Entry Instance

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

{
    "id": 738091,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/738091/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 157,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. (Eng.) Gumbo",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 24,
        "legal_name": "Nicholas Gumbo",
        "slug": "nicholas-gumbo"
    },
    "content": "Service (NYS). Some of us are here today because of the benefits we gained from that programme. It enabled us to acquire discipline, undergo personal discovery, growth, perseverance and responsibility which is really what has been a major stone in the foundation that brought us here. I want to believe it is because of the experience gained at NYS--- In a very simplified and a little uneducated way they used to tell us: “Your aspirations are as tall and as long as you want them to be.” I think because of not only perseverance, growth or even responsibility, there is usually a latent element of courage which underpins it. That is why some of us, a few years after graduating from the engineering school, we courageously started engineering firms which have been in existence for close to 25 years despite the fact that some of us came from extremely disadvantaged and poor backgrounds. This courage, personal discovery, perseverance, responsibility and indeed discipline made us who we are. I dare say in those days when the Kenya Shilling still mattered we became millionaires before we were 30 years old. I want to believe that any Government which believes in inculcating responsibility among our young people and the ability for personal discovery, growth and perseverance, ought to make the pre-university NYS programme mandatory. I think it is one of the very good things which Kenya tried and stopped at the pilot phase though it was very transformative. If you look at some of the most transformative leaders this world has ever seen, who I have named here before and I will continue to give examples like the late Lee Kuan Yew of Singapore, you will find that it was a programme such as this which enabled them to have a very qualified citizenry of young people who spurred the growth of the country. We must relook that pre-university National Youth Service (NYS) programme. But even as we have a second look at that programme, if we minimized wastages, this country has the ability to afford such an important programme which can help shape the future of our youth. This country can easily afford that. Even as we relook at that programme, having gone through it, I think it was a very well-intended programme but the way it was designed was such that maximum productivity was not possible. If I remember well, the only productive thing that we did, other than waking up at about 3.30 a.m. and running to Mount Kioko and sometimes running all the way to Lake Elementaita and filling our cheeks with salt water as a form of punishment, was the one week or so that we spent at Tumaini Government Farm. The youth and people in that age bracket are very productive and can be used in a more productive way to spur economic growth. Having said that, I have looked at the composition of the Board. As it has been said by speakers before me, this Board is almost exclusively a public sector board. That is very limiting. We cannot hope to develop or identify talent among our youth yet we do not give room for the private sector and civil society to participate in the appointment of the Board. Issues of gender parity, women, youth and disability are constitutional underpinnings and will obviously be taken into account. The exclusion of the private sector and civil society in the appointment of the Board will, in a way, hamper the noble objectives of this initiative. With regard to Clause 11 of this Bill, it is known that there is a constitutional under- pinning in Chapter 13 of our Constitution for ensuring that the staff of any public body represents the face of Kenya. It is said that sometimes, obvious things are the least obvious, especially when it comes to implementation. Most of us have spoken many times on the need to resort to societal conviviality as a way of moving Kenya forward, but because it looks so obvious it is also very easy to forget. Even if it appears repetitive, it should be stated in this Clause that 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."
}