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"id": 978143,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/978143/?format=api",
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Makueni, WDM-K",
"speaker_title": "Hon. Daniel Maanzo",
"speaker": {
"id": 2197,
"legal_name": "Daniel Kitonga Maanzo",
"slug": "daniel-kitonga-maanzo"
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"content": "A lot of people have tended to misuse the youth in politics. They say very good things about the youth, but when it comes to the practicality of it, there is zero happening about the youth. Now we have devolution. We should see a lot of activities. We should see youth as members of county executive committees (MCECs) and other appointments, and even in elective positions. In fact, quite a number of young people, including our own colleague, Hon. John Paul, are young people in the House. The Mover of this Bill is Hon. Gideon Keter, who is a young man with the vision of the young people in this country. Therefore, this is something we must do to make sure that dealings about the youth are in order. We need to use the power of the youth. In the USA, a lot of people between the age of 18 and 35 drive the economy. They are the musicians who make a lot of money and sports people. America has been topping in sports in the world, in creative arts and in the film industry, with our very own Ms. Nyong’o, doing a wonderful job there. The youth generate a lot of income and pay taxes and the economy of the country improves. When you are youthful, you maximise your energies. The former Member for Kibra, Hon. Okoth, was in America with a number of youth from Kenya. One day they sat down and asked, “Why do we go back to Kenya and build our country as young people. We are doing so much for another country yet we can do a lot for our own country.” That is how Ken Okoth found himself here together with a number of young people. He was elected a Member of Parliament and that tells the potential the youth have. We must give it direction in terms of policy. The law is right, although the policy is what informs the law. We need to have a general policy and political goodwill to promote the youth of the country. We need to act, not just talk about the youth and then do nothing as I have seen in the counties especially. When you look at this Bill, we have now moved from elected to nominated youth. I believe at the Committee of the whole House, we will relook at that. The rest of the cleaning up is very good and very important. I have seen clean-ups like ‘Cabinet Secretary’ in place of ‘Minister’, ‘Principal Secretary’ in place of ‘Permanent Secretary’, which should have happened a long time ago when we got the current Constitution. Unfortunately, we are now talking about a referendum to revert back to ‘Minister’ instead of ‘Cabinet Secretary’. Kenyans are really lobbying for that through the popular BBI. The clean-up is good and it will be in order. After the referendum, we will make amendments again. More importantly, paragraph (g), which originally said “eight youth elected by the youth in such a manner as may be prescribed, and appointed by the Minister”, does not make sense. That means the Minister is the presiding officer at that election and he may not be free and fair. We have tried to loosen it in the amendment to say “nine youth nominated through a competitive process by the Cabinet Secretary responsible for youth affairs.” It is an improvement, definitely. Because we are still debating, I believe we will do more at the Committee of the whole House stage. It is a big improvement from what we had previously. We can see whether we can combine election and nomination, so that after nominations, there are elections. That way, whoever will be a representative in the Youth Council will have been agreed upon through a free and fair election. It makes more sense than when you just nominate people. If you are just nominating, it means you can easily collude and put your own people there. So, we can look at that and improve on it, so that we can serve the youth of this country better. The youth are investing and running ICT companies and generating a lot of income. They are in the film industry where they can showcase talent. There are many youth who are useful in many aspects. Some understand engineering very well. That is what changes a nation. When it comes to implementing some of these policies, you find that the youth are more creative because of the use of ICT. Unless you are ICT-compliant, there is a problem. A lot of the youth are ICT- 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."
}