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{
    "id": 373415,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/373415/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 318,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. J.K. Chege",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 2129,
        "legal_name": "John Kiragu Chege",
        "slug": "john-kiragu-chege"
    },
    "content": "Thank you, hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker. I rise to support this Motion. As I support it, I represent a constituency known as “Limuru” where we have the biggest shoe factory in this country. This country has to be serious when it refers to unemployment for the youth. We have solutions but we do not seem to fulfill our promises. The shoe industry could create an additional 1,000 employment opportunities for our young people. This is only if this country makes a decision to buy shoes for the military, Administration Police and other Armed Forces that are manufactured in this country. We continue to talk about unemployment for the youth but we do not seem to come up with some solutions. There are some areas where we already have skills but we have denied Kenyans the opportunity to get employment. This is because we have refused to address the issue of local content. On Thursday, last week, we visited one of the biggest projects in the country at the airport. It was shocking that in that project, there were no young Kenyans being attached to it. This is the case and yet such a project sometimes comes after 20 or 30 years in this country. What was also shocking is the fact that the Chinese contractor has brought in young people for attachment in this project but our Kenyan side does not think that Kenyans need to be attached to such a project so that they can acquire skills. I want to support this Motion because I know that there are some shortages of skills in this country. I have been involved in training engineers and technicians but one of the problems we have is that we do not have the right accreditation system to make sure that those people who provide this training are people who can deliver quality training programmes. Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, we must also assess our demands in the skills that we need so that we prioritize them and do not just train. We should train for certain demanding industry because the whole plan is to support the industrial sector. I believe that my friend, hon. Njomo knows that as a country, we have Vision 2030 and we should be rolling out programme to enable us achieve the targets that we have set. I believe that the only way to do this is to make sure that we expand the training levy so that we can get more people on board. We also need to come up with schemes so that once somebody has been trained, he gets down to the area he has been trained in. I will give an example. We have many welders in this country. However, because they have not qualified properly they cannot weld in health sector and for that reason they cannot earn a good living. However, if this training levy could be utilized to make sure that our welders are qualified to weld even for ships in Mombasa, pipelines and storage tanks for our oil industries or delivery pipes for the geothermal projects, we can create employment. I know we are still importing even welders in this country. It is embarrassing for a nation that has been there for 50 years. I know that even at the university level, there are areas that are also having problems of skilled personnel particularly in their laboratories. We should also help the"
}