The Cabinet Secretary (CS) for Youth Affairs, Creative Economy and Sports, Salim Mvurya, has held a consultative meeting with the leadership of Kenya Youth Movement (KYM) in Nairobi, where they discussed issues concerning the youth of Kenya.
Addressing the media after the meeting, CS Mvurya underscored that a big constituent of the nation’s population is youth who are multi-skilled and have different priorities for their livelihoods.
“In our meeting, we were able to recognise that the government is committed, especially on matters tackling unemployment, not only through the Labour Mobility Programme under the Labour Ministry but also other programmes like housing, which is also giving opportunity to young people of our country,” revealed Mvurya, stating that the government is dedicated to ensuring that it develops programmes that support the young people of Kenya.
The CS added that the Government has invested in Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVETs) that are also giving skills to the young people.
“And I think we basically agreed that we need to do more with the youth and we agreed that my Ministry will work with KYM to reach out to the grassroots and carry out local summits, which will integrate the youth in terms of their requirements,” he declared.
Further, Mvurya alluded to the government’s resolution to hold the National Youth Council (NYC) elections to help shape up the organisational nature of youths.
“We have already made that decision, and now we are working on administrative procedures to see how we can resource that process,” he reiterated.
Additionally, the CS disclosed that discussions were underway within the government in partnership with the World Bank on a project dubbed ‘NYOTA’ which is set to bring opportunities for career advancement and employment for the young people of Kenya.
“Within our talent development programme, we will also enhance and strengthen it with ideas from KYM and other youth organisations since we also observed the opportunity of social media and technology, a platform that can grow the youth in terms of their ambitions and dreams,” highlighted Mvurya, promising that his Ministry agreed to work together with the youth to harness content.
“I was here with the Ambassador of France and we are working on a programme to enhance the sports infrastructure across the country to give our youth opportunities,” he announced.
However, the CS noted that one of the challenges facing the youth is the drug menace, which is recorded in various institutions of higher learning and across the country.
“We agreed, within the programmes of youth engagement, to see how we can harness peer-to-peer dialogue that can be an advisory programme for preventing youth from engaging in those vices,” he affirmed.
Meanwhile, KYM Chairperson Ken Koech acknowledged the government’s efforts to outsource employment opportunities for the Kenyan youth in various countries across the globe to address unemployment among youth in Kenya.
“We may be having a large group of unemployed youth in the country and cannot be accommodated within the country alone; that is why President William Ruto reached out to other countries to offer jobs to the Kenyan youth,” he acknowledged.
Koech revealed that one of the yields of the meeting is to support the youth by offering them 30 per cent of the government’s tender for their benefit.
“We requested the CS to champion a tender request in the existence of 30 per cent in the Cabinet so that it can be a fulfilment to the benefit of the youth directly,” cited Koech while expressing fear of the tenders being scavenged by cartels.
Making her remarks, KYM Vice-Chairperson Beatrice Mwambui emphasized that youth are powerful, and they sought to harness the energy and zeal so as to have holistic individuals both spiritually, economically, and socially to help them focus on their well-being.
“As you know, we are battling a lot of mental issues and we seek to address that through mentorship and wellness programmes,” she said, thanking the government through the Ministry of Youth Affairs, Creative Economy and Sports for supporting youths to realise their potential through various mentorship programmes.
By Clinton Ng’iela