The government has reiterated its commitment of empowering the youth through creation of online jobs through the Ajira Digital Programme (ADP).
The Ministry of Information Communications Technology Cabinet Secretary (CS), Joe Mucheru said the ADP was developed to address the employment needs of the youth and envisages to provide a living wage for over 1 million currently unemployed and underemployed persons.
Towards this end, Mucheru in a speech read on his behalf by the ICT Principal Secretary (PS), Jerome Ochieng, said plans were at an advanced stage to create partnership between the ICT Ministry and the judiciary to offer transcribing jobs to the Ajira beneficiaries once everything is laid out.
Speaking on Wednesday during the launch of the Ajira Digital Programme at Mukurweini Technical Training Institute, the CS said the partnership with the judiciary will see all court proceedings recorded and later uploaded on an established online platform where youth will transcribe them for use by the Judiciary
“By digitizing court proceedings and other judicial records, it will be easy for judges and magistrates to expedite cases and clear this burden from the Judiciary.”
He also added that the Ministry of ICT is committed to empowering young people to reap the most benefits form the ever expanding digital space and the creative industry which are among the biggest contributors of income to the global economy today.
The Ministry of ICT is however leading a process of rolling out the constituency Innovation Hubs in all the 290 constituencies to double or triple this number by the end of this financial year.
He reiterated that nowadays it is impossible to isolate ICT from anything that we do noting that its everywhere in our daily lives and even in areas that traditionally did not involve ICT such as in Agriculture.
The PS said the Ajira Digital success will be derived from partnership and collaboration between private and public sector and that the government digitalization projects already create lots of viable micro work that can be completed by digital workers.
On the infrastructure of the ADP, the Ministry of ICT is leading a process of rolling out the constituency innovation Hubs in all the 290 constituencies’ under a partnership framework with the National Government Constituency Development Fund Board and members of Parliament.
He said the Hubs will provide free Wi-Fi and internet access, digital devices and work access for use by members of the public.
The young people will be able to get job openings through online work platforms that enable young people to earn decent incomes from digital work, thus solving the unemployment problem at the grass root level.
He urged the MPs to prioritize the Constituency Innovation Hubs item in their proposals for their respective constituencies to the National Government Constituency Fund in order to secure funding.
By Beth Ndirangu/Juliet Munuhe
