Hon. Members, we are short of the required quorum. Therefore, I order the Quorum Bell to be rung.

Order, Members. We now have the required quorum. Therefore, business will begin.

Garsen, JP): Hon. Speaker, I, the undersigned, on behalf of residents of Garsen Constituency, draw the attention of the House to the following: THAT, on 24th April 2018, KenGen released excess water from their Masinga Dam leading to massive flooding downstream. THAT, the water which was released without adequate notice has affected the livelihoods of the residents living along and lower areas of the River Tana. THAT, the floods have led to loss of seven lives and approximately 1,017 livestock. In addition, the flooding has caused displacement of people from their homes and grazing lands. THAT, properties of unknown value have been lost as a result of the said flooding including destruction of 5,013 homes valued at close to Kshs701,820,000. THAT, critical physical infrastructure such as roads and bridges have also been destroyed leading to severe challenges in movement of people, goods and services including access to basic facilities such as schools, markets and hospitals. THAT, several cases of waterborne diseases such as cholera have been experienced among the residents as a result of the floods. THAT, efforts to have the management of KenGen take responsibility for this gross negligence have proved futile. THAT, the matter in respect of which this Petition is made is not pending before any tribunal, court of law or constitutional body. 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.

Therefore, your humble petitioners pray that the National Assembly, through the Departmental Committee on Energy: i. recommends that the management of KenGen takes responsibility for their negligence and compensates the affected residents for the losses; ii. ensures that the petitioners’ plight is addressed; and, iii. makes any other order or direction that it deems fit in the circumstances of the matter. And your petitioners will forever pray. Hon. Deputy Speaker: First, we should get a way of differentiating one Member from another. To the best of my knowledge, the Member who has just placed a Petition shares almost all his names with the Member for Bura. I also know that there is a Member from Turkana called Mohamed Ali just like Mohamed Ali of Jicho Pevu . I do not know whether we should place them as Mohamed Ali 1 and Mohamed Ali II, and Ali Wario 1 and Ali Wario II, or Ali Wario Tall and Ali Wario Short. There is also a Dr. Duale, another Duale and the third one.

For purposes of making it clear, when I noticed there was Hon. Wario going to give a petition, I looked at where the taller Wario normally sits. Be that as it may, let me give about two or three Members an opportunity to give some input into that. Let us start with the Leader of the Majority Party then I come to Hon. Wandayi. I do not see the Leader of the Minority Party being interested in this. If he is, we will consider.

Thank you, Hon. Speaker, I support the Petition and thank Hon. Ali Wario. This Wario, Hon. Deputy Speaker, has a very long history. He has been a ‘spanner boy’ of Hon. Kalonzo Musyoka for many years. He has been a Member of that party.

On a point of order.

The nominated Member of Wiper wants to confirm to his party that he is working. There is nothing out of order.

He has been the righthand man.

What is it, Hon. Seroney? Is it that you want to compete in the position of ‘spannership’ or something?

The Leader of the Majority Party is out of order on this issue. Hon. Wario was a Member of the County Assembly (MCA) on a Wiper ticket in Tana River and not a ‘spanner boy’. He has been a supporter of the Wiper Party and a life Member. So, the issue of ‘spanner boy’ should not arise.

That is fine, Hon. Seroney, but you have not indicated under which Standing Order you stood.

Hon. Deputy Speaker, I am sorry. I withdraw and paraphrase that Hon. Wario was one of the key allies of Kalonzo Musyoka from Tana River.

(Inaudible) 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.

Hon. Deputy Speaker, you must protect us from Seroney. When you are nominated like 001, you represent the people you have been nominated to represent and not the party or the party leader. Anytime you mention Hon. Kalonzo Musyoka…

Would you, therefore, care to confirm which persons he is supposed to represent? At least for 001 it is clear.

Hon. Deputy Speaker, when Hon. Oburu was here, we did not understand who he represented. Now, we do not know who Seroney represents. Maybe he represents the elders of the country. The provision in the Constitution is very clear.

The loyalists!

Maybe he represents, as the Leader of the Minority Party says, the loyalists. I thank Hon. Wario for bringing this Petition. The matter he brought is of great national importance. The people, who live in the downstream of Garissa County, Tana River County and by extension Lamu County, are victims of deliberate scheme by an institution of the Government to destroy all their hard-earned agricultural produce every time there are rains and dams overflow. This year was worse. Towns, villages and centres were submerged. In fact, in my constituency, Garissa Township, the people who live near the river had their properties and schools submerged. The Committee should expand this Petition to part of Garissa and Lamu counties. The Woman Representative is sitting at the back. I am sure Hon. Obo will also contribute so that we can get a solution to this problem. The same problem also affects the people of Nyando. You cannot just announce on radio that people should vacate their homes and property that they have built. The CS for Energy gives people notice to vacate their homes. How do you leave your home, property and farms that you have invested in for many years? We want the Committee to go to the ground to see the schools, mosques, churches and agricultural produce that has been damaged. We can compensate. This House has the powers of making the budget. The CS for Energy, the board and the CEO of KenGen should go to the ground and see. I am sure the President, the Deputy President and the CS are aware, but we cannot just leave Kenyans to lose their property every year. I am sure Members sitting here are aware and must have seen on television what happened in Lamu, Tana River and Garissa. I support. Hon. Deputy Speaker, please, direct that the Committee moves with speed and visits all the three counties and not just Tana River County.

Okay. Hon. Member for Ugunja, let us be brief. Since this is a matter of national concern, I will try as much as possible to expand the number of Members who will speak to this issue.

Thank you, Hon. Deputy Speaker. I support this Petition. I am very confident that the Committee, chaired by my friend and able colleague, Hon. Gikaria, will take it up. However, the Committee can only look at the wider issues of compensation and futuristic matters. This incident is a clear case of criminal negligence. I have seen, in the recent past that certain actions have been taken against people for negligence. People have been taken to court. This is a case where somebody needs to be taken to court and be charged so that it serves as deterrence to the rest of the fellows who head these parastatals. There is lethargy all over. It cannot be acceptable that a parastatal of the stature of KenGen can just casually release water from a dam and that water ends up killing people. Lives of people in Garsen Constituency have been lost. This needs to be taken very seriously. I believe 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.

my colleague, the Chairman of the Departmental Committee on Administration and National Security, will also take up this matter and address it separately.

Hon. Leader of the Minority Party, you should have been in a little earlier. I did not see your name here.

I had given an indication earlier than the Leader of the Majority Party. I also support this Petition. As Hon. Wandayi has said, the reason we form parastatals is to make lives of Kenyans better and not to risk them. If we were a civilized country as we claim, if a parastatal contributes to loss of life due to carelessness, recklessness and negligence of what they are supposed to do, the Managing Director of that company would have resigned. Because we are Kenya, you will find that they want it to appear like it was natural calamity. What happened in Tana River and Garissa counties was not natural calamities. It was the work of public servants who are given the responsibility of doing a job and they failed to do it. So, this is not just unique to KenGen. Public institutions in this country need to be careful. As I sit, I want to tell the House that even where I come from, there is the Ruma National Park. Because of the activities of those who are given the responsibility of protecting the park, they do not see the need to make sure that, that park is free of the tsetse fly menace. You will find that my constituents and those of neighbouring constituencies lose livestock and even life because of tsetse flies. Tsetse flies are dangerous to human life. Until when will we ask those in charge of our public institutions to know that their single-most important responsibility is to protect lives and property of the people of Kenya? It is not to make profit. They are not formed to make profit. In fact, we would even finance KenGen further if they are incurring losses for protecting the lives of Kenyans. Most of these public institutions are driven by profit-making instead of service to the society. I hope the Committee will take this matter seriously. Thank you.

Hon. Rasso.

Thank you, Hon. Deputy Speaker. I rise to support this Petition. It confirms the impunity and lack of responsibility that we are witnessing in the Government. It was very sad during the rainy season when almost three counties were under water. Nobody was coming out clearly to say what help those citizens were receiving either from the parastatal called KenGen or from the national Government, for that matter. Whatever help they were given was as if they needed maize, rice and sugar yet they had lost all their property. What is really important is the management of the upper waters of the Tana and also a long-term plan on how the waters of the Tana must be managed, just like it happened in Budalang’i for a long time. We do not hear much about Budalangi nowadays. Although it is still lingering, some solution was found. The issue of the Tana must be settled now, by this Government.

Hon. Members, you will get an opportunity to speak. Do not worry. I know this is a very hot matter. I am trying to look out for the Members whom I know are really affected by this. I notice that Hon. Member there.

Thank you, Hon. Deputy Speaker.

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.

Hon. Sankok, I am sure you do not represent Narok. I am very sure of that. The Leader of the Majority Party had indicated what you represent. It is definitely not Narok. Even when I give you opportunity, it will not be because of Narok. Proceed, Hon. Member.

The Mover of this Petition is my neighbour. I come from Tana River County, which has three constituencies, namely, Bura, Galole and Garsen. All of them were affected badly by floods. Apart from loss of property and livelihoods, we also lost lives. In my constituency, I lost six people. They were Muhsin Adhe Kofa, Nasir Maro Kofa, Hamza Adnan Kofa among others. The three come from one location called Mikinduni.

So that we can save time, do not go to those details. When the Committee will be dealing with this issue, you will present some of those very real details to them. I want the Members to have a small contribution to it as you wind up.

In the interest of time, we lost six people in my constituency. This is a serious matter. I support the Petition, so that the matter can be investigated.

Very well. The other Member is Hon. Wario, the tall Hon. Wario; the senior one.

Thank you, Hon. Deputy Speaker. I rise to support this Petition. This is purely a man-made disaster. We have lost lives and livelihoods. The aftermath of this disaster is leading us to another disaster of disease outbreak, disaster and poverty. Our people have enough livestock, but because of disease outbreak, they will wake up paupers the following day. I support this Petition and I want KenGen to be criminally held responsible for destroying lives. Thank you, Hon. Deputy Speaker.

Hon. Wamalwa, Member for Kiminini. Even as Hon. Wamalwa contributes to this, I can see the Member for Lamu is a bit agitated, but her card is not here. I have been looking out to give her an opportunity, but I cannot see how I can help her. It is unfortunate. Proceed, Hon. Wamalwa.

