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{
    "id": 94746,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/94746/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 233,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Mr. Wambugu",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 149,
        "legal_name": "Clement Muchiri Wambugu",
        "slug": "clement-wambugu"
    },
    "content": "Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, I stand to support the Report of this Committee. First and foremost, may I report that I was a Member of that Committee. I wish to commend the team for the good work it performed. It was quite a difficult task to go round the country picking all these information. I note that there are very many committees in this country which have produced reports, but unfortunately after they have been presented before this House or the Government, very few of them are ever implemented. We request that the recommendations of this Committee be looked into and implemented to the letter. It was sad when we went round the country and met some of these groups to understand how they operate and why they operate like that. One issue that came out clearly is that most boys get into these groups because of unemployment and political influence. I know that has been mentioned before. It is good to know why and when some of these things started. From my assessment, it looks like all these things happened between 1975 to 1978 and 1995 to 1999 especially in Central Province where we have areas termed as Mungiki areas. I do not believe that though. These groups came up because of the collapse of the economy around those areas. If you remember, we used to have big companies and organizations such as the Uplands Company which used to provide a lot of employment to the youth. We had the pyrethrum and the coffee sub-sectors thriving in those early days and they used to employ most of the people. However, somehow along the way, some people ensured that those sub-sectors collapsed so that people in those areas do not get their livelihood. That is why most of the people ended up without employment. Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, there are groups like the Mungiki which are made up of boys who belong to the poor communities. Because of the gap that exists between the rich and the poor, anybody who does not belong to a particular class is branded Mungiki . That is very sad because most of these boys do not join these groups because of their own will. Some of them within Nairobi were recruited by business operators to provide security. They were the ones who were manning the bus stops because there was a total breakdown of order within the police force especially the Traffic Department. Again, after most residents in various areas were faced with insecurity problems, they were forced to recruit some of those boys to provide the security that was badly needed in the country. When the Government realized that it could not provide the services that were required, it started branding these groups Mungiki . We request the Government to move with speed and provide the necessary services required by wananchi so that those boys do not continue to be branded like that. With regard to the recruitment of the youth into the National Youth Service (NYS), those boys have not been able to join it because every time they go for recruitment, even though the Minister for Youth Affairs and Sports had indicated that they are recruited at the district level, because of the stigma that has been instilled in people in the villages, most of those boys are still not accepted in society. I request the Government to take up an affirmative action that the boys, especially those ones who are assumed to have been in those groups are taken positively. They need to be encouraged to join the NYS even without going through the normal process of recruitment. This is because as long as they are subjected to that, the Provincial Administration will not accept them. The communities have not been able to accept them and that is why they join these groups and are recruited by other people to provide other services that are required. Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, these young people fall under the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports. There is a big challenge for some of the officers who have been entrusted with those boys at the grassroots level. I think most of the youth officers who have been posted to various constituencies are not in touch with what happens on the ground. They still live in another world. If there are programmes that have been designed by the Government to help the young people, the youth officers only go to a few selected groups which they have interest in and leave out others. It is my request that this Ministry moves with speed to help design other programmes that will cater for the youth. If we do not do that we will continue getting into the same problem in future."
}