The Murang’a county government through the department of youth, sports and culture has finalized recruitment of the third cohort to serve in the county youth service programme.
A total of 1, 050 young people were enlisted across the county where in every ward, 35 youths were recruited to join the three-month youth service programme.
The recruitment exercise was conducted through open balloting so as to give all the youths who turned up a free and fair chance of being selected.
MCAs and county officials oversaw the exercise that was mostly done at various chiefs’ offices to ensure the recruitment was not influenced by external forces.
The recruited young people will be engaged in community service work for two months with the county government paying them a weekly stipend.
Upon completion of the community service works, the young people will be enrolled in local vocational training centres to study various artisan courses of their choice, fully paid for by the county administration.
“These youths will then, upon graduation, be supported with Sh. 15,000 as seed capital to start income generating projects,” said Governor Irungu Kang’ata when he oversaw the recruitment exercise.
The county government established the youth service programme at the beginning of last year, aimed at curbing high rate of unemployment among the young people in the county,
Those engaged in the programme are slated to get a stipend of Sh500 per day, with the accrued amount being paid on weekly basis.
Kang’ata said those who were engaged in cohort 1, were enrolled in vocational training centres and already have graduated with various artisan courses.
“Enrollment to vocational centres for those who served in cohort 2 is currently going on and we expect the training to take a month’s time and the county government takes care of the needed fees,” he added.
Kang’ata called upon the beneficiaries to fully take advantage of the programme and save part of the earned stipend to support them once they complete the service.
Some of the community service works the young people have been engaged in include cleaning of markets, unclogging drainage systems, planting of trees among others.
The governor underscored the programme saying it is among various projects the county government is implementing to improve livelihoods of youths in the county.
By Bernard Munyao
