Nyeri Governor Dr Mutahi Kahiga is calling on young people to embrace practical courses as one way of addressing spiraling unemployment levels in the country.
Kahiga says most young graduates seeking for formal employment in the country possess professional training qualifications whose job openings keep on shrinking by the day.
The Governor says the county will launch the Nyeri County Youth Development Policy (NYPD) on Friday this week to try and address such challenges with a view to seeking for feasible solutions.
“Most of our young people are losing hope after failing to secure any meaningful employment despite being in possession of their academic qualifications. It is nowadays becoming quite clear that being in possession of a professional certificate can no longer translate to one getting a job in the country and therefore our young people need to try and acquainted with some hands-on work training that can come in handy when professional jobs are hard to come by,” he said during today’s (Wednesday) on Inooro TV morning show.
The Governor nevertheless said his administration has already laid out youth friendly programmes under the NYPD including ways of assisting those suffering from mental health challenges and drug and substance abuse.
Among measures which he said the county has taken include the establishment of the Ihururu Rehabilitation and Treatment Centre in Tetu where those hooked to drugs and illicit brews can be helped to overcome the vice.
Kahiga also says the centre, which has a 100-bed capacity also equips the inmate with various practical courses which they can always put into practical use after their treatment is over.
“One of the challenges facing our young people today is the problem of drugs and substance abuse which is rife even among the working class. This is a crisis we must confront and address urgently before we lose our young people to this vice,” he said.
“If you visit the Ihururu Rehabilitation and Treatment Centre in Tetu, you will find teachers, medics and other government employees undergoing therapy for alcoholism and drug abuse. We all want those who leave this institution to come out as reformed individuals who can be beneficial to the society they live in,” he said.
The NYPD document, the first of its kind in the greater Mount Kenya region and third in the 47 counties, was ratified by the Nyeri County Assembly last year after approval by Kahiga’s Cabinet.
The Policy is anchored on the need to have a strategic approach that would help address the challenges facing the youth whose numbers stand at 203,400 out of the county’s total population of 759,164 persons according to the 2019 Kenya National Bureau of Statistics data.
Among critical thematic areas contained in the document include health and well-being, Labour and employment, skills development, agriculture and agribusiness, environmental sustainability for climate Action and Radicalization and Prevention of Violent Extremism.
While addressing the media on Thursday last week CECM Gender, Youth, Sports, and Social Services Esther Ndung’u said they had invited both government and nongovernment actors to help in coming up with a multi-pronged approach in addressing challenges affecting young people.
She similarly underscored the critical role of the media in disseminating the contents of the policy document to the public insisting that this is key to ensuring as many people as possible get acquainted with what the county is doing towards tackling challenges affecting the youth.
“The youth policy document began in 2020 during the Covid pandemic crisis and we engaged youth from all the sub counties where each subcounty had 100 youth. We took their views, their voices were heard and incorporated in the document. After that process the document went through various stakeholders who also validated it and gave their voices,” she told reporters.
“A total of 12 thematic areas were identified including health and wellbeing of the youth. We know youth are affected and they have issues including mental health, sexual and gender-based violence, drugs and substance abuse,” Ms. Ndungú said.
Among strategies the document proposes in tackling issues affecting the youth include empowering them to participate and contribute to the socio-economic development of the county, promote the holistic health of young people and develop youth-oriented approaches to access healthcare.
Other interventions include promoting youth participation in community service, volunteerism, peace building and focusing on life skills, career development, employability, entrepreneurship and talent development.
By Samuel Maina
