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"content": "together, or they do not want the complications of having to come together so that they can actually be able to access those funds as a group. So, it is really to look at this particular group; what are their needs and how can those needs be enhanced? The whole idea is to have it as an interest free fund so that they can actually be able to pay back; and it has already been raised in this House. There is not going to be a question of just picking these funds. It is a question of actually putting these funds to work and like you have seen, for example, with the Higher Education Loans Board (HELB) where penalties have been put into place for not paying back the money. It is possible for Kenyans to have an impetus to pay back. These are graduates who are being given a lifeline because they have not been able to get any employment. Therefore, I think they will take up to that very, very well. Madam Temporary Speaker, the problem at hand that we are discussing is so critical. We are talking about 70 per cent unemployment rate among the youth; and we are talking about a group that is so vibrant, even in the literature of elections, for example. Generally, in society, the youth are vibrant, have ideas and want to explore. It is true that the definitional aspect of youth makes it a bit complicated to know who to put where, because most of the literature will cover the youth as people who are 15 to 35 years old. In certain cultures if somebody is 12 years old and they have a child, they will not be described as youth, but an adult all together. So, the dynamics of youth are very critical. I think that it is very critical that we do not lump them all together as people with specific needs, common problems and solutions. I do not see the reason we would not even go to develop more funds apart from the Youth Enterprise Development Fund. Across the line, for example, organizations like the Higher Education Loans Board (HELB) have done it in giving funds to university students. Also, various scholarships are given for various students to process their university education. We can have specific sorts of funds. I think that this fund is very specific and would support it purely to be on its own rather than mix it with any other fund. Madam Temporary Speaker, if this problem of unemployment is not addressed now, it is going to create a lot of problems. Of course, we have all the other inequalities that we talk about. We have inequalities at the level of women and the disabled, but for the youth, it becomes very critical for this to be addressed. I think that other speakers have already addressed the reasons in terms of why there is such high unemployment. I think that, that feeds into the look, even as we develop such a fund; to think about what other problems lie therein and how they can be sorted out. For example, there is the whole issue of training and linking this to the job market. This is because we do not want a situation where you are just given funds and people are getting the adequate training and process exactly what they need to process. Madam Temporary Speaker, the whole educational expansion has been very useful in Kenya, right from primary, secondary and university. But the process seems to be feeding many students into the tunnel and many of them are coming out. The economy has not developed as fast as educational expansion has taken place and, therefore, putting us into this particular situation. Population expansion, again, can also be taken into account. I think that the issue of the rural/urban divide has been raised. It is important to 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."
}