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{
    "id": 976452,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/976452/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 214,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Igembe South, Independent",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. John Paul Mwirigi",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 1574,
        "legal_name": "Cyprian Kubai Iringo",
        "slug": "cyprian-kubai-iringo"
    },
    "content": " Thank you, Hon. Speaker for giving me this moment to contribute to this Report. The Uwezo Fund, the Women Enterprise Fund and the Youth Enterprise Development Fund (YEDF) are funds which are set aside to facilitate the youth, women and PWDs in this country, so that they can start businesses or develop themselves. There are limitations which hinder them from accessing the funds. This is the 50 per cent limit which is put there so that when a constituency or sub-county contributes up to 50 per cent, they can access the funds. There are some groups which are more active and repay the funds within the time limit or the required period. Up to now, some constituencies have not been given the money. The money was released towards the election period and the people who were borrowing were told that the funds were not supposed to be given back or repaid. That is what contributed to the delay of the repayment of the funds. When you use chiefs to persuade people or groups who borrowed the money to repay, they refuse to give back the money because they were told that the money was given as a token during that campaign period. There is need to set aside some funds to facilitate the managers or the people who work with the Uwezo Fund in the constituencies to create awareness to groups which borrow the money. Through this, a good number of groups can borrow the funds and get assistance. At the same time, threats are normally given by the Ministry. If you are a young person who has started a business and have recently bought a cow, you are threatened that that cow will be taken away. Some people fear borrowing money because they do not know if once they borrow the money, they will get something to repay the loan. The Ministry is supposed to put aside some money to create awareness among the women, youth and PWDs, so that they can know how to access the funds and repay the loans. At the same time, the Funds should establish a way of giving grants to people who want to start businesses, so that people can start businesses and have confidence to borrow loans which they can repay. The Ministry should give proper guidelines to the groups which are borrowing the money, so that the youth can utilise the funds properly. We should bear in mind that in the just concluded census, the youth are around 73 per cent in this country and majority of them are not employed. If we can utilise the funds properly, this country would not experience the insecurity which we normally experience. We experience insecurities because most of the youth are unemployed. Therefore, they squeeze themselves anywhere to survive. The provision The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposes only. Acertified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
}