President William Ruto Thursday took a swipe at those opposed to his administration’s plan to export labor for Kenyan youth describing them as regressive.
Speaking during the commissioning of the Ithanga water project in Murang’a County, the president said his administration remains committed to provide opportunities for jobless young Kenyans.
The president saying his administration has already signed pacts with several countries including Germany, France and the United States of America to offer employment opportunities for Kenyans.
“I have already assented to the NCDF Act that will see ICT hubs constructed in every ward across the country with the government having already entered into partnerships with multinational tech companies that will offer digital jobs for the Kenyan youth.” Said the President.
He urged Kenyans and the political class to support the government’s radical plans intent on taking Kenya to the next level of development.
“If we continue playing reggae, Kenya will not develop. You see we played these games and we almost got suffocated by debts,” observed the president.
He said the government is spending 600 billion shillings annually to fund the education sector, and it will only be prudent to ensure there are opportunities for those completing their studies.
“It would be irresponsible for us to spend such amount of resources to educate our children, yet we don’t have a plan for them when they get out of school,” said the president.
The president taking the chance to seek the support of MPs in endorsing the Affordable Housing Bill 2023 that is before the National Assembly saying the government want 300,000 young people to be engaged constructively in the government housing programme by the end of the year with about 130,000 people currently engaged in the project.
“And then you hear some people intent on stopping the programme, are those people serious? They want the 130,000 young people already engaged in the programme to lose their jobs and idle on the streets?” posed the president.
He said the government has also put in place elaborate mechanisms to make the country food secure through increased investment in mechanization and the agricultural financial corporation to enable farmers access affordable credit as well as reducing the cost for a bag of fertilizer from about seven thousand shillings to the current 2,500 shillings.
According to Ruto, there was need for the country to reduce overreliance on rain-fed agriculture and increase acreage on irrigation.
He said the next phase of the Ithanga water project will see about 100,000 households within Gatanga constituency access clean and safe water by end of September with those in the neighboring Masinga and Yatta constituencies also set to benefit.
This even as he urged the local community to make use of the water to increase food production as part of ongoing efforts to make the country food secure.
The president at the same time reiterated his administration’s commitment to ensure all Kenyans access quality healthcare saying the roll out of the Universal Health Coverage remains a top priority.
“From next month, the government intends to implement the government’s health plan that seeks to ensure that every Kenyan has access to quality and affordable healthcare with the government taking care of the cost of indigents in line with the new Health laws.” Said the President.
