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{
    "id": 978261,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/978261/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 271,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Ndhiwa, ODM",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Martin Owino",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13449,
        "legal_name": "Martin Peters Owino",
        "slug": "martin-peters-owino"
    },
    "content": " Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, for this opportunity. I want to restrict myself to the Bill. Gideon Keter, this is wonderful. The reason why I support this Bill—and there are some areas you really need to think through—is that the youth are going through what they are going through because there is no functioning, well-oiled Council to articulate, advocate and defend and sometimes go to court for legal redress when their rights are tampered with. That is missing. If I look at the principal objective of your Bill, it is trying to address that by having the right membership of the Council. The problem which means to be teething, and other Members have talked about it, is, yes you can depoliticise but what is the replacement procedure? If it is appointment, then we have another problem. In fact, the reason we have corruption everywhere in this country is because of appointments, because the appointees owe loyalty to the appointer. You can do so many things because you cannot say no. If you say no, maybe you will be kicked out. Look at that appointment issue. Even the Chair of the Council should be elected first by the stakeholders in that Council and then the appointment by the CS becomes only a formality. If we leave it open for the CS to appoint, then that loyalty will supersede the fight for the rights of the people. That is one point. If I read it well, this is not a money Bill. And that made me a bit jittery. Well, to enact the amendment may not require funds, but to make the Council effective—because most councils get seed money from the government before they make their own—at both the national and county levels, it will need to be resourced very well so that it can stand up for the rights of the youth. When that is done, what should follow is empowerment of the youth to formulate and implement their own programmes. The problem we have now is that there are programmes which were formulated by somebody else and heaped onto the youth without them being a part of it. That becomes a problem. Hon. Keter, there is also an element of capacity building. For this Council to function, the youth will have to go through a myriad of trainings and exposures. I do not know where funding will come from. You said you will be acting in a league with some donors. Maybe that can help. One aspect which this Council should address is career counselling and guidance. By God’s grace, I became what I became because somebody guided me on what to do in order to become who I wanted to become. This was in high school. We used to write down our career hopes and we followed through with them at the degree level and became what we wanted. We have said in this House that we need career counselling and guidance at the constituency level, so that children can grow to become what they really aspire to become. That is missing. We also need talent academies in constituencies so that these talents can be identified earlier for children to run on the rails which they love and cherish. 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."
}