Entry Instance

HTTP 200 OK
Allow: GET, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, HEAD, OPTIONS
Content-Type: application/json
Vary: Accept

{
    "id": 561863,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/561863/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 107,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Kobado",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 2964,
        "legal_name": "John Owuor Onyango Kobado",
        "slug": "john-owuor-onyango-kobado"
    },
    "content": "Thank you very much, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker for this opportunity. First, I would like to congratulate Hon. Sakaja for this very innovative Bill. Allow me to start by quoting Charles Kettering, who was an American engineer, and whose 140 patents included the electric starter and the car lighting and ignition system. Kettering once stated very eloquently that: “My concern was with the future since I intend to spend the rest of my life there.” The future of this nation should be in the hands of the youth. As leaders, we should only be concerned about their future. The youth have the numbers, energy, innovation, resilience and talents that are required to move this nation to the future. The level of youth unemployment in this country is a ticking time-bomb. Unemployment is known to be associated with crime and violence, and will critically destroy the fabric of this nation. Employment is not just about income earning. It is also about dignity and prestige. Unless we address these issues very critically and fast enough, we are headed to very dangerous levels. If you critically look at what is happening today in this country, we have very weak policies and we need to look at how we can reform the labour market policies. That means that we look at the demand side. If you look at the demand side in the labour market today, you find that employers are not ready to take in the youth. One reason they are doing so is because they claim the youth do not have the experience and necessary skills. That means that we need to look at reforms in terms of our education and training, so that we provide the necessary skills for the youth to be employed. Employability of the youth is one critical aspect that we need to look at. If you look at the way this country is preparing the youth in terms of training, we need to move away from the knowledge-based training to competence-based training, so that as these youths come out of school, we can shorten the margin between coming out of school and getting employed. That transition has been long. There is need to minimise the transition between learning and earning. That can only be done if the youth are given an opportunity to gain skills as they go through their learning processes, and more so those who go into training. As they train, there is need for them to get an opportunity to gain practical skills. It is critical that reforms be done in aspects of education and movement, in terms of preparing data, so that we know what kind of skills these youth have. In conclusion, some of the funds and interventions that we have had in this nation are not sustainable. Looking at the Uwezo Fund, the youth do not just need the capital. It is not just about making money. As I said earlier, it is also about skills and appropriate technology. If the youth are skilled, they can use them to make earnings in a sustainable manner. The employment ratio in this country today stands at 40:8, which means that 2 out of---"
}