Thank you, Hon. Deputy Speaker. Under Article 95 of the Constitution, the National Assembly deliberates on and resolves issues of concern to the people. These are issue like floods. I want to thank Hon. Wario for bringing this matter to the House. Indeed, we know that we have some money for emergencies at the county and national level. This money is supposed to be used when it comes to mitigating such issues. The KenGen is supposed to have been proactive by looking at the weather patterns and liaising with the weather forecast department so that they could project whether the dam could hold certain volumes of water. This was professional negligence and KenGen must be held responsible. As I speak, the MD, KenGen, should step aside. People have lost their lives and properties and she is smiling in the office. This is not acceptable. Before they made any decision to release the water downstream, they must have done an environmental impact analysis which is supposed to evaluate the situation economically, technically and socially. The buck stops at the CEO. She must step aside. People have lost lives because of her negligence. Parliament must pronounce itself on this. This is a serious matter and the victims must be compensated. The issue should not only be dealt with by the Departmental Committee on Energy because this is a multisectoral issue. It also affects the environment and finance. The issues of finance will enable 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.

the Departmental Committee on Finance and National Planning to look at the compensation issues.

I thank you.

Well, let us have the Member for Lamu, Hon. Obo. You did not place your card.

Asante, Mhe. Naibu Spika. Lamu Kaunti imeathirika pakubwa na haya matatizo. Jambo hili limeleta shida sana. Kuna watu ambao nyumba zao zimevunjwa na maji. Kuna mama ambaye alitoka Chalaluma kuenda kujifungua hospitalini Witu, lakini kwa sababu ya kupanda kidau cha mbao kwa sababu pale Chalaluma kulikuwa kumezingirwa na maji, alijifungua ndani na mtoto akafariki. Kuna matatizo mengi Lamu Kaunti. Wenyeji ni maskini na kumetokea magonjwa mengi kama vile malaria. Tumepata msaada wa chakula lakini shida bado ni nyingi. Kuna wanyama ambao wamepotea. Mamba wanatembea na hata sisi wenyewe imebidi tuingie katika hiyo maji na mamba wako tele.

Hiyo imetosha, mengine utapelekea kamati.

Haijatosha. Lamu imeathirika pakubwa na ni muhimu kamati husika iangalie mambo haya na hatua ya haraka ichukuliwe.

Ni amri kuwa imetosha. Haya basi. We will have Hon. Nimrod, Member for Kitui. Proceed.

(Inaudible)

Meanwhile as we organise how you are going to be sorted, let us get the Member for Turkana Central, as we locate you. You can see the difficulty we are having locating you and you know the reason.

Thank you, Hon. Deputy Speaker. I rise to support the Petition. The issue of floods is all over the country and many counties were affected. We need to establish how we can respond to disaster. We need to see how we can manage disaster and compensate the victims of disaster. This country has good policies on every department, but the problem is implementation. Turkana County was affected seriously and we lost lives, property and livestock which is our livelihood. We need to form a committee to investigate this issue.

I support it.

Hon. Mbithuka.

Thank you, Hon. Deputy Speaker. I rise to support this Petition because of the destructions caused by floods especially in Tana River, where there was serious destruction of personal and public property. In allocating resources for this, we need to look at how to compensate households and families and rebuild some of the public institutions such as schools and hospitals.

Garsen boarders Tana River and Kitui East. Actually, the border between Garsen Constituency and Kitui East is Tana River. In expanding and including more areas to be compensated, the bigger Kitui East, especially Endau, Malalane,Voo locations and Kitui County as a whole, should not be left out. Lastly, is about the budget allocation. The House, through the Leader of the Majority Party and the Speaker, needs to allocate enough resources for this activity.

Hon. Members, I have given more than is sufficient. We have even made it a debate. Now, I will give a chance to the Chair of the Departmental Committee on Energy. I am not going to give the direction of Hon. (Dr.) Wamalwa. We will refer it to the Departmental Committee on Energy. The Departmental Committee on Energy, if interested, will 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.

call some other technical persons from other departments and this will be fine. I know, ideally, this is a multi-sectoral issue, but it is better when they are the ones coordinating themselves. So, Hon. Chair, you can give a word because I do not think you want to contribute on this. It is just that it is being placed before your committee. Hon. Gikaria.

Thank you, Hon. Deputy Speaker. Let me first of all agree with Hon. Wamalwa and with you that we will be calling some technical people from other ministries. I want to thank Hon. Wario for bringing the Petition. In the 11th Parliament, this issue was brought up by the then Member of Parliament. It went through the same committee and later it was referred to the Implementation Committee, where I was the Vice-Chair. We had opportunity to visit Tana River and the other places and I think as Hon. Duale has indicated, it does not only affect their region. We need to look at the bigger picture and the affected areas more so in Garissa, Tana River, Lamu and other places. I do not want to speak much on this because it will be coming to our committee. However, it is important that when this Parliament speaks and gives directions, they must be followed. If this had been done in the 11th Parliament, the issues my brother, Hon. Wario, is raising would not be there. The then committee had indicated and given a directive on a big dam called the High Grand Falls. The water that goes down comes from three counties in the Meru region, namely, Tharaka Nithi and the neighboring counties. If we had done the High Grand Falls, it would be a very big dam that would have benefited this country in so many ways like addressing that problem and giving energy through hydro power. The same water was supposed to assist Galana Kulalu in terms of irrigation. Those are some of the issues. We will be looking at it as a committee, but we will be calling on the former reports from the other committee.

I will refer it to your committee knowing very well that this is a matter that goes beyond the Departmental Committee on Energy. We are only placing it before you because it will be touching on issues of Lamu and the Tana Belt, but there is also something in Nyanza and Trans-Nzoia. There are many areas. So, we expect your committee to go beyond the normal committee matters by involving other sectors. We have the State Department for Special Programmes in the Office of the President and others. That is upon you to coordinate the entire exercise.

Next Order.

I see no notice given by the Leader of the Minority Party. There is nothing before me unless it is for the afternoon.

(Off record) .

I cannot really trace it here, Leader of the Minority Party. So, we can do it in the afternoon. It is even better for you. You will be more prepared.

This one had been dispensed with. What remained was the Question to be put and since I confirm that we have the requisite numbers, I will put it.

Next Order.

On this particular one, we had a balance of 48 minutes and each Member speaks for five minutes. Let me start with the Member for Runyenjes. I think there is a problem with your card. Maybe you can come to the Dispatch Box, because there will be a lot of reflection on your head. You know you are the first Member from the Akorino Sect to be in this Parliament. It is in the Guinness Book of this Republic.

Thank you, Hon. Deputy Speaker, for giving me an opportunity to add my voice to this Motion. I want to begin by thanking Hon. Osotsi for coming up with this Motion. It is a very timely idea. It is coming at a time when the world is watching the greatest show in the world, namely, the World Cup. It is a fact that sports have very many social and economic benefits. Kenya takes pride in being one of the best countries in the world because we have very many athletes coming from this country who go out there and compete and bring back to this country many medals. They bring so much glory that comes with it. We have even our rugby players who have made this country proud in the very many competitions that we have participated in, in the world. So, it is a fact that this country is rich in very many young people who are talented in sports. As witnessed last week in the national trials for Athletics Kenya, so many villages have so many young people who are quite talented. We witnessed young men and women coming from the villages, people who do not have trainers, coaches, resources and even places to train. They came to Kasarani and competed quite well. Quite a number of them have opportunity to represent Kenya in Nigeria next week. So, I wish to support this Motion so that we can have sports academies in every constituency to nurture the talents that our people have. I have had a chance of organising quite a number of sporting events in my constituency and my experience is that we have so many young people who can go out there, earn a living and improve their lives only if we invested more in sports. With those few remarks, Hon. Deputy Speaker, I wish to support. Thank you.

Let me remain there because I can see several requests on top of the list. Let us have Hon. Abdalla Sheikh, Member for Mandera North.

Thank you, Hon. Deputy Speaker. I think the idea of having sports academies in all constituencies is noble as it affects the youth. I have, in a number of occasions, spoken about engaging the youth in employment, whether formal or informal. However, sports activity is something that resonates well with the youth in all constituencies. I remember sometimes back the Ministry of Sports, Culture and Social Services was supposed to build stadiums in each of the 47 counties. I am sure that target has not yet been achieved. It will be a tall order for them to actualise sports complexes in the constituencies yet we still have stadia that are not completed in the 47 counties. Each of the constituencies will reap big in terms of having these kinds of complexes because it will engage the youth, tap their talents and give them some form of employment. The complexes will equally employ people. 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.

As we support this measure, we want to be sure that the implementation part of it is followed to the letter. Every now and then, as has been said by my colleagues before, Motions are passed in the House, but none is implemented. It started from the 10th Parliament to the 11th Parliament and not this one. However, this is a very good initiative. It will absorb many youths of both genders. It will help in terms of employment of the youth. It is the implementation aspect of having these complexes cascading down to the constituencies that really matters. I want to urge this House that as we pass these kinds of good initiatives and follow through with the ministries, the relevant committees should ensure that there is budget for them and the implementation is done to the letter. I want to support this good initiative because it affects the youth from all the constituencies, including Mandera North, where I come from. Thank you.

Let me go to this other side. I am having it difficult to pick because they are a little lower down the line. Let us have the Member for Ndhiwa.

I thank you, Hon. Deputy Speaker, for this opportunity, and Kudos Hon. Osotsi. This is long overdue. As you know, inactivity is a recipe for chaos in the health and social sectors. Recently, in my constituency, we have been witnessing unprecedented wave of suicide. Young people do not have sports facilities where they can engage themselves. We are also going to enhance talents. Some of the footballers we see running after the ball are millionaires. People like Messi are billionaires. They came from such settings. In Ndhiwa, which is the home of Gor Mahia, we have so many talented young people who can end up in national standing or even international standing. By doing this, we will be exporting…

Did you say Ndhiwa is the home of Gor Mahia? I know for sure that Gor Mahia is based at the Nyayo Stadium. How does Ndhiwa become home of Gor Mahia?

Ndhiwa is the original home of Gor Mahia. We are trying to come up with a facility to reflect this legend because that is where Gor Mahia, Kogallo, was born and raised. He also died there. That is where the name picked up. So, it will be a good thing for us in Ndhiwa Constituency to have such an academy.

Economically, this is the origin of developing our people. If we can borrow from those playing at the international level, they have ploughed back to society what they have earned in that arena by building schools and health centres. So, it will be healthy economically. More so, studies have shown that young people worldwide are more disciplined when they are active and playing. These academies will also promote self-esteem, which is very good for health. When you run, you tear muscles, reduce stress and keep diabetes and hypertension at bay. This initiative will provide facilities for everyone to exercise and keep fit, and not just for the young people.

