The national government will, in the current financial year, construct a national stadium to support sports activities, Sports and Youth Cabinet Secretary Ababu Namwamba has said.
On Tuesday, Namwamba said Murang’a contributes greatly to the development of the country, thus the need to have a modern stadium to grow the talents of young people.
He called local leaders to discuss and agree on deliberate intentional structure and the way to roll out improvements to sports infrastructure programmes in the county.
The CS noted that the government would start with building one county stadium and later roll it out to ensure at least every sub-county has a ground that could support the agenda of Talanta Hela.
Namwamba spoke at Ihura Stadium, where he joined Governor Irungu Kang’ata to launch the county youth service programme.
“Murang’a has played a pivotal role in the economic development of this country, and unfortunately, the county has no modern stadium. Considering its proximity to Nairobi, the government will put up a stadium for natural talents and also be able to host national and international games,” he added.
He asked the Murang’a leaders to support the initiative, saying young people need facilities to grow their talent as well as sources of livelihood.
The CS lauded the Murang’a Government for establishing the youth programme, which will see more than 4, 000 young people engaged in short-term jobs for a period of three months.
In every quarter, 1,050 youth will be enrolled in the programme involving the cleaning and beautification of local towns within the county.
In the Sh115 million programme, each youth will earn a stipend of Sh400 per day, and after the first two months, the youths will be sponsored to undertake a short artisan course for one month at local TVET institutions.
Namwamba lauded the programme, saying the national government would partner with the Murang’a County Government to ensure effective implementation of the initiative.
“With this kind of programme aimed at benefiting young people, the majority of programmes meant for young people earmarked to be implemented by the national government in Murang’a will be integrated, and those in the county youth services will also benefit from some of the programmes being implemented by my ministry,” he added.
On his part, Governor Kang’ata said the youth programme is structured to ensure scores of young people are engaged in short-term employment opportunities throughout the year.
He said a cohort would serve for three months, whereby the first two months, they would be involved in cleaning work and the third week would be taken for a short training to get skills.
“After the end of every three months, the youths will be given Sh15, 000 and a toolkit by the county government to enable them to start small projects to generate income,” he stated.
Kang’ata added that the programme is aimed at reducing unemployment among young people, saying that with the support, the youth would have some capital and skills to enable them to venture into projects.
“The county government has limits when it comes to employment, and one way to mitigate unemployment is to engage youth in short-term activities where they will earn some wages and also get trained on artisan courses,” he remarked.
He continued, “The courses will be fully sponsored by the County Government and all this is in a bid to find a solution to the growing challenge of youth unemployment.”
Kang’ata promised that this would be an ongoing annual programme since it has been ratified by Murang’a County Assembly as Murang’a County Youth Service Policy 2023.
Apart from the youth service, the devolved administration is also engaging another 2,082 youth under a paid internship programme spread out across the 10 departments of Murang’a County Government.
The governor noted that this is to ensure university graduates from Murang’a County get a chance to acquire work experience to kick-start their various professions.
By Bernard Munyao
