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{
"id": 5437,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/5437/?format=api",
"text_counter": 433,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Mr. Kinyanjui",
"speaker_title": "The Assistant Minister for Roads",
"speaker": {
"id": 48,
"legal_name": "Lee Maiyani Kinyanjui",
"slug": "lee-kinyanjui"
},
"content": "It has been said that the rate of unemployment in Kenya, especially in the last three or four years has been rising significantly. One of the ways that we can address this is by ensuring that the youth have a market for their services and goods. When the youth compete for these limited opportunities and they have to compete with people who have been in business for long, who have huge contacts and a wide base from which they can quote in terms of reference, it becomes extremely difficult for them to get preference. Therefore, it may be necessary for us to look at how we can address some of these issues. But there are key challenges and I want to quickly go to my docket in the Ministry of Roads. Even before we look at the youth, we have had the challenge of trying to see how we can encourage Africans and Kenyans, for that matter. Forget about even the youth. We have categories A, B and C in terms of contractors; A being the highest level of contractors that we have in this country. Within Category A, the numbers of African contractors we have are so few and far down there that if you want to bring them up, you need more than a miracle. You will remember some of the key contractors who are there, for example, the Kirinyaga Construction, Mugoya Construction and a few Asian companies that are here. So, there is a big gap between the foreign contractors and the local contractors. Even before we talk about the youth, we have a major challenge. This is important because if you look at the money that we are spending on those big contracts, it is in billions. So, if you have about Kshs80 billion to spend on those contracts and more than a half of that is going to foreigners, already you can see why your Kenya Shilling is not able to hold against the other major international currencies. So, we would want to see how we can address this and at the Ministry, we have made several interventions. One, we have proposed to send the money directly to the constituencies. When you send money directly to the constituencies, you are giving preference to the local contractors. At that stage, you do not encourage the international contractor to come and bid for the small contracts. More importantly is also the issue of training our contractors at that level, to look at the job of contracting as a business. Many of them will take up two or three jobs, take the initial payment here, they do not do the work and they go and take another job there. They go to the Ministry of Water and Irrigation or the Ministry of Energy for that matter. Instead of doing the actual work, we end up having four legal cases. Some, in fact, have more lawyers than engineers in their companies. So, it has also to do with the work ethic and it has been a major concern. The other issue that we have also found is that as we go in the lower categories of D, E and others, that is where all the African contractors are. They are in their thousands. Therefore, we have been trying to ask if they can come together, amalgamate and form a formidable force to compete for the major contracts in this country. We have done that, but still, much more needs to be done. There is the other issue of training. Many people for a long time did not look at the business of contracting as a long-term business. It was a quick way of getting money and going away. The investment that you require in any road project runs into millions. So, if you plan to be there for just one year or one contract, then you will never recoup your money. Therefore, the Ministry has tried to come up with equipment that belongs to the Ministry, so that if a small youth group or a team of young men get a contract, they can hire this equipment which previously was not available or when it was available, it was from the private contractors who would never agree to hire it to the young men. So, we have done a few things, but I agree that much more needs to be done. The other issue that we probably need to address is that, even as we talk about the youth, it is not enough to talk about them as if they are all poor. As we all know, there are a few young men in this country who are getting about 90 per cent of the contracts in this country. We will live within this law, but only benefit about 10 or 20 and these are normally the sons and daughters of the big people in this country. So, we are well within the law, but are we benefiting the youth that we intend to? May be not! When we talk about the youth, all the big contracts that are being done here, be it in IT or banking, you will find that almost five industries are monopolized by a small team of people. So, if your aim was to empower our young men back there in the constituencies and the villages, then the law must also take cognizance of how we can benefit, not just a few, but the many others who we want to benefit. The other thing is that if this amendment is brought into force, most naturally, all of us who want to form companies to procure in the Government would make our daughters and sons the directors in these companies. So, when they go to procure, you will see a 25-year old and a 30-year young person. For all that they know, they will only get maybe 5 per cent and the rest goes to the same old people. Once again, it will be the same old story of Kazi Kwa Vijana and the money goes to the old people. So, we must also want to see to what extent the young people that we claim to be giving the contracts are benefiting. Are they the real beneficiaries or are they holding brief for the older people? Within the law, I am sure that can be done. The other issue that we may probably want to address is that as we talk of the youth and their ownership, when you talk of a company, it is a corporate entity. If you are asked whether the East African Breweries or Safaricom are young companies or old companies, do you want to look at the age of the company or the directorship? You cannot give age to a corporate entity. You can only give it to an individual. So, we may also have challenges describing whether it belongs to the youth or it is operated by the youth because we may well have a situation where it belongs to one old man, but 100 per cent of the employees who would be the beneficiaries, if the law is enacted or if the service was contracted, would be the youth. So, in a situation where I am employing about 100 young people to procure a service, but I am 40 or 50 years old, will I be denied that yet when that comes, I am going to employ 100 fundis and 100 service people? So, we may also want to deal with that. There is also another issue that came up and I would want to emphasize this; that even as we talk of empowering the youth, we also have a generation that grew at a time when they were being told that they are the leaders of tomorrow. They were told that when they were in primary school, when they got to secondary school, they were told the same story; in their 30s, they were told the same story and when they get to their 40s, they are now being told that focus is now on the youth just after they have left that bracket. That group also will feel that life must be very unfair. That when they were there, nobody catered for them. To that extent, it will be discriminatory. I would also want to plead with my colleagues that if we say we want to give 25 per cent of the contracts to the young people, we must also think about the inefficiencies that will come with inexperience. A company that has been there for ten years has invested in the services, systems and machinery that they require and can, therefore, procure these services at a much lower cost. If we pay Kshs1 million or Kshs2 million more just to meet this law, then the question is; is the public or the taxpayer ready to pay this other cost just to benefit the young people? Is it important for the country? Would we rather not go for competitive services and then the net effect would basically be shared by all? More importantly is to ask ourselves; who are the real beneficiaries because the economy is so intertwined. If you give me money today, I am sure the first beneficiary of my money would basically be my children. So, even as we talk of the young and the old, the economy is so intertwined that sometimes if you are talking of the middle class or the middle aged, say 40 to 50 years, our biggest burden is to educate our children. They are in universities. So, although the money is coming to me, the first beneficiary of that money is basically my young ones. So, by denying me that and giving it to another person, you are denying another one indirectly. This is an area that we may want to address as we move to the Committee Stage."
}