When you are engaged in sports, your self-esteem is enhanced, especially for the young people. That can go as far as improving their academic performance and school attendance is concerned. Ndhiwa is a land of sports, but we do not have sporting facilities. We have so many energetic individuals who even run at night. So, with an academy there, we will have everybody participate during the day and that will be a good thing for us in Ndhiwa. That is on a light note.

I want to support this with the enlightenment that it will promote the youth. Having a sports academy in every constituency is a constitutional right of the people. It will enable Kenyans to exercise and promote their talents. May this not only go to the archives but be implemented by the respective committees. I support. 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.

Let us have Hon. Kubai from Igembe Central. I think Hon. Kubai is also fairly elderly. So, Jimmy, you should not complain.

Thank you, Hon. Deputy Speaker. Despite the fact that we respect age, let us go per the interventions. I support the Motion by Hon. Osotsi and congratulate him for having brought it. However, before I get there, I would like to comment on the Petition by Hon. Ali Wario. I would like us to appreciate that the waters that flood the Tana River areas originate from the highlands. Let us appreciate that this water erodes the highlands, leaving behind gullies. It erodes the soil and leaves that area bare. I urge the committee that will look into that Petition to look into the issue of the gullies that have been caused by soil erosion in the highlands.

Having said that, I appreciate that we need to have sports academies in our constituencies. As we have schools, we have sports academies. Practice makes perfect and we learn through institutions. The people who excel in football and games originate from villages such as those in Kenya. However, because of exposure, facilities and the support given by the Government, they excel in various talents. For those who do not get facilities and exposure, their talents die and we wonder when Kenya shall have a team in the World Cup. We can never have a team in the World Cup if we do not develop the talents that we have by providing the right facilities. We cannot say that Nyayo Stadium and Moi International Stadium, Kasarani, are the only ones that we can use to develop talents. We need more facilities in different areas so that talents in the villages can be exploited. Before they come to Nairobi and get out to the world, they will have been developed within their local communities. On the same note, these academies will nurture our youth into responsible citizens.

Currently, when our youth leave school in the evenings, and during the holidays, they engage in so many illicit activities which are not beneficial to their lives and to their society. That is why we have drug peddling, drug abuse and many other problems associated with the same. However, if we preoccupy them in the sports academies during school and after school, these vices will reduce in our society. Therefore, I urge that we support sports. I am a Member of the Committee on Sports, Culture and Tourism. As a committee, we support the creation of stadia, sports academies and many other ventures that will keep our youth on their toes as far as proper living is concerned. With those remarks, I support.

Let us have the Member for Suna West, Hon. Masara Francis.

Thank you, Hon. Deputy Speaker for giving me this opportunity. I support this Motion. Sports play a major role in nurturing talents among the youth. If we can allocate funds for academies in every constituency in the next financial year, we will reduce the rate of unemployment among the youth. There are so many young men and women out there who can earn a living through sports, but because they do not have academies to nurture their talents, some of them become idle and engage in the wrong things. I suggest that this House proposes Suna West Constituency to be the first place where such an academy should be put up because we have five acres of land at Piny Oyie, where we want talents to be nurtured. I want to briefly inform you that Suna West borders Tanzania and Kuria. In this area, we experience the menace of cattle rustling. If we build a sports academy, those who steal cows during the night will be engaged during the day in sports like football, athletes and boxing. This will reduce the cattle rustling menace. 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.

In developed counties where these academies are well established like Indonesia, where I visited sometimes back, a child does not need to go through the normal education system up to Form Four or university when he or she can play football and earn a living. With these sports academies in every constituency, one, we will create employment. Two, we will nurture talents and three, enhance cohesion. When people do sport activities, they interact. In the process, they get used to one another and make friends.

I urge this House to support this Motion not only on the Floor of the House, but also in terms of monetary allocation. I have heard many Members say that this was started way back in the 10th Parliament. However, as the 12th Parliament, I want us to go a step higher next year by reducing funds to the National Youth Service (NYS) and allocating to these sports academies. The youth, who travel all the way to NYS camps, can compete at the constituency levels.

Thank you, Hon. Deputy Speaker. I support this Motion and congratulate Hon. Godfrey for bringing it to the House.

Let us have Hon. Omulele. The Chair of the Committee will speak last. We have about two more Members before him because he will be the one giving a summary.

Thank you, Hon. Deputy Speaker. This is a good Motion by Hon. Osotsi. For a long time, we have given lip service to the youth of this country. It is high time we took this matter into our own hands, as a House.

There is a proposal that will be coming to this House on the creation of a national sports lottery. The President himself said this in the 11th Parliament. He proposed that the national Government is going to come up with a national lottery, which will finance some of these academies in the counties. Hon. Osotsi has proposed that it should go all the way to the constituency level. I think this is a good idea, which we must run with. This House must rise up and give funding to this idea. The only way to do this is through the Budget. When discussing the Budget, one of the proposals that the Cabinet Secretary made was to increase taxes on betting companies. This should be cascaded into the Ministry of Sports, Culture and Arts to fund these kinds of ideas. The Departmental Committee on Sports, Culture and Tourism must come up with structures on how funding will be used. The Committee must be ready to go round the country identifying ideas on how these funds will be implemented. The people of Luanda are ahead because we have started renovating and upgrading some of our fields. So, the children and the youth in the constituency have a place to play. This is not lip service. We know for a fact that some of the people playing in the World Cup today, their only commitment in life is football. People like Messi and Ronaldo do not have any other profession. Here in Kenya, we expect our children to go to school and become professionals like lawyers, doctors and also play games. We need to nurture talent. If you are talented in football, for example, let it be the field that earns your daily bread. Hon. Deputy Speaker, I support this idea and urge our Departmental Committee on Sports, Culture and Tourism to take it up and run with it.

Hon. Dennitah Ghati.

Thank you, Hon. Deputy Speaker. I wish to thank you for this opportunity. I think this cannot end without my voice. Young people in this country remain unemployed and underpaid in their jobs. I support the sports academies and stadia. I remember the Jubilee Government in its manifesto talked about building a stadium in every county. Most of these stadia are yet to be actualised. The fact that we want to bring this down to the constituency level is very easy. 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.

I want to urge the Members to support this because I want to bring an amendment on the issue of having designated areas in the stadia for youths with disabilities. I want to urge this House that as we move forward to establish these stadia and sports academies in our constituencies, we should also note that we have youths living with disabilities that are talented in sports in almost every constituency. Therefore, while we plan in the various constituencies, we should allocate money to make the stadia accessible to youths living with disabilities who want to participate in sports. That is why I support this Motion. Hon. Peter Masara spoke very passionately about young people in his constituency of Suna West. I come from his County of Migori, Kuria East Constituency. The challenges which Suna West and East constituencies face are about young people being engaged in activities like cattle rustling as the Member for Suna West has said. If we start with border constituencies and counties, this will come in handy in ensuring that the evils and ills affecting young people are well taken care of. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) carry along everybody including people with disabilities. I will keenly watch and monitor the constituencies to see if they will designate areas for young people living with disabilities who want to participate in sports. That is why this is a very key Motion. I support the establishment of sports academies in the various constituencies because they will start from the ground. Therefore, it will be easier for the young people living in those constituencies to participate in sports. We know very well that sports go a long way in ensuring that our young people are healthy and the socio-economic empowerment of our people is all round. We have seen many people all the time wanting to participate in sports. For example, look at the World Cup, our young people are betting and supporting international clubs instead of our own because we do not have academies to nurture talent. This is a problem and we need to put a lot of focus into nurturing the talents of the young people including youths with disabilities. They also have to participate in sports. With those few remarks, allow me to support the Motion.

Hon. Victor Munyaka.

Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker. From the outset, I want to thank Hon. Osotsi for coming up with this Motion. On behalf of the Departmental Committee on Sports, Culture and Tourism, which I Chair, I want to assure Hon. Osotsi that we are committed to coming up with a Bill in this regard. The Committee will be committed to make a Bill out of this Motion so that we entrench sports academies into law. Congratulations for coming up with that Motion.

Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, you are actually a member of the Departmental Committee on Sports, Culture and Tourism and you understand that the sports sector has suffered historical underfunding for so many years. Now that there is a committee specifically in charge of sports, we are going to request the membership of this House to support our Committee so that, eventually, we can get enough budgetary support to create those facilities across the country and we engage our youths. Our youths actually form 70 per cent of our 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.

population and if we could be able to fund and engage all the youths across the country, we will not need to put a lot of funding to prisons and even to security activities because the youth will already be occupied and there will be less crime in the country

The country was actually developing five African Nations Championship stadia. Kasarani Sports Complex and Nyayo National Stadium were among them and seven other regional stadia. Unfortunately, due to budget cuts last year, most of those stadia are still ongoing and are not even complete. So, we are not even in a position to hold serious international sporting activities. So, generally, we urge the Government to put more emphasis in supporting the infrastructure of sporting activities. We are also aware that Kenya is very famous with rugby and athletics. We also want to promote other sporting activities. I know, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, you are a fan and you are passionate about swimming. We need to promote swimming in Kenya. We need facilities across the country. We need to promote even boxing. The current Cabinet Secretary for Sports is a boxer. We need to promote boxing across the country. We need to promote tennis and other sporting activities so that we can be able to compete effectively in international competitions. Otherwise, I assure the Member who brought this Motion that the Committee is ready to invite him so that we can change this Motion into a Bill and we entrench sports academies into law. Thank you very much and congratulations.

Hon. (Prof.) Oduol.

Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker. I would also like to congratulate and thank Hon. Osotsi for bringing this important Motion. I want to also recognise that the Chair of the Departmental Committee on Sports, Culture and Tourism, where I am member, Dr. Victor Munyaka, has indicated that we would like to get a Bill out of it. I just want to emphasise one key issue that, in my view, is really important as we think about this Motion. When we talk about young people, we sometimes do not recognise that if we do not harness their energy in a systematic way and bring sports for the purpose of ensuring that we give them a way to engage and a way to compete favourably, we leave them to a lot of vices such as drug abuse and engaging in other areas where we see very high levels of unwanted pregnancies. We end up in a context where parents start talking of introducing their young children to contraceptives. So, there is one specific point, in my view, of ensuring that we can provide sports academies so that we can cater for our young people. We can nurture and introduce them to very healthy competition and we can ensure that we do not keep them glued to social media and get addictions that are not productive. As I conclude, we need to be a little more vigilant in terms of allocating resources and really pooling what we already have. At the moment, we have community clubs and it will be useful that, as we begin to talk about this, we conclude it. Finally, in the interest of sports, I can see Hon. Sankok is, indeed, giving me a very good way to compete favourably in sports. Hon. Sankok is 001. I know earlier we assumed that we only have one nominee 001 because somehow nominee 001 Sankok is very vocal on this. However, in the interest of the handshake, as we look across, we will see that we have 001 Hon. Sankok and 001 Hon. (Prof.) Oduol. Thank you very much, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker. I support the Motion.

