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{
    "id": 585215,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/585215/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 200,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Kabando wa Kabando",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 31,
        "legal_name": "Kabando wa Kabando",
        "slug": "kabando-kabando"
    },
    "content": "Thank you very much, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker. First I would like to congratulate Madam Cecilia Ngetich for this initiative. She has been with us and invited us to her caucusing and networking with the academia and professionals in this sector. Therefore, bringing this Bill here was as a result of very comprehensive and detailed consultations, consensus building and putting the status of the sector into consideration. It is clearly suited to Vision 2030, which we sometimes seem to bury because of the new constitutional dispensation, which has raised issues of development, including devolution as flagships across the board, besides the fact that we are still anchored on the flagship of Vision 2030. That plan clearly indicates the empowerment of this country through the training of young people, their empowerment, access to opportunities and enabling skills that are relevant to this nation. It needs no gainsaying that, indeed, technical skills are very key to putting our development agenda on the platform of where we want Kenya to go, that is the middle income economy with very qualitative living standards, where opportunities for income will be guaranteed. This is because we will have created the necessary infrastructure. If there is a gap that exists and it is acknowledged both by the Government and all stakeholders, including those who make critical assessment of our development needs, then it is the lack of technical knowhow and availability of technologists and technicians who are very key in putting up the infrastructural projects that we need in this country. The fact that we are still importing low cadre labour in the 21st Century, 50 years after Independence, is itself a challenge. In fact we pay them so expensively in order to retain them in this country, yet we are saturated with a sea of young people who are very restless as a consequence of lack of jobs and opportunities. Therefore Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, licensing, registering, controlling, or having a framework that will enable these vulnerable individuals and those that have graduated to be checked and audited in a professional manner--- That they should be pooled in a way that is very institutional is an idea whose time is overdue. Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, in conclusion, it is necessary to benchmark our own youth in a formula that will make them globally competitive. It is not just about the usage of their skills within the country, but also that labour should be exportable. Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, you know very well I had an opportunity to work in the Ministry of Youth Affairs as an Assistant Minister for five years. We had a programme on youth exchange. Indeed, there are areas that we cannot supply adequately just as in the medical world. We have people in the medical profession who are very competitive elsewhere, because their ratification mechanisms are very solid. This is an area that will help create opportunities internally, domesticate our talents among young people and also export outside them to enable the country to widen the revenue stream from foreign exchange. Therefore, it is necessary for us, as a House, to endorse this Bill by Hon. Cecilia Ngetich because it is one way going forward. The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
}