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{
    "id": 749058,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/749058/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 202,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Okoth",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 12482,
        "legal_name": "Kenneth Odhiambo Okoth",
        "slug": "kenneth-odhiambo-okoth"
    },
    "content": "public relations with media branding, it gives them a hope that “finally we have been remembered. Here is something for us. Here is something that will really engage us and give us a chance to be empowered. We will earn from our sweat. We will have the dignity of working and earning and we will not be begging or waiting for handouts from politicians. We will be improving our environment like cleaning up Kibra, building roads that the community needs, building water pans in rural areas where they are needed and contributing to society and earning justly from it”. This was the promise of the NYS and what its transformation programme was supposed to do. We had a taste of it, then it was all robbed. Kibra was a pilot venue. As Member for Kibra in the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM), it was a very demanding and high pressure situation to take a position that would make sure that my people, who are taxpayers of this country, have access and a right to receive Government services under a youth empowerment programme. For over 50 years, the Government had not been doing things such as basic sewage, access to water, improvement of housing conditions, security through roads and improvement of the business environment and security through construction of lighting. Suddenly, these investments and engagement with the Government would come to make a change regardless of whatever political angle was being presented to it then. I thought it was my moral duty to, at least, take the benefit of the doubt and take the position that the people of Kibra are taxpayers and are entitled to Government programmes that can uplift the environment they live in. It would not just be an investment in infrastructure, but an investment in our people. Now in hindsight, and as I read the shocking details in black and white of this well-done Report, it is clear that we were tricked under the promise of what the NYS was supposed to do to empower the youths of Kibra from poverty versus the reality. We, the people of Kibra and the youth of Kibra were taken advantage of, so that a few people including a few companies and banks that are well known participated in a conspiracy to steal billions while pretending to be giving our young people tokens through the NYS employment. When the programme started in Kibra, a lot of young people, over 3,000, eventually participated in the programme. The intentions were noble and if they had been fully implemented, my constituency was going to be fully transformed in a major way. It would be a model for real development.it would be a Kenyan solution to Kenyan problems that we could move to other counties and focus on and implement. The young people were promised that they would earn money and a portion of the money would be saved which would then be relayed to them as owners and shareholders in SACCOs. Once they have gained skills in construction, cleaning and capacity to do recycling, they would have their own money to become investors and contract with the Government of Nairobi County or the national Government to do construction work and slum upgrading in Kibra. We thought we would move from mud houses and young people in Kibra would be having the capital to build affordable Makiga style housing that is of a decent quality to uplift our neighbourhood. That did not happen. This Report tells us clearly that the money the young people of Kibra were saving for their SACCOs has not been relayed to them fully. I want to go on record that when I meet the leader of the groups in the villages in Kibra, he told me that their SACCO money has not been relayed to them fully. This was robbery not just of the State, but also of the sweat of the hardworking young people who earned the money and only a portion of it was relayed. I know a lot of people are discussing here the former CS, Waiguru, who is running for Governor of Kirinyaga, but there is a CS for Devolution. There is a CS for the National Treasury and the CS for Youth and Gender Affairs now. We are putting it on record that the money 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."
}