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{
"id": 406868,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/406868/?format=api",
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. Ndiema",
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"speaker": {
"id": 1067,
"legal_name": "Henry Tiole Ndiema",
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"content": "Thank you, Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir. I rise to support. In so doing, I also want to associate myself with the views that have been expressed here; that a fund as this one is not new in terms of experience and expected outcome. The outcome really is that there is no guarantee that this money will be paid to that level that, perhaps, can be seen as a revolving fund. We should look at this fund as a grant to the youth and women, to uplift their standards. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, with regard to the funds that we have had over the years, there seems to be a criteria that if you want to assist women or youth, you must force them to form groups. Most youth and women, who are in business today, are there in their individual capacity. They know how to handle business in that manner. Therefore, as you give them money in form of groups, first of all, you are forcing them to operate in an atmosphere that is not normally theirs. I would want us to look at this fund, perhaps, in a different way; that while the fund goes to assist those already in groups, the individual youth and women who are in small-scale business can be assisted. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, we have spent a lot of money training the youth in our polytechnics and universities. In my county, I had an experience where the youth came to me and there were those who had finished universities. Some are lawyers and engineers, but in their locality but in the locality that they are in, there may be two or three. So, to form a group, they would have to merge with those others who are perhaps doing non- professional work. In so doing, they end up perhaps rearing chicken while their priorities were not really in rearing chicken. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, perhaps we should categorize this Fund and issue it in terms of the amounts that go to groups, the amount that go to women in business, those in farming and so on, and so forth. Today, we have the boda boda sector, which is generating a lot of employment for our youth, yet most of our youth cannot access funds to buy motorcycles; and not only to buy – because some of them have managed to buy – but they cannot afford to train themselves to ride on motorcycles, hence causing accidents and sometimes they lose their lives and the lives of other Kenyans. Why can we not target some of these funds, say, to train the youth to get the necessary skills? Those who have been trained – there are so many youths who have completed their training in village and national polytechnics – need the tools to go into the trade. There are masons who need a bit of capital to now engage in the contracts that are coming up. We have told them that we are now going to give them contracts, but they do not have the tools to operate with. If we can set aside an amount of funds out of this to start off the youth who have finalized college education, it will go a long way in assisting them; and it is not necessarily true that they will repay, but perhaps if they can repay, it is well and good. If they do not repay, we can consider it so. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, churches play a very important role in our society today. They are the best policemen; they are the ones who are mentoring our youth, persuading 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 them to leave anti-social activities, but then the pastors cannot give these youth alternative and decent means of livelihood. When I see an amendment coming up here to say that no funds should be channeled through churches, it is worrying. I think we should trust our churches. They also have youth and women groups within them, and we should give them that money to administer. We should not fear that because ours is a State where the church and the state are separate, we should not assist them; after all, this is just a grant. I do not think this can really qualify to be a fund in a financial institution that will strictly go accordingly. In any case, if we wanted to give them loans, then let us operate through the structures that are already there. There is a joint loans board for those in trade; there is the Agricultural Finance Corporation (AFC) and if we have to assist the young people who are in farming; let us give it through the AFC even at that interest of 1 per cent. There are other institutions which are already established and they do not really have enough funds or even enough work to do. Why do we duplicate institutions to administer Government finances while we already have so many? I support the Fund fully, but we want it to assist the young people and the women who are suffering in a manner that will ensure that they will benefit. With those few remarks, Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I beg to support."
}