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{
    "id": 383850,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/383850/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 34,
    "type": "other",
    "speaker_name": "",
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    "speaker": null,
    "content": "Madam Temporary Speaker, this Motion is very clear and when you educate your child, you expect him or her to go through the education system. At the end of it when they graduate, there should be some sort of employment or business for that youth to engage in. That will enable them avoid the idleness that we are now seeing around the country. The parents and the community and even the national Government spend a lot of resources to educate these children. For instance, you find poor parents selling part of their land and animals and even committing themselves to loans, so that they can raise the school fees of their children. At the end of the day, their farms are auctioned because they are not able to repay the loans. So, it is a pity that, at the end of the fourth year in the university, this graduate is not assured of employment. This means that he is of no use to himself and also to the community. He cannot even support his family. Madam Temporary Speaker, the Government through the High Education Loans Board (HELB) gives loans to students so that it can take them through education. But we find that after the students finish the college education, they are unable to repay these loans. They cannot get jobs to enable them repay the loans. How do you repay a loan if you are not able to get a job? That also touches on their Curriculum Vitaes (CVs). Their CVs cannot meet the conditions as set out by the Government and private organizations in order for them to be employed. They ask for five years experience. How do our youth get that experience if they have never worked? Former students are told to clear their loans before they are considered for employment. How does an individual clear the loan if he or she has never been given an opportunity to work? It has been used as a symbolic and lip service organ by the Government to please the unemployed youth without meaningful structures and budgetary commitments. For example, if you look at the 2006 statistics, we had Kshs4.2 billion which was disbursed to the Youth Enterprise Fund. Out of that Kshs4.2 billion, a sum of Kshs3 billion was disbursed as loans and Kshs1.2 billion as administration costs. In my county, I do not think the youths who have graduated are aware of the existence of such a fund in the Government. Some of them do not know what corridors they should walk to get access to this money. Madam Temporary Speaker, for easy accessibility of the fund to our young graduates, this money should be devolved to the counties. We should have a hand in it because we can mobilize those youths within the county who are graduates and who have gone through colleges with diplomas, because that is even the worst. When someone with a diploma asks you to help them get a job, I do not know where to start. Even some graduates lack the specialized skills. For those who have specialized courses like medicine, engineering and so forth, it is easier to get employment. But there are those who do the general degrees. Those are the people who really have a problem. We, as leaders, should look at this critically because we are sitting on a time bomb. When we look at the push factor according to the Economic Survey 2013, you find that at primary level we are admitting about 10,000 children. At the Form One level, we are admitting over 2,000 children. At the university level, we are also assimilating over 60, 000. I have not considered the private universities because they also have their 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."
}