Hon. Sankok, I did not know that you are 001, but it is not you I am giving this opportunity. This opportunity goes to Hon. Hulufo Oda, Member for Isiolo North. Hon. Members, I see Hon. Kabinga is saying: 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.

“ Tumekaa sana”. All of us have been here and the microphone is only one. Hon. Hulufo, proceed.

Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker.

On a point of information, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker.

Just hold on. Hon. Wanga, what is out of order? Just hold on, Hon. Hulufo. It is a point of information. Who is to be informed? The Chair of…

Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, I want to inform the Chair of the Departmental Committee on Sports, Culture and Tourism and Hon. (Prof.) Oduol who is also a member of that Committee that what we are dealing with here in form of a Motion is already in the Sports Act. So, what the Departmental Committee on Sports, Culture and Tourism should do is to budget, just like you said. Put money in sports academies. We are urging the Government. This urging is not useful. The issues being raised are in the Act. We just need to put money for sports academies so that, by the time we come to the next Budget here, we have money for sports academies. Otherwise, Sections 34 (a) and 33 (4) of the Sports Act already have the issue of academies. So, I just wanted to inform the House and the Chair.

Hon. Wanga, what you are saying might be well and very true but, the House does not set up matters down in vain. I think what we are doing here - canvassing this Motion is quite in order so that it adds voice to what you are now saying. It reinforces the requirement for budget for that. Hon. Hulufo, proceed.

Thank you very much, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, for giving me the opportunity to contribute to this very important Motion. I would like to begin by thanking my good friend, Hon. Osotsi, for coming up with this Motion and, by extension, the party which sponsored him to sit in this august House as a nominated Member. I think he deserves that nomination. He has proven why he merited to be given that slot. Lack of sports academies in the country has resulted into our inability as a country to tap into talents among our children and youths. As a country, apart from school games and sports, we do not actually have any form of organised way of providing opportunities for our young people, even those who are in school, to participate in sports events. Creation of the proposed academies the way I see it will enable us, as a country, to identify talents, to nurture those talents and to enable our children and our youth to benefit from those talents. It is very evident that the few sportsmen and women who have excelled it is through shear hard work. There is lack of an organised system of nurturing their talents. But they are leading very good lives. They are also making substantial contribution to the economy of this country. We have so many towns, for example, in North Rift where, as a result of athletes who come from there they have put up many investments and provided employment opportunities to others. In the region which I come from, because of lack of those academies, there is a lot of raw talent which goes to waste. The rate of unemployment among our youth is very high. When we have opportunities to identify those with talent and develop them, it is one way of ensuring that we help them to escape poverty. Currently, even the technical staff of the Ministry of Sports, Culture and Arts are idle. They are employed and earn salaries. They are in almost all the sub- 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.

counties but, because of lack of facilities to enable them to support our children and our youth, they are drawing salaries without carrying out their mandate. Therefore, as I conclude, I would like to urge the Departmental Committee on Sports, Culture and Tourism - as suggested by the Chair - to help us come up with a framework that will help us to provide sustainable funding for the proposed academies in the constituencies. I support the Motion.

Let us have Hon. Sankok.

(Nominated, JP)

Let us have the Mover, Hon. Osotsi, to reply.

(Nominated, ANC)

Hon. Members, we do not have quorum. I will direct that we defer putting of the Question of this Motion to the next time when we have quorum. There was a lot of interest in this Motion. It is good for all of us that we have interest in those matters because they are matters of concern to all of us. Therefore, I direct that we move to the next Order.

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.

We have a problem with the microphone system. Use the Dispatch Box microphone. Come to the front.

Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, I beg to move the following Motion: THAT, aware that the National Youth Service (NYS) is a Government Department established by an Act of Parliament (Cap 208 Laws of Kenya) whose vision is to catalyse transformative youth empowerment in Kenya; further aware that the twin purposes of NYS are to create a pool of technical, disciplined and organised human resource to undertake national development programmes and to alleviate youth unemployment in both formal and informal sectors by providing skills necessary for employment while promoting national cohesion; further appreciating that, NYS currently targets to recruit over twenty six thousand (26,000) youths annually through a laid down procedure where the vacancies in each intake are allocated for every county and gender; acknowledging that the recruits undergo intense six (6) months training in paramilitary skills, national reconstruction programmes and disaster response, thus imparting a sense of responsibility, values of discipline, respect to authority among other skills and values; deeply concerned that after successful completion of the training, the graduate youths are discharged to seek jobs which often are not readily available; cognisant of the various recruitment procedures, criteria and budgets allocated for the recruitment and training of servicemen and women to serve in the various disciplined forces in Kenya; this House urges the Government, through all the disciplined forces, to consider giving first priority in recruitment of their servicemen and women to willing NYS graduates with a view to reducing their recruitment costs, training period and subsequently training costs and, in addition, creating jobs for those skilled youths.

Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, first of all, I would like to state that when NYS was introduced in Kenya, it was a good idea and still remains one. The main purpose was to target the youths who normally do not qualify to go to the university and those who are poor and are unable to proceed to university and college level, so that they are trained. Therefore, the idea or initiative of NYS still remains relevant up to date. Because of the ongoing financial impropriety that is happening in NYS, some members of the public and Members started saying that we should disband NYS. I want to state that you cannot throw the baby out with the bath water. You cannot disband NYS because there is financial impropriety. We need to fix the financial impropriety and continue with the good idea of NYS. If you disband NYS, you will punish the youths for the sins that are not of their own making. So, I want to start on that basis that the initiative of NYS still remains a good idea. In fact, we should strengthen NYS so that it can continue empowering our youths who are normally not able to proceed to the university and college level.

The training that normally happens in NYS is quite rigorous and intensive. The youths are given paramilitary training, among other trainings, for six months. Paramilitary training often 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.

mirrors similar training that happens in the disciplined forces like Kenya Defence Forces (KDF), Kenya Police Service, Kenya Prisons Service, Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) and all other disciplined forces. The only difference is that the youths are not trained in shooting and use of guns. Otherwise, the paramilitary training that happens in NYS is similar to the one that happens in disciplined forces. After training those youths in paramilitary skills, we release them to the public and they become jobless and frustrated. Out of this, they become a soft target for terrorists and criminal gangs because of the fact that they have paramilitary skills. They are easily recruited by those people. If this is not checked, it will be a time bomb because we recruit 26,000 youths every year in NYS. Those youths who are trained in paramilitary skills are out there and are jobless. Some are lucky to be retained by the NYS. They are paid Kshs2,100 per month. Initially, they were paid Kshs700 per month but it is now Kshs2,100 per month. It is not enough.

After training our youths, they are left desperate looking for jobs. Some try their luck in security firms to be security guards and some are still loitering around. If we do not check this as Parliament, we will have a time bomb in terms of security threats because the youths will be recruited by criminal gangs and terrorists. Therefore, this House needs to urge all the disciplined forces to prioritise those youths in recruitments because training happens every year. We should absorb them into our disciplined forces, so that their training energy is utilised.

Recruitment involves cost. As units of the disciplined forces go around the country recruiting in every sub-county, it normally involves money. The Kenya Defence Forces, National Police Service, Kenya Prisons Service and Kenya Wildlife Service do their own recruitment. If we were to absorb the majority of NYS graduates, who are about 20,000, into our disciplined forces, the cost of recruitment for our disciplined forces would reduce significantly. We would save on costs. National Youth Service recruitment is normally competitive. It is done in all sub- counties. It considers gender and all ethnic communities. The youth undergo medical check-ups. The NYS recruits represent the face of the country. The recruitment is not biased. Therefore, if our disciplined forces recruit from the NYS graduates, members of the disciplined forces will still reflect the face of Kenya, and we will save on recruitment costs.

Training also involves costs. National Youth Service recruits undergo training for six months. The NPS train their recruits for over six months. The KDF does the same training. It is the same training that is done at the NYS. Therefore, if we were to recruit from the NYS, it would mean that the training period will shorten and the training cost will come down. That will be another advantage of recruiting from NYS. I am not saying that we entirely recruit from NYS. We should give priority to NYS. If a disciplined service still needs more personnel, it can recruit from the public.

I understand that there is a presidential directive to the effect that the disciplined forces should consider absorbing NYS recruits first, before recruiting from the public. Unfortunately, from statistics, the directive is barely followed. During the last recruitment that was done by the disciplined forces, less than 10 per cent of NYS servicemen and servicewomen were absorbed. This means out of the 26,000 NYS servicemen and servicewomen, less than 2,000 were absorbed into the disciplined forces. It means that 24,000 were left out. I do not know why the disciplined forces find it difficult to follow the presidential directive. That is why I have come up with this Motion. Once it is passed, the Implementation Committee should ensure that the NYS servicemen and servicewomen are absorbed into our disciplined services so that we reduce the recruitment and training costs as well as address the security threat that we face as a result of having many youths out there with paramilitary skills. It will also create employment and lead the youth to joining the NYS. 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.

A while ago, before joining university, every student was required to undergo training at NYS. Anyone who has undergone the training can confess that it was important. It instilled disciplined and endurance amongst recruits. It is an important training. We should even consider making it compulsory for those joining the disciplined services.

With those few remarks, I beg to move and ask Hon. Kwenya Thuku from Kinangop to second.

Hon. Thuku.

Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker for giving me this opportunity to second the Motion. It is prioritizing the absorption of NYS servicemen and servicewomen by the disciplined services. Indeed, it is a timely Motion. We spend a lot of money on training of NYS recruits, during which we instill skills on our young men and women. I am disappointed that after taking our young men and women through that kind of paramilitary training, most of them end up being jobless. We do not absorb them into our disciplined services. Therefore, they become a threat to national security. Naturally, if they are not absorbed into the service, a trained and energetic young man can use his skills elsewhere, if he gets an opportunity. Our jobless trained youth can be misused by criminal gangs and terrorist groups. Therefore, the need to have our young men and women absorbed by our disciplined services cannot be gainsaid.

