Entry Instance

HTTP 200 OK
Allow: GET, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, HEAD, OPTIONS
Content-Type: application/json
Vary: Accept

{
    "id": 381423,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/381423/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 254,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Obure",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 118,
        "legal_name": "Christopher Mogere Obure",
        "slug": "christopher-obure"
    },
    "content": "Madam Temporary Speaker, one of the greatest challenges facing this country is unemployment and under-employment particularly among the youth. This is a worrying phenomenon. It creates hopelessness and undermines human dignity. This Motion by Sen. Elachi calls on us in this Senate and, indeed, calls upon all Kenyans to seriously reflect on the status and plight of our young people who find themselves in this situation. This is a situation in which at a very early stage in their lives, they find themselves at the dead end of the journey with no hope for the future. Madam Temporary Speaker, in 2008, 812,000 candidates sat for the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE). Out of this, over 200,000 candidates could not find places in Form One and could not proceed to secondary schools. This happened for various reasons including poor grades, lack of money to buy uniforms to go to secondary schools and so on. At that early age, they have dropped out of school and society does not seem to care what happens to them after that. In the same year, 438,000 candidates sat for the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Examination (KCSE). Out of these, only 130,000 students attained an average grade of C+ and above. The remaining students are those who scored below C+. The large majority of them scored grade D+ or below. Therefore, with those poor grades, they cannot obtain admission to colleges and universities. The question which we should be asking ourselves is: Where do these young people go? What happens to them thereafter? What do they do with their lives? What options do they have? Madam Temporary Speaker, in trying to answer those questions, you will see the importance of the Motion which Sen. Elachi has brought here. Where do these young people go when they have dropped out of school? In Kisii County, if you are a boy at that age, after dropping out of school, you go and settle in the village with your family or parents. They are not occupied in anything meaningful at that level. So, they are largely idle and they move freely in the village. They visit the local markets frequently and after a short while, they get married. They do not pay dowry because they do not have resources. That headache is left to the parents. A little later, they demand to get a portion of the family land. Of course, in Kisii, that does not exist. This marks the beginning of family quarrels and the beginning of despair. Out of despair and frustration, the boy who has now graduated into a man drifts into drinking alcohol and possibly engaging in hard drugs. To sustain this habit or even to meet his basic needs and that of his young family, he is tempted into crime beginning with petty theft, housebreaking, then a little later, he graduates into more sophisticated crimes like robbery and drug trafficking. 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."
}