Kirinyaga Governor Anne Waiguru wants the government to recruit unemployed youth to conduct the national census scheduled for August.
Ms Waiguru said the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) should ensure the more than 164,000 jobs go to young people as part of efforts to counter the unemployment menace.
She spoke on Saturday following reports that some public servants applied for leave so as to take up temporary jobs advertised by the KNBS.
The bureau requires ICT supervisors and content supervisors as well as enumerators.
EMPOWERMENT
Speaking at a youth ambassadors’ sensitisation forum, the governor said it would be improper to offer the contracts to employed individuals yet there are millions of jobless youths.
“The youth are the lynchpin of any society, and an empowered youth invariably translates to a strong economy,” Ms Waiguru said.
“Transient opportunities such as the census can keep the youth actively engaged in nation-building, even as the government works on long-term plans to put more of them to work.”
According to a KNBS survey of 2018, at least seven million Kenyans are unemployed while 1.4 million are actively looking for jobs.
Though the bureau may prefer experienced professionals for supervisory roles, the governor said it would be prudent for enumerator positions to be reserved for inexperienced, jobless youths who are in dire need of work experience and income.
TRANSFORMATION
While declaring commitment to transforming youths’ lives, Ms Waiguru said she had launched several programmes under Wezesha Kirinyaga umbrella.
She cited the youth-run animal feed industry in Ndia Sub-county.
“When we took office, there had never been clear-cut programmes to empower the youth in Kirinyaga. We therefore had the daunting task of pioneering such programmes, in fulfilment of our pre-election pledges,” she said.
“Barely two years in, we have attestations of how the programmes have transformed lives.”
FUNDS
Ms Waiguru said she will roll out more youth and women empowerment programmes and expand existing ones.
She asked the youth, women and people living with disabilities to use the newly-established Biashara Kenya Fund to set up income-generating projects and improve living standards.
The fund, an amalgamation of the Youth Enterprise Development Fund and the Women Enterprise Fund, offers business loans to small entrepreneurs and vulnerable groups at an interest rate of six per cent, two times lower than most commercial banks.