I urge that we have a programme of training and retaining NYS recruits. It is unfortunate that we put so much resource into a venture and then we abandon it. After some time, we invest in another venture and abandon it. Doing so would be going round in circles, and it would not be beneficial to taxpayers. I urge that we train and retain. We should ensure that every time our disciplined services – the KDF, the KWS, the Kenya Forest Service, the Kenya Prisons Service, and the National Police Service – have recruitment, they give priority to young men and women who have successfully completed training at NYS. It will make the work of the Government easy because those recruits will not go back to basic training since they will already have undergone basic training at the NYS. It will shorten the period the recruits will be required to be in training camps.

At NYS, our young men and women acquire skills not just in paramilitary training. Some of them pursue engineering, catering and dressmaking courses, among others. We are supposed to have a policy to ensure that we have a retention mechanism, as much as we let a few to be absorbed elsewhere. The Government invests heavily in NYS. The NYS have camps and equipment all over the country. Many young men and women have been trained in civil and mechanical engineering but, when it comes to construction of roads, we still outsource from China because we do not enhance the capacity of the trained human resource that we already have. We should enact a law to create an institution to take care of the skills that our youth acquire while at NYS, so that those skills do not go down the drain.

With those few remarks, I second the Motion.

r (Hon. Christopher Omulele): The first person on the list is Hon. Mutua Barasa.

Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, for giving me this opportunity. From the outset, I support this Motion. Even as I support, there are few 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.

things that we need to understand. The military does its recruitment countrywide to ensure that what they are doing is transparent. Even as we say that they give the first priority to the NYS graduates, it must be done in a manner that the NYS graduates are recruited either from their districts of birth or from districts where they live, so as to ensure that the whole process is transparent. Maybe, they need to harmonise part of the syllabus for physical training so that they can ensure that whatever that trainee goes through meets some level of standards as required by the KDF. As I support this Motion, the NYS must also carry out its recruitment in a transparent manner to avoid a scenario where we get individuals from one particular region who benefit from this military placement. It is an interesting matter. It is a Motion which all of us need to support and try to beef it up so that it gets more objectives aimed at benefiting many Kenyans. The KDF is a force for this country and their recruitment must be felt in every corner of the country. I also want to agree that those NYS recruits at times cause security scare. It does not make sense to train a person through paramilitary and, at the end of the day; you do not give that person a job. The person can become a criminal. As we say that the military should give first priority to the NYS graduates, we are not trying to make them discriminate. The military have their own qualifications which they look into when they are recruiting. The NYS, looking at the bigger picture, should not discriminate because we have other Kenyans joining it specifically to acquire skills that are necessary for them to be employed in civilian institutions. This law should not give NYS the liberty to tighten their recruitment qualifications and lock out other Kenyans especially women and people living with disabilities who seek to acquire skills that they can use to earn a living elsewhere. That is what we should do as we support this Motion. It is a very good Motion. We support it. It will also give Kenyans interest to apply to join NYS. There are very many Kenyans who are not interested in joining NYS because they know it is not important for them. But when we pass this Motion, very many young people of this country are going to be interested. They will apply to join this paramilitary training centre. As we progress in future, we will bring in some amendments so that it becomes a very good law for this country. Thank you.

Hon. Barasa, it is not yet a Bill, it is still a Motion. You could take it up and come up with a Bill. We shall have Hon. Ochieng Awuor, Member for Migori.

Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker. I was almost getting worried and coming to your desk to find out whether my machine is working. I rise to support this Motion. The essence of living is hope. When people have hope for the future, they see the need of doing something. Since the beginning of this programme of NYS, as my colleagues have pointed out, the Government of Kenya has always used a lot of money. As outlined here, those people are trained to acquire certain skills to participate in national development programmes. As we stand here today, I know if I asked any of us from the constituencies where we come from and from the counties where we come from like Migori which I represent here, to tell me clearly the exact development programme that the people who are being trained from NYS year in, year out, are participating in, we will have very little to point out. This makes me think that actually, this Motion, which is suggesting a way of giving hope for our young men and women who are recruited into NYS, would be a good thing to think about and see how it can be implemented. 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.

Sometimes, it has been assumed that some of those young people who are recruited into NYS do not make it academically to go to the other colleges or universities. The only thing they have may be the physical aspect of them. Having worked in the academia for a number of years, I know this is not true. When people are doing exams, sometimes things happen; that people are not even able to get the mark that they were targeting to get. Second to that, my colleague has just mentioned the concept of people living with disabilities. If the matter is to give people skills, then it is true that even some people who cannot run may be having the ability to be trained to get those skills and still participate in development. NYS should be one of the avenues that our young people can follow to progress to other higher aspects of life that their dreams may be inclined to. For those of us who have been keen, we should not only find this military thing, but also other skills. The paramilitary skill is the most obvious because those people are given proper paramilitary training and when they leave the camps, they are more of soldiers than the skilled labour that we are talking about. We have witnessed, with a lot of dismay - because the Government has had no plans as to where to take those people - those guys harassing people. During campaigns and the electioneering period, we witnessed in Migori County, men and women clothed in the NYS clothes brutally killing innocent people. Those people would not be aggressive and brutal if they had something significant to hope and look for. Now, because there is no exit and continuity, they get misused at some stage. If we can provide an idea like this of encouraging the military and the police to recruit and give those people priority, it will be a good idea. For sustainability reasons, it is good to make sure that those people have something to look forward to so that they can keep progressing in their skill until they reach the highest level of their participation.

With those few remarks, I support this Motion. But I would encourage that our Government and the concerned bodies see it fit that the youth should be given a line of continuity so that there is sustainability. Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker.

Hon. Wachira Kabinga.

Thank you Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker for giving me this chance to support this Motion. I wish to thank the Mover, Hon. Muchira, for bringing it up. Recruitment in this country has been taken lightly and yet, this is a group that is at its very prime stage. We recruit so many; they go for training for six months, just to come out, sometimes…

Just hold on, Hon. Kabinga. I see Hon. Wanyonyi, who is the Member for Westlands, going out. He was next on my list. Proceed, Hon. Kabinga.

I wanted to say that the group we recruit into the NYS and train for six months, go for this training with a lot of enthusiasm. They go there hoping that they will make it in their lives. They come out somehow confused because when they come out after six months, they start coming to us to look for jobs after being trained and a lot of money being spent. As a country, we need to take advantage of this group of young men and women who, when they report to the training centres, can be given an opportunity to declare their career interests. They can be told to declare if they want to join the forces when they report. The country has a chance to watch over those young men and women for six months before they can finally be recruited into the forces. This will not only save the country a lot of recruitment 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.

funds, but also give an opportunity to have young men who will have interest in joining the forces from the word go. When we recruit into the Kenya Police Service, the Kenya Army and the others, we get people who are, sometimes, simply looking for jobs and not people who have interest in serving in those areas. By turning to the youth who have reported to the youth camps and asking them to fill up forms to declare their interests early enough, we will get people who have interest in serving this country in the forces as opposed to those simply looking for employment and money. We are aware that in the youth camps or training, young men and women are also given chances of selecting diploma courses in electrical, mechanics and other courses. From this cadre, the forces who also recruit professionals can have a chance to also tap into this group where they can get them directly. That is so that, on completion, those youth can go direct to the forces without having the forces going back into recruitment. We are aware that recruitment into our forces has been dogged by a lot of irregularities and corruption. By tapping into the youth, we will be recruiting or having a process of recruitment where our youths will have continuity from that training to the forces, where they will be expected to pursue their career of interest. With those few remarks, I support this Motion. I also urge the Ministry of Youth… They started so many programmes like the one in Mwea where they left our children confused. The programme started and stopped without any sustainability or direction. So, we have so many youth there who were working with the Ministry in charge of youth. As we talk, they do not even know what to do next because they were left hanging.

Hon. Baya, Member for Kilifi North.

Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker. I rise to, with hesitance, oppose this Motion. Recruitment of members into the disciplined forces is not balanced. If you look at what the NYS and her membership is today, unless the Mover really gives us statistics that show proper regional balancing where each region is well represented in the NYS, we would not want to adopt that kind of method. As it were, it is skewed negatively towards certain regions. Because of that, you will realise that this Motion can be used as a way to corrupt the disciplined forces through the NYS. We know, from the statistics available, that there are certain regions that have more people than others in the NYS. It is not proportional to the populations in this country. Therefore, a Motion like this will be used as a way to create a link into the disciplined forces for other communities and leave out others.

What the NYS needs to do is to restructure. We have a very successful NYS in Tanzania called Jeshi la Kujenga Taifa (JKT), which has a lot of transitions within it. Those people continue to be within that discipline force equivalent to our NYS up to retirement. The NYS needs to be restructured and changed so that the purpose for which those people are recruited is not just for them to be trained and they leave, but to be trained and employed within NYS until retirement. I urge the Mover of this Motion to look at the NYS Act and change it so that it is not 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.

just about the NYS but about a place youth are trained and given opportunity to serve the nation until retirement within the force. Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker.

Shall we have Hon. Rasso Ali, Member for Saku?

Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker. I rise to support this Motion. I strongly do so on the grounds that it will open a Pandora’s Box in that it addresses the issues of youth more than anything. In both Motion No. 9 which is on establishment of sports academies and this Motion, we are addressing the issue of the youth. As a country, we experience a youth bulge. The population of this country is 60 to 70 per cent youth. The question that we as legislators should ask ourselves is what we need to do with the youth. We must equip them with the right skills and they must be employed. Currently, the NYS is not the destination of choice for most of our young people. What happens after the NYS? They will just go back to their villages and homes without any gainful employment.

I want to thank the Hon. Member who brought this Motion. Without casting aspersions on it, we must build on it as Members and establish how we can build on this Motion so that we even take it back to the Ministry concerned. With our help as Members of the National Assembly, the Ministry can come up with a Bill on how the National Youth Service can be integrated into the wider job market. We should not limit it to only the disciplined forces. We should include all the Government agencies and departments. The genesis of NYS when it was founded was to provide an available reserve force for the Kenya Defence Forces. However, it never took grounding from that point because for many years, the KDF was not able to recruit directly from the NYS. This Motion does not reduce the training period and the recruitment cost. It brings a body of disciplined young men who are already tuned to a structured organised way of thinking into the disciplined forces or any other Government establishment for that matter. In other countries, they use what we call conscription where all young men and women between the ages of 18 and 22 years are taken to the disciplined forces. From that point, they have a card that gives them access to all the opportunities available in their country.

