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{
    "id": 406902,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/406902/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 231,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. G.G. Kariuki",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 330,
        "legal_name": "Godfrey Gitahi Kariuki",
        "slug": "gg-kariuki"
    },
    "content": "Thank you, Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir. I rise to support this scheme. Before I do so, I would like to congratulate the President for having been the pioneer of this movement because he is the one who pronounced and announced that there will be this kind of scheme and it is now becoming a reality. We are now standing here to discuss about the pros and cons of this scheme. I hope very sincerely that this scheme will prove to be a scheme where Kenyans and especially the youth and women will remain to say, thank you. I must raise a caution here because the Uwezo Fund with Kshs6 billion minus Kshs700 million for training and also for administration, I think is not enough. I hope that this is just a beginning for the Government to see whether it is going to work and if it works well, I think there is need for the Government to rethink and put more money in this kind of project. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, I think the youth and women need to know that this money will not benefit many of them because, in my understanding, it is a way of introducing the youth and women into the world of business. Those who will manage will make the money later on but not through this Fund. This Fund will prepare them for bigger and more challenging businesses. I think this Fund should not be looked at like something has happened that is going to help all the youth and women. I hope there was no political overtone in deciding to start this movement because in this country, especially during the elections, politicians give false hope to the youth and women and this has never worked. This is because politicians run away from the reality because they are supposed to direct this country to more progressive economic programmes where all the people of Kenya benefit, without separating the gender. If there is a project that is going to help the women, I am sure that it can also help men and the youth. Let us not put a lot of emphasis on this. I think this is just political. We need to think of how we can keep these young men and women busy in terms of employment. This way, we will give opportunity for those who are better than others so that they do 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 business once they are introduced to it. All the people you see in businesses were not taken to any school. However, they are in businesses. They are the owners of shops and big firms. As a Senate, let us not spend a lot of time talking about the structure because these will change as we move on. We have tried these structures and they may not work. Maybe these ones may not also work. We should get the right form of management. The value for this money is to introduce young men and women into the world of business. That is the way I look at it. If a loan is between Kshs50,000 to Kshs500,000, what kind of business can one do? Can you consider that to be money that can do business? How many cows can you buy with Kshs500,000? These are not even more than 10. So, this is very little money. Let us not think that we have discovered something to assist Kenya. We are still far behind in terms of assisting Kenyans in what they expect us to do. Giving money at a rate of 1 per cent is like giving out free money. That rate is like the one given out in donations although one will be expected to pay the money back. This programme, with political middlemen, will be very difficult to handle. You can laugh and think about it. However, I think it is very difficult. For those who have been in politics for some time, you know it is not easy to deal with people. They will come to you and say that they borrowed Kshs400,000 and are seeking for Harambee so as to pay back the Government’s money. We will just go into deeper problems. However, things need to be tried out. Some will succeed while some will not succeed. That is common in the world of civilization. The concept is good but not an answer to our problem. I want to insist that. We need to see this country developing in totality and not in groups. We should not pretend that we will have done a very good job for them. I want to repeat that this is a kind of introduction of young people who are in business. They will be introduced to this money without expecting something out of it."
}