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"content": "protected his father’s herd, he looked for an innovative way of ensuring that one way or another, the herd that he was taking care of would be protected. Did Kenya recognize that? It took somebody else, who is an outsider. This is the sort of innovation and energy from young people that we need to nurture. It is high time that in this country we really looked hard and thought about the technical skills. Mr. Speaker, Sir, this whole thing is also historical. During the colonial times, of course, blue-collar jobs were made to be looked down upon and everybody aspired for white-collar jobs. But it is about time in this country – 50 years after Independence – that we have a total mindset change, so that we begin to look at technical skills, blue-collar jobs and agriculture, because that is where industries can really develop from. We should encourage our youth to move to technical training rather than formal education. There is capacity for self-employment in this country in all sectors. I think that leaders should pay attention to the Youth Enterprise Development Fund and other funds, to ensure that really it has become a reality. We cannot talk about unemployment day in, day out. What are we doing on the ground? We cannot give promises. We are talking about university students, and Sen. Kiraitu has mentioned this. One of the things that really people fear is that with a lot of education and without outlet, then people might even turn to criminality. It has not been a surprise that over time, some of these criminals have actually been our graduates and secondary school leavers. This is because innovation entails that if you have an idea, but not an outlet for it, then you will put it into any avenue that is really available for you. I think that we are really sitting on a time bomb and a group of energetic youth, who even during elections time have been used for violent activities, because of their energy, time, mindset and the way they do things. It is very important that we change that. Mr. Speaker, Sir, in the early 1980s, the Government at that time introduced the NYS. The NYS, at that time, targeted students who were actually just about to go into the universities. It was a programme for just about three months and many people went for it. Apart from the educational value, there was the technical as well as the discipline value that went into it. There was a sense of righteousness; there was a sense of what needed to be done and what had to be done, and a sense of ensuring that it was going to be done. I remember that many people who left that programme were changed people. We left as people who would wake up in the morning with a focus; we woke up as people who knew that once you set yourself a goal, you were going to attain that goal. Unfortunately, most of the people who went to the universities used those skills for stone throwing; and, now, they had a more co-ordinated approach. So, we had all the terminologies to use – afande, ajuab – and we used those skills to our advantage. But there was an advantage in that particular programme. I think this is the advantage that we can tilt, take it to a national and county government level and begin to tilt the mindset, not only towards a formal acquisition of education, but everything else that comes with it. This is especially so given the sort of background and all the things that are happening to our youth both in terms of, for example, harmful cultural practices; and Article 45 of the Constitution protects the youth from harmful cultural practices. There are so many girls and boys who are not able to proceed with their education; girls because of early marriage and other harmful practices such as Female Genital Mutilation (FGM). It is within this context that we can turn that training to something useful and attractive. The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposes only. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor, Senate."
}