As Members of Parliament, as we visit different destination in the world we have learnt that most parts of the world particularly in the West have problems on the available workforce that can enter the job market. As Kenyans, we must take advantage of that.

Finally, from my own county of Marsabit, I want to thank the Horn of Africa Development Initiative. They were able to take four youngsters to the World Cup in Moscow.

Thank you very much, Hon. Speaker.

What is out of order, Hon. Wanga? You have pressed the intervention button.

Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, I just wanted to contribute.

That is not the way to catch the Speaker’s eye. You will get a chance. I can see you on the screen. Before we come to you, we will have Member for Lurambi.

Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker. I should be like Hon. Wanga one of those days and ensure that I catch your eye. I want to sincerely thank Hon. Michael Muchira and support his Motion on the issue of NYS graduates. During the days of President Moi, the days when we had A-Level, we had young people who would go through O-Level and A-Level then go through NYS. From there, 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.

they would find their way into their careers. Others would go to universities while others would go to other institutions and become professionals. I think it is not the intent of NYS… and that is why I support Hon. Muchira. We need to give priority to graduates from the NYS because when they go there, service is their priority, they do not go there for money. As one of the Members who spoke before said, we are people who are thinking disciplined forces is the only place that still employs and gives the assurance of a salary. So you have people that are joining the disciplined forces not because they have a call to serve the country but because that is the only available career. The young men in NYS are there for service. It is a shame that the once celebrated service or programme has become a disgrace in this country because of the scams, corruption and looting. To bring this to an end, this has to be changed and the money that has been wasted today by a few individuals should be used to do a good recruitment/training programme. The NYS is used for political purposes. Politicians bring them to the villages to clear roads and say they are giving work to the young people. After they are done with the training, they come back home and there is nothing that they can do. In the past we even had NYS buses that plied on the roads and offered more reasonable bus fare to the citizens of this country. I remember in my town of Kakamega, NYS buses used to come all the way. We can make this profitable to our young people in this country, clean up the mess in this country because as it is, it is horrible. Being a Bishop, I think NYS needs me to pray for them. We need to clean and chase the demons that are at NYS, because they have very many scams. Hon. Sankok, you will join me as we go to Gilgil and all those places, pray, kick out the demons and make sure you have an envelope as an offering for me. I will not do it for free. I support this Motion and say it is time that proper measures are put in place so that this programme can support young people and they can be recruited because their motto is service and not salary. I support the Motion.

Member for Homa Bay.

Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker. I would like to thank Hon. Muchira very much for introducing this very important Motion. What bothers all of us is, when NYS transformed into this five point plan and increased the number of youth from about 6000 in a year to about 21000, everybody was worried about where the youth who come from NYS are going to with the paramilitary training and all the other skills that they have. In fact, you can really look for youth to go to NYS because many people now shun NYS. They do not want to go because they do not know where they are going after NYS. This is an important Motion in terms of defining a career path for our youth who we take to NYS. As has been mentioned by previous speakers, NYS has now become a disgrace, an eyesore, the face of corruption and the face of all the things gone wrong. We will be worried about how this kind of recruitment will happen if a radical surgery does not happen at NYS that rids NYS of the corruption it is known for currently. We will not pretend and bury our heads in the sand that NYS is a great place to go. First of all, we must deal with it. “We” here means this House that appropriates money to the NYS and the Departmental Committee on Labour and Social Welfare where Hon. Muchira and I sit, which oversees NYS directly. We must sit with NYS and agree on what will be the new path for it so that we rebuild confidence in NYS. What Hon. Muchira is proposing is actually not new. The last Parliamentary Service Commission (PSC) got the youth from NYS to come and do security work at the gate here in 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.

Parliament. These are the youth from NYS. One was picked from every county. They did interviews. They came here and now they are doing work. We hope they can transition. So this has already begun and it can be taken further. But there has to be a merit system. It cannot just be that any youth who goes through NYS finally transitions into the disciplined forces. There has to be a system of merit where we know that these are the most meritorious youth and, therefore, number 1 to 30 will transit into the disciplined forces. It cannot just be random. It cannot just be taken from every source. I want to encourage Hon. Muchira, there are Acts of Parliament governing NYS and the disciplined forces. We should look at where to make strategic amendments. Now that your Motion will go through the Floor of this House, let us make those strategic amendments so that we develop a system of merit and the particular youth who will be qualified will transit, so that discipline pays for something. Previously, those who were to go to university went through NYS before. I think we have some in this House who went to NYS before going to university. The discipline that is instilled through this process cannot be gainsaid. Overall, I would like to support this Motion very much and thank Hon. Muchira for this very important and innovative Motion. Asante.

Shall we now have Hon. Yussuf Halima.

Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, for giving me this opportunity to contribute to this Motion on prioritising recruitment of NYS graduates into the disciplined forces. We know that the recruits that go through the training usually stay there for six months. The aim for this training is to produce mature and responsible young citizens. During the training, the recruits undergo parade drill, physical exercises and the emphasis is usually patriotism and nationalism in outlook and approach. The discipline helps train a person’s mind, character and builds a sense of self control and practice of obedience. As we know, many youth join NYS at the ages between 18 and 26. This is the same age bracket for joining the disciplined forces. That means if one joins NYS at the age of 26, chances are that they will never have a chance of joining the disciplined forces because that is the last entry age. That means we spend taxpayers’ money to train youth who can easily join some dark forces like the Al Shabaab, Mungiki and other outlawed movements. The NYS trainees are in a position to transit easily considering that they have already undergone vigorous training. It is for this reason that I strongly support that they be given the opportunity to join the disciplined forces. The NYS is currently under CS Prof. Kobia, who I can remember very well when she was in the Kenya School of Government she helped to transform the school from what it was when it was the Kenya Institute of Administration (KIA). I believe we can trust Prof. Kobia to change NYS and also to help us have trust so that when our youth join the service we are sure that all will go well and that what has been happening recently—the corruption—with Prof Kobia things might change. Therefore, by prioritising NYS graduates to join the disciplined forces, we will be able to reduce corruption that is usually experienced during recruitment to the discipline forces. With those few remarks, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, I wish to support. Thank you.

The next one on my screen is Hon. Gakuya. 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.

Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, for giving me this opportunity to contribute on the Motion towards prioritising recruitment of NYS graduates. The youth are the most volatile team in this country. Over 70 per cent of youth are totally jobless, especially in Nairobi, where I represent one of its constituencies. The headache we have is how to deal with these jobless youth. We understand that the environment in Nairobi offers nothing for free. For anything to drink or to eat, you have to get into your pocket. Therefore, at least, it is important to think of how we can incorporate the youth somewhere where they can get their daily bread. After training of six months, it is important to give assurance of the livelihoods of these youth. When the youth graduate without being seconded anywhere, it becomes defeatist. The youth are well trained; some are trained in military skills and without being seconded anywhere, they can turn against the society. So it is good that the Government thinks of how to move forward, do better than what it is doing now and take the youth for training and give them areas for absorption. There are many areas where the Government can take charge and absorb these people. We have areas like building of roads, dams and, water pans. It is not cast in stone that every other project in this country must undergo procurement processes just for those tenders to be taken by individuals. The Government is capable of identifying areas where these youth can work in. It is not true that they have equipment in their custody. Most of the equipment is lying idle. They can be used to create work for these people. So I support that we not only look at how to incorporate the youth into other forces, but understand that we have our recruitment processes through the other Forces.

Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, recruitments are keenly done through what we call agreed numbers. So, you may find a situation where it may be difficult to second them. However, there could be legislation to give a window on a number and qualifications of trainees from NYS that can be accepted by other disciplined services. This is a noble idea. It is very important to have seriousness in terms of how we take our youth to the next level. If we fail to do so, our youth will become very difficult to handle within our society.

With those few remarks, I support the Motion.

Hon. Kiti Chonga, Member for Kilifi South. He has taken leave. Next is Hon. Odege Mboya, Member for Nyatike.

Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, protect me from Hon. ole Sankok.

Allow me to highlight a number of issues which compel me to support this Motion. When you look at youth training in this country and the numbers we are training, you will agree with me that NYS is second, after our universities. A training college where 26,000 youths are being accommodated is something we cannot take for granted. If there are shortcomings, it is our responsibility as a House to see how we can fix them and make that institution work. Currently, we give our youth at the NYS paramilitary training and there is no difference between the training we give our youth at the NYS and the training we give our youths at Kenya Defence College. This brings me to the issue of planning and budgeting in this country. Why do we do one thing twice and we fund it differently? My colleagues talked about representation at the NYS. I can prove here that the only training institute we have in this country, where youths from all the corners of this country are represented, is the NYS Training College. That is the only recruitment where every constituency is given its rightful share. Every Kenyan is given room to participate, and our youths are accommodated there. I do not see why 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.

we should sit back and watch the military do the same training and recruitment as talents endowed in the NYS servicemen and servicewomen get wasted. I would urge this House, and especially the Departmental Committee on Labour and Social Welfare, to pick from this Motion and come up with a very clear model on training of youth in the military and other disciplined services. It is a waste of public funds to train youth at the NYS and dispel them and then we allow Kenya Defence Forces and other disciplined services to recruit other youths, give them similar training and employ them.

It is important for us as a House to agree that those who will be recruited into our disciplined services are those who will have gone through the NYS training so that we avoid duplication of paramilitary training. Training of the recruits by the disciplined services will start from where they left at the NYS. This will save the country money and ensure that the youth of this country are treated fairly. As the Mover of the Motion said, currently, we do not know where the youth who have been discharged from NYS are. We are currently grappling with issues of insecurity. You give someone paramilitary training and discharge him from service without knowing where that person goes to. We might be training robbers in this country and we do not know. It is, therefore, important that we plan for the NYS servicemen and servicewomen in terms of where we want to dispel them to after training. Where do we settle them as opposed to training them and leaving them to “whom it may concern”? We are doing a disservice to this country. We double-budget for training on matters which can be streamlined through a very clear model of ensuring that a young person who undergoes paramilitary training at the NYS will eventually join any of our disciplined services – the National Police Service, the Kenya Defence Forces, the Kenya Forest Service, among others – as opposed to the situation we are facing in this country today.

With those remarks, I support.

Next is Hon. Nanok Epuyo.

Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker for the chance. I would support this Motion if things could be done differently. The goals to be achieved and the underlying reasons for establishing the NYS as an institution in this country is not the same as the reasons for establishing the Kenya Defence Forces and other national security services. I oppose this Motion on the understanding that our youth require continuity of programmes that target their development particularly for purposes of employment. So, we cannot…

Order, Hon. Nanok. Hon. Dennitah, you pressed the intervention button and released it quickly. What is the matter? Hon. Nanok, please continue.

Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker. I hope I will recover my one minute. I was talking about the reasoning behind the establishment of the NYS, of which I am a graduate. I went through what we used to call “pre-university training”, which took three months. The training is good, but it does not prepare one to become a military officer. The military have their own curriculum, programmes and philosophy that they instill in their recruits to ensure that they are able to perform particular tasks required of them. That is not similar to the NYS training. The trainings are different. The NYS was created mainly as a civil institution where young Kenyans are prepared to participate in the development of this country through building of roads, dams, water pans and 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.

undertaking of many other civil works, even though there is the paramilitary training bit of it involving parade drills, instilling of discipline and order in the recruits, which is okay. However, that is not the kind of training that is given to recruits in the military. Therefore, we need to relook at our youth training programmes. Sustainability of the programmes is the challenge. I remember what happened in the mid-1980s and early 1990s. Middle-level colleges were turned into university campuses, leading to the collapse of middle- level training that used to produce technically qualified diploma holders just because we wanted to ensure that everyone got a degree. Degrees have now flooded the market and there are no jobs. That is the challenge I have with this Motion.

The issue we should be dealing with as Parliament and a country is unemployment. We need to have programmes that are sustainable. After three months of training at the NYS, the servicemen and servicewomen need to be given something that will sustain their lives in the form of employment, but not necessarily transiting them to becoming military or police officers. The doctrines are different in those establishments.

With those few remarks, I oppose.

Next is Hon. Muli Fabian, Member for Kangundo.

Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker. I appreciate Hon. Muchira for bringing this Motion, which is important for our youth. The NYS was established by an Act of Parliament of 1964 and it has modeled our youth in a disciplined manner and brought organised manpower in this country. The phenomenon of NYS has given us welders, carpenters and security guards with paramilitary training.

I want to bring to the attention of this Parliament that the NYS is established within the law and complies with it. Despite that, this institution has faced a lot of challenges and heated debates in public domain. Nevertheless, it has helped the society. We have cartels and ghosts attacking this institution and it will be finished because that ghost is eating, walking and is living among us, but we do not know where it is. This ghost has an intention of disbanding this institution and this is very wrong. This institution has helped very many youths in Kenya. Historically, when the education system contained Form Five and Six, students used to pass through this institution. We cannot agree with anybody who wants to damage this institution. I support this Motion because it is purely on prioritising NYS graduates when recruiting people to join the police force, military and any other organisation. It is not saying they should join directly but be given priority. Therefore, I do not see any reason for opposing this Motion. This needs to be implemented because the youth undergo paramilitary training. They go back to the society and when they fail to secure a job, they become a security threat. It is high time we established a taskforce to oversee some major institutions in this country that are losing their reason of establishment. The NYS needs a taskforce to ensure that the ghost which is seated there is no longer there. Procurement at NYS is done at a central unit and that is where corruption starts. Therefore, to uphold our national values, we want the NYS devolved to the county governments and it should be in every county. We say our youth is one in terms of getting jobs and recruitments. Therefore, we need the NYS to have regional balance and have the face of Kenya. We need procurement at the NYS to start at the district level to avoid huge procurements which attract a lot of corruption. 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.

I support this Motion because it is high time we moved together as one for the benefit of the youth of this society. The Kenyan economy will go to Second World and onwards to First World. Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, I support.

We shall now have Hon. Shinali Masaka Member for Ikolomani.

Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker for giving me an opportunity to contribute to this Motion by Hon. Michael Muchira. Prioritising recruitment of the NYS graduates to the disciplined forces is a good idea. Going by what has been happening I want to be the devil’s advocate because I have made inquiries to see how the NYS works. The NYS is the only institution which recruits people who have scored grade D+ and above. One usually knows very well what he or she is going to do because you undergo training and after that you choose a course you qualify for as per your O-level certificate. Then recruits are distributed to different disciplines where they train and through that they help to build the country. Recently, in my constituency, I wondered why Bushiangala Technical Training Institute

Before I give Hon. ole Sankok David, shall we have Hon. Obo Mohamed Member for Lamu.

Asante sana, Mhe. Naibu Spika wa Muda. Naunga mkono Hoja hii. Inafaa tujue kaunti ambazo hazijachukua vijana NYS ama mara nyingine wanachukua vijana wachache sana. Sina mengine ya kuzungumza kwa sababu nangojea Hoja ingine ya Cashew Nut. Ni muhimu wakumbuke zile kaunti ambazo ziko marginalised . NYS inafaa kuchukua vijana wengi si kutupatia nafasi ya watu watatu ama wanne. Hata sisi tunataka nafasi zakutosha. Asante. Mhe. Naibu Spika wa Muda.

Before I go to my left, Hon. Sankok. 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.

Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, for giving me an opportunity to contribute to this very important Motion. As Hon. Fabian has said, NYS was formed by an Act of Parliament in 1964. Therefore, this is a very important institution that has lived with us since Independence, though dogged with corruption cases. However, we would like to request Parliament with a polite demand to strategise on how to end corruption at NYS. This may end up denying our youth a very important chance to train in this very important institution in our nation which we cannot do away with. Therefore, we need to deal with the corruption that is going on at the NYS. Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, we are at a loss of how many parastatals we have formed so that we can have good jobs for our relatives and friends sitting in boards. In the training of youth, we have so many parastatals. We have the Technical and Vocational Education and Training Authority (TVET), the National Industrial Training Authority (NITA) and the NYS. Why can we not think of ways of combining all these parastatals so that the infrastructure and trainers that are there can offer the same services under one particular board so that we can reduce the expense of maintaining so many boards? Sometimes these boards and parastatals are created with an intention of political and regional balancing and having jobs for our relatives, friends and those who supported us in politics. For us, our intention is very clear – to make sure that our youth are trained in skills that will assist them in future. I support the idea of our disciplined forces prioritising the NYS servicemen and women in their recruitment because a person with paramilitary skills is actually a time bomb in a village. He or she is a time bomb in the middle of civilians and a time bomb in our meetings. You can imagine having a baraza kind of meeting and there is somebody who has paramilitary training. If there is any difference in terms of land issues, he can settle you very easily. This person is a time bomb in our bars. That is why disciplined forces normally have their own social amenities because when we are in social amenities with these people with paramilitary training, it is risky for some of us who may not know them. When it happens that there is a small commotion, you will realise these people need to be somewhere where they are actually restrained from mixing with civilians. As Members who have contributed before me have said, our youth who are trained with paramilitary skills have become grey areas and targets for radicalisation by Al Shabaab, Mungiki,Chinkororo, Baghdad Boys and all those terror gangs; even robberies and other crimes that we are witnessing as a country. We may actually trace those routes to those who have been given paramilitary training. Again, as we think about recruiting youth into NYS and later on into the disciplined forces, let us also think of persons with disabilities because not all of them lack physical strength. There are persons with disabilities who are living with albinism who can really fit into these programmes. There are those with hearing impairments who can really be very good in some of the skills like sewing, plumbing and electrical training. A person with a hearing impairment is the best electrician because they do not have to talk with other people. They will only deal with the machine. I really do support this Motion, but corruption in NYS must end fast.

Hon. Edith Nyenze, Member for Kitui West.

Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, for this opportunity to comment on this Motion. Let me start by thanking Hon. Michael Muchira for the Motion. 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.

Actually, our youth are frustrated after they leave the NYS as are our graduates from the universities. Likewise, they leave the universities and they have nowhere to go. This is a good Motion to consider the issues of the youth. In addition to being absorbed into the disciplined forces, I suggest that the Government can also ensure that the NYS graduates are absorbed elsewhere because NYS may not have all the skills required in the disciplined forces. My suggestion is that the Government should come up with a policy to recruit all the graduates from the NYS. This policy could include all Government parastatals and offices so that there is a contract between NYS and Government offices. I am saying this because I remember my former employer required drivers and we wanted to have a contract with the NYS to provide them, but they said they do not have such arrangements. That is why I suggest that a Government policy should be in place to have contracts with Government agencies, especially on outsourced services. There could be a contract between the NYS and Government offices, especially for outsourced services, like receptionists where the physically challenged people can also be absorbed. We could also have contracts with Government offices where drivers could be got from the NYS plus security guards and catering and cleaning services. In doing so, we will absorb so many of the NYS recruits. My other suggestion is that before the recruitment is done – I suggest this should also go to the universities – research should be done whereby they know the number of receptionists, drivers and security guards they will recruit and how many would be required to do the dams and roads. After the recruitment, they would just be absorbed directly and get the employment directly instead of being trained and then they have nowhere to go. Therefore, I actually support the Motion but with some amendments. Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker.

Hon Dennitah, I can see you. Be a little patient. Still on my left, let us have Hon. Mbithi, Member for Masinga.

Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker. This morning I stand to support this Motion. I was really looking forward for this. Hon. Michael Muchira, this is timely because being a Member of Parliament, especially when you are new MP, every young man looks upon you to be their employer the next day. This has not happened. Having seen an opportunity in the NYS, we encouraged them to go there. Since we were elected, they have been able to do two intakes and I made sure I had meetings with them and about 100 of them have gone. 50 have already come out and they are asking me: “ Mheshimiwa, what is next?” My suggestion would be – and I would like to support what

Michael Muchira has brought on the Floor of the House – that we find a way of absorbing these young people, even if it is not all of them in the military, but put them in some of the ministries where they can help. This is because they come out with very good skills. I have been an employer for 34 years in the engineering sector and the people that I employ from the NYS are very disciplined. They report to work at 8.00 a.m. while others that I poached from other companies come in at around 9.00 a.m. or 9.30 a.m. Therefore, to me, the NYS is doing a very good job. They discipline the young people and after that, they train and give them skills. They grow their minds to start thinking like grown-ups who are responsible in whatever capacity they are employed or wherever they are placed. Therefore, I urge this House to change the name of the NYS because it has been tainted by corruption. We can change the name and rebrand so that people will not think that this is the same NYS that is corrupt. The young people are not corrupt. It is the people that are at the top. The young people have gone there with a purpose to be trained, learn and come out with skills. 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.

