, we have frustrated youths in this country who have nothing to do with themselves, with no hope and they come to political rallies in large numbers seeking for hope and answers. We stand in front of them and tell them that we shall do this and that for them. However, as soon as we are out of those political rallies, that is where their issues end. We are happy that they danced and sang for us and we won but we forget about them. I am happy that for the first time, this Government has taken the issue of young people more seriously. I am happy that the President for the first time, since I became a Member of Parliament, spoke about young people in this Parliament. I would like this House to realise that we have youth who are in no meaningful employment and they have inadequate pay. We have young people whose potential is not being nurtured, recognised or channelled in a positive way. We have young people who do not have any avenue to ventilate their hopes, frustrations or say what it is they want with themselves. We have young people who have economic potential but no one recognises it. We have young people who do not have anywhere they can engage in decision making and young people who are out of place in the current political arrangement. Why do I say so, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir? I am yet to see any political party meaningfully engage young people beyond rallies. I want us to think seriously about these issues and, therefore, embrace the National Youth Policy Sessional Paper that is yet to be laid on the Table of this House. I want us to support the National Youth Policy Sessional Paper because it provides for the establishment of a National Youth Council that will be used as the platform for young people to engage meaningfully in decision making, with the Government and to engage in development of their lot. The National Youth Council is going to have representation through meaningful democratic elections from the grassroots to national level. I want to tell this House that it is only Kenya that does not have a National Youth Policy and a National Youth Council in East Africa. Uganda has had it for the last ten years. Tanzania, South Africa, Zimbabwe and Swaziland have it. In fact, whenever young people are called to international fora, we really do not know who they are speaking on behalf. They are just hand-picked. We want young people to be engaged. More importantly, we want to see young people being given resources directly by the Government to engage in income generating activities. I am happy that we have a Ministry for Youth Affairs. However, we want it to be given adequate resources so that they can give credit to young people to participate in income generating activities. We want to see more young people being involved in decision making at all levels of governance. I also want to see young people being seen for who they are. There is goodness and energy in young people. If we want to develop this country, we cannot afford to leave 70 per cent of our population behind. However, I also want to challenge hon. Members. They have the Constituencies Development Fund (CDF). That money can also be used to develop young people in your constituencies. We should not wait until it is elections time and we start to mobilise young people to be our foot soldiers. We should wake up and help those young people. They are not a cursed lot that they must continue taking kumi kumi and dying or taking miraa and getting into drug addiction 160 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES March 29, 2006 because nobody cares about them. They are bound to get into drug addiction. How does it feel to be a young person, 30 years old, with a degree at home still depending on your parents for your next meal? You are bound to get frustrated! Let us, please, give young people a solution. Let us support that Sessional Paper and make a difference for these people. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I wish to further speak about famine. I feel unhappy that Kenyans continue to die of famine. I think this is a problem and it is going to cost us Kshs10 billion to alleviate the famine that is there right now because we have not planned well. In the last Session, we had an allocated time to just discuss the same issue. The question we want to ask ourselves is: Do our people have to continue to die for lack of food yet we have people who can think and we have the resources? This Kshs10 billion that we are using right now to feed the hungry could have been used to ensure that they never get hungry at all. How do we explain that Ukambani, for as long as I was born, is always famine stricken year in, year out yet all the major rivers pass through there? Why do we have to let all the water go down to the Indian Ocean and we do not harvest it for use at a later date? I think we need a National Water Harvesting Policy for this country so that we can harvest water when it rains to be used when it does not rain. With those few remarks, I beg to support."
}