President Ruto annunces a Sh 6,000 monthly stipend for youth in a new train and equip programme

BY ERIC ABUGA

President William Ruto has announced that more than 90,000 Form Four and Standard Eight leavers will benefit from a new government initiative to train and equip them with skills to prepare them for the job market.

The youth will be drawn from all the wards across the country and will be paid a monthly stipend of Sh6, 000 per, the President said.

This, he explained, is part of the government's broader interventions to address the crisis of youth unemployment.

"We must have a deliberate plan for our youth, so that politicians do not taken advantage of our youth," he said.

He urged the youth to register to the National Youth Opportunities Towards Advancement (Nyota) program, another new government initiative to empower 100,000 youth with Sh50, 000 each to start or boost businesses.

He also called on them to embrace the government's labour mobility program, which he said has connected over 430,000 Kenyans with job opportunities abroad over the past two years. 

"Many international companies are looking for workers from Kenya because we have the best human resource. We have signed many labour mobility agreements with many countries, take advantage of them," he said.

He said the government has structured and streamlined the labour mobility space, revoking over 1,000 of rogue agencies in the process.

He lauded Kisii County for taking the lead in embracing the labour mobility programme, followed by Kiambu and Kakamega.

President Ruto said the government will double the number of youth working the Affordable Housing Program from the current 320,000 to 640,000 in the next two months.

This, he explained, will not only scale up the construction of the houses around the country, but also create more job opportunities for the youth.

"We will be hiring over 10,000 supervisors from our Technical and Vocational Education Training institutions to work on this project," he said.

On roads, he said the government will soon release Sh70 billion to clear pending bills, on top on the Sh60 billion already disbursed.

He added that the government has secured another Sh120 billion to complete all pending road projects across the country within the next one and half years.