It is very dangerous to have a person with knowledge in a village and he is doing nothing. He will become the teacher of those who do not know anything. Therefore, we need to keep those young people very busy. It is the happiness of every parent that once a student has graduated, they continue learning or work and bring something to the parent who has invested a lot of money in the child. The Government has invested a lot of money in the NYS. We should not let this money and investment go down the drain when we know that those young people can be used somewhere and are very disciplined. I support the Motion so that we come up with a methodology of rebranding the NYS and find a way to support the graduates that come from the NYS. With those few remarks, I support the Motion.

Let us have Hon. Liza Chepkorir, Member for Nakuru.

(Nakuru CWR, JP)

Let us have Hon. Gachobe, Member for Subukia.

(Subukia, JP)

What is it Hon. Adipo? You pressed the intervention button and quickly removed it. You do not have the Floor as yet, Hon. Adipo. You had pressed the intervention button and I thought you had a point of order.

(Karachuonyo, ODM)

Hon. Patrick Mariru): Yes, but that is not the route to do that. Order, Hon. Sankok. You do not have the space to advise the Speaker. The Speaker has the wisdom. Let us have Hon. Dennitah Ghati.

(Nominated, ODM)

You have made your point. Hon. Jared Okelo.

Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, firstly, let me thank you for giving me an opportunity to delve into this most important subject. Additionally, I thank the sponsor of the Motion, Hon. Michael Muchira, for his wisdom to bring it forth. I rise to support it for various reasons.

The enormity of our country’s current challenges and chronic unemployment within us point to the need to give young NYS trained youths a chance to be recruited in the disciplined forces. When these recruits who have already acquired paramilitary training will be absorbed in the disciplined forces, they will be exempted in certain subjects and trainings. Hence, it will save this country enormous amount of money.

The training acquired while at NYS augmented with trainings at the disciplined forces will assist to rebuild infrastructure, install green energy, restore our environment and help during national disasters. My constituency was a victim a while back when it rained so heavily. There was a great amount of deluge that affected most inhabitants of my constituency. As a matter of fact, I did not see any intervention by NYS or the national Government to help us resettle and alleviate the sufferings of these most valued constituents. When the NYS graduates are recruitment into the disciplined forces, they will be in a better position to address national disasters in this nation. 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.

Additionally, when the NYS trained youths are integrated within the disciplined forces, they will collectively break down barriers arising from extremes of wealth and poverty. We have seen that constantly as a country. It will also help the many trained desperate youths to stay out of trouble that can lead them to prison. We saw a while back how dangerous indoctrinated youths can become mostly at the Coast and within Nairobi. We saw and witnessed the amount of damage that was caused by these indoctrinated gentlemen who are not very gentle in the Republic of Kenya. Most importantly, if we offer them a chance, it will be a great stake in the country’s future. The intervention will show the young people that they are valued and appreciated. Many of them train at the moment and they acquire that paramilitary training. When they get integrated within their communities without a livelihood, they cause real trouble to the communities where they come from.

Finally, it will address the disparity of having a tiny segment of our young people who are mostly disadvantaged serving the nation. This country is in desperate need of personnel to help rebuild not only the social broken fabrics but also our economic endowments as a country. I, therefore, rise to support this timely and important Motion.

Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, thank you for giving me an opportunity to contribute.

Hon. Members, if we can be kind enough and be brief, more Members can contribute within the remaining time. That is not a directive. However, if you can be kind enough, let us be brief and then a few other Members will get the opportunity within the remaining time to contribute. I have a feeling Hon. Ouda Odhiambo will be brief.

Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, for foreseeing that I will be brief. I also thank you for giving me this opportunity to contribute. I equally want to thank the Member who sponsored the Motion. It is timely. Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, as I support the Motion, there are some underlying issues that must be put in place. Whereas we want the young men and women trained at the NYS absorbed by the disciplined services, we must agree that there is a very big gap between disciplined forces training and what goes on at the NYS. Hence, we must go back to the basics and ask what the qualifications for joining the NYS are, and what they are required to do from the start so that as we go along we know that the young people can be absorbed into the disciplined services. For example, we need to know whether when someone leaves primary school he is qualified to join the NYS. If they are not, what are we supposed to do in terms of equipping them with skills to enable them qualify to join the NYS with enough education background?

I support the Motion, but there should be amendments. The Motion talks about disciplined forces only. It should be broadened to include other Government agencies like parastatals so that we can have as many as possible trained young men and women absorbed. In five years, NYS trains over 100,000 young men and women. Even if some of them were to be absorbed by the disciplined services, a big number would still be left out. We will still not solve the problem. So, I urge the House that even as we support the Motion, we need to broaden the scope so that we absorb as many as possible into our Government systems. I agree with fellow Members that as much as we train the young people we are actually setting ourselves up for a bigger problem in future. They need to be absorbed somewhere else, not just in the disciplined forces.

Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker. 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.

Hon. Member, you are not as brief as I expected but that is fine. Hon. Jaldesa.

Thank you Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker for giving me the opportunity. I will follow your wise advice and try to be as brief as possible. I join my colleagues in thanking the Mover of the Motion. It is a very important Motion. I will not repeat what my colleagues have said. The importance of the NYS cannot be overemphasized. Of course, it creates job opportunities for the youth. I feel happy when I visit Government offices and find youths from the NYS. At the airport, youths from the NYS man the entrances. That is positive. I thank the Government for involving them.

It is not in the public domain and I want the Government to make it public. I have a letter in my email which says that Kenya Airports Authority (KAA) announced that it was to recruit security wardens from the NYS. The recruitment took place yesterday and today at Naivasha. My concern is that, as I support the Motion, the process of recruiting the NYS graduates should be as open and as transparent as possible. Yesterday, two young ladies from my county of Isiolo were disqualified from the KAA recruitment because it was purported that they did not have the right qualifications for joining the KAA. That leaves me wondering how in the first place they were recruited by the NYS. I, therefore, support the Motion, but we must be very specific on the recruitment process by the NYS. Of course, the two girls who were disqualified were said to be Standard Eight dropouts. Not all counties are the same; some of us from historically marginalised areas have challenges. For example, transition rates for girls from primary school to secondary school in my county of Isiolo are less than 10 per cent. It is something that we are fighting. If these few ones get an opportunity to be in this institution, they should be considered. With those few remarks, I support this very important Motion. Thank you.

Hon. Janet, if you could follow the same spirit of sharing time.

Asante sana, Mhe. Naibu Spika wa Muda. Ningependa kuchukua nafasi hii kumshukuru mwenzangu, Mhe. Muchira, kwa kuleta Hoja hii kuhusu watoto wetu ambao wamekwenda kwa huduma ya vijana, NYS. Ni kweli sisi hutoa watoto kutoka sehemu mbalimbali kuingia katika huduma hii kwa sababu tunataka pia wawe na pahali pa kukaa ama pa kufanya kazi. Vile mwenzangu amesema, wale wamehitimu wajiunge na kitengo cha usalama. Mimi ninaona hilo ni jambo muhimu sana. Sio tu kitengo cha usalama, hawa vijana wanaweza kujiunga na vitengo vingine vyovyote katika nchi yetu ya Kenya. Vile mwenzangu kutoka Isiolo amesema, ni kweli kuwa hapo awali walikuwa wanachukua watoto waliohitimu darasa la nane lakini mwishowe wakaanza kusajili waliohitimu kidato cha nne. Ni jambo nzuri iwapo sisi pia viongozi pamoja na Serikali tutasikizana kwa lengo moja na kusema kwamba vijana wetu wapewe kazi, sio kwenda kupata mafunzo na mwishowe warudi kukaa nyumbani. Kwa sababu kumekuwa na maneno mengi katika NYS na ninajua kwamba imekuwa changamoto na sio hapa tu kwa sababu wengi wanaongea kuhusu ufisadi. Ufisadi sio kwamba umelenga NYS pekee, umepatikana katika sehemu mbalimbali katika nchi yetu ya Kenya. Kama viongozi, tutasimama kidete kuhakikisha kwamba nchi yetu haitatumbukia mahali pabaya bali mahali pazuri. 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.

Ninaunga mkono Hoja hii na ninaomba wenzangu waiunge mkono. Asante.

I can see top of the list here are Hon. Adagala, Hon. Tonui and Hon. Rindikiri. The time for the Mover to reply is now. Hon. Muchira, if you could be kind enough, you could donate a minute to each as you so wish. Do you want to give Hon. Adagala a minute?

Yes.

Hon. Adagala, you have a minute donated by the Mover.

Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, for giving me a chance and the Mover, Hon. Michael Muchira, for giving me a minute. I support this Motion to absorb our NYS graduates into the disciplined forces. One, these graduates have basic paramilitary skills that can assist them as they join these disciplined forces. They are able to discharge their duties very well. The NYS, at least, instils discipline in people. Our youth are all over the country without jobs and training. Once this incentive is given, a person will know once he joins the NYS, he will be able to join the armed forces. This will be an incentive to them.

The Mover donated only one minute per person. Hon. Tonui.

Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, for giving me this opportunity to contribute to this important Motion. I congratulate my colleague, Hon. Muchira, for coming up with this Motion. From the outset, I support it. From the outset, I support the Motion on prioritizing recruitment of the NYS graduates into the disciplined forces with some little amendments. These trained youths who are idle are a time bomb as it has been said by my colleagues. There is no point of equipping our youth with paramilitary training and just leave them jobless.

Mover, who is the last person you had donated time to? Hon. Munene, you seem to have bullied the Mover. Anyway, you have the Floor.

Thank you Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker for giving me this chance. I thank Hon. Muchira for bringing this timely Motion. That is a Motion which calls for support of every Member. When we know that the Government uses a lot of money to put the NYS recruits and trainees through the programme; it is always good that they have a motivation. From being trained to be graduates of the NYS, there is always that added advantage of recruitment into the disciplined forces. Secondly, about 26,000 youths per year are at their prime age and are well distributed throughout the country. Every part of the country is represented in the NYS.

Hon. Michael Muchira, the Mover, please reply.

Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker. I thank the Hon. Members for their very valuable contribution. I also want to urge the Committee on Implementation to ensure it is implemented once this honourable House passes it. With those few remarks, I beg to reply.

Hon. Members, the time being 1.02 p.m., this House stands adjourned until this afternoon at 2.30 p.m.

The House rose at 1.02 p.m.

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