Azimio presidential candidate Raila Odinga has unveiled an ambitious plan aimed at revolutionising the Jua Kali sector in the country.
Dubbed recognition of prior learning (RPL) policy, the former prime minister said the policy will ensure Jua Kali artisans get their rightful pay and recognition.
The policy, he said, provides for the recognition of knowledge, skills and competence regardless of how and where they were acquired.
This will ensure that the critical sector – employing more than 16.4 million Kenyans and contributed more than 34 percent of the GDP – is formalised.
“I am here to announce a raft of measures that I wish to pursue in the coming months and when in government to help lift the sector to its rightful place in the economy,” said Mr Odinga.
“With RPL, Kenya and my government will be addressing the needs of millions of Kenyans who flock to work in industrial areas of our various towns armed with excellent skills but no certification and are therefore overworked and underpaid for their otherwise excellent skills,” he added.
The ODM party leader explained that the adoption and implementation of the policy will facilitate the transition of skilled workers from informality to formality.
“In other words, these people might not have gone to any technical training institute or college but through practice they have acquired the knowledge which needs to be recognised,” he said.
This will save members of the sector including tile fitters, furniture makers and plumbers, among others, from middlemen who exploit them.
He decried that furniture makers in the country have to go through brokers for their products to reach the high end market where they are sold at high prices but only earn peanuts for their skills.
This also applies to tile fitters who are unable to directly secure tile fitting jobs which go to middlemen with papers but no skills who end up taking the lion’s share of the pay giving them only a shilling per tile.
“But with RPL certification, this situation will completely change allowing our tile fitters to secure the jobs and earn the money directly,” he said BY DAILY NATION