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{
    "id": 365256,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/365256/?format=api",
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    "content": "the National Youth Convention that took place in Limuru in 1997. History gave me a chance to be part of that convention and amongst those who we were with is hon. Mbarire and other Members. At that particular youth convention, it is important to note that a group of young people from across the country came together having felt very marginalized and sidelined and they thought that the country was not supporting them in any way. That convention almost produced a youth Presidential candidate because they thought that the political powers that were, were not interested in matters of the young people. History also gave me a chance now to talk on the actualization of the National Youth Council and to make sure that the Council is operationalised and given money so that it can manage the affairs of the young people of this country. It is a little bit worrying that the Government took the youth in an election that it did not take into consideration. The young people were left alone to elect themselves and yet no regard was paid to that exercise. Time is ripe now. As the other Members have said, it is unfortunate that even in the budgetary allocation for the Budget that we will discuss tomorrow and the days moving forward, nothing has been given to the National Youth Council. Most of the money that has been alluded to is towards things like dam construction and technical institution instructors. If you look at Section 4 of the Act, it is very robust. One of the things that need to happen is some sort of an amendment because it is also very broad and half of the things that it proposes cannot be implemented. It captures a wide range of the things that affect the youth of this country. If we could then give capacity to the National Youth Council the same way other countries like Uganda have done, Kenya will be moving towards the right direction. Kenya should have been the first in this region paving way for a national youth council that is robust and one that is in charge of the young people’s affairs unlike other jurisdictions like Uganda that now we have to copy. Jurisdictions like Uganda have robust national youth councils and the members of the council are the ones who select the people who would be Members of the National Assembly. I look forward to a day when the Kenya National Youth Council will be the body that nominates the youthful members of their membership to be part of any august House. We need to do whatever it takes to make sure that the National Youth Council is in operation. If it is about money and the Supplementary Budget, we as Members, must then move forward to implement that. The National Youth Fund that is supposed to be supporting the youth, we know very well, has been subject of misappropriations. Huge funds always disappear from the kitty and half of it goes into administrative functions that do not help the youth. We should enhance the capacity of the National Youth Council, so that it is able to manage funds like the Youth Fund and any other money that this particular administration will put in place. Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, one of the things that we need to ensure is that the National Youth Council measures up to the aspirations of Article 55 of the Constitution that hopes that this Government will place special attention to youthful people and youthful activities. We must be sure that unemployment and youth hopelessness that is currently attendant across the country does not catch up with us. The youth bulge, if we saw anything else from what happened in the northern part of Africa and other parts of the world, is something that we must be careful about. If we do not take"
}