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    "id": 383908,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/383908/?format=api",
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    "content": "Madam Temporary Speaker, it is for that reason I am saying that if you create a Bill that only seeks money for graduates and yet there are so many youth who are not graduates – in fact, the overwhelming majority – what do we do with them? In other words, I would rather we tackle head on the question of youth economic empowerment. We should tackle it holistically in one legislation as one way of putting our young people together and as one way of departing from this notion that you have to go to a college or a university to be useful in life. So, are we not perpetuating the same kind of division and class struggle that we have created, not only through our education system but also through our response to the problems that bedevil various sectors of our society? I want to agree with Sen. (Prof.) Anyang’-Nyong’o’s observation that giving people money without educating them on what to do with it is useless. A young man will get this money and go and marry a second wife and is unable to repay the money and will ask Senators to help him repay that loan. Secondly, the question of linking agriculture, manufacturing and infrastructure which are the basics of our economy, with the secondary sectors of financial services and ICT needs to be relooked at. What I do not agree with are the remarks that have been made here, trying to actually make the informal sector look like a sector which has no value in our economic model as a country. I think that view is wrong and it is part of the problem we have. There is a lot of good work happening in the informal sector. All we need to do is to enable artisans and other people- -- Actually, there are innovators. If you look at our Industrial Property Law; the law on intellectual property on patents, et cetera, the conditions that have been put for a person to claim intellectual property and, therefore, attract royalties when they have made an invention in the informal sector are extremely stringent. This is because of this Western concept of what amounts to patentable innovations. So, I stand to say here with regard to the informal sector, in fact, the future of Kenya, in my view, lies in a system that recognizes the informal sector and tries to tap the immense talent and opportunity and economic potential that lies in that sector. While we are here, I am glad Kenyans are following the Senate notwithstanding the turbulence that we are going through, Kenyans are sending messages and they are saying that it is good to talk about young people, but also remember us because we are also university graduates and we have been out of school. Could we also get a waiver so that we do not pay the HELB loan? I think that tells you the crisis that we have in various ways that pertains to young people. In my opinion, the only thing that we should accept as a nation is that it is not right to ask a young man or woman who left school five years ago and is not yet employed to pay a loan, failure to which they attract a Kshs5, 000 per month interest or penalty. That is unacceptable. So, I think these are some of the things that will need a holistic approach to take into consideration all the youth. The issue of paying back should remain there because that is the only way you can show you are patriotic enough to allow future generations to get public education at a affordable or subsidized rates. Therefore, in the circumstances, although this Motion is well intended, it is a perpetuation of the piecemeal approach to solutions. I am saying this because I know that in the Jubilee Manifesto, we have very concrete plans on the youth economic empowerment arrangement. We have made clear 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."
}