Give youth interest free loans, urges Senate

Senators have asked the government to set up an exclusive fund to offer interest-free loans to graduates.

The Senators said the money allocated through the Youth Fund was not enough for the all youth in the country and it was too little for any meaningful investment.

Catherine Mukiite (nominated) told the Senate that the Graduate Enterprise Fund will give the young people seed money to do their jobs.

In her motion, Mrs Mukiite said the Cabinet Secretary in charge of Industrialisation and Enterprise Development should draft a law to ensure that the graduate fund is set up to help alleviate the skyrocketing youth unemployment.

“At this rate, if we continue to educate our children and at the end of the day they can’t find a job, it is discouraging to the parents. To restore hope to the graduates, the most realistic thing will be for the government to set up a Graduate Enterprise Fund,” said Mrs Mukiite.

Boni Khalwale (Kakamega) said the money through the Youth Fund was “meaningless” because the money given through the fund was too little for graduates to do any meaningful job.

The Leader of Majority Kithure Kindiki, the Leader of Minority Moses Wetang’ula and the Majority Whip Beatrice Elachi and Kisumu senator Prof Anyang’ Nyong’o were among those who supported the motion.

But they had a cautious approach to the whole quest for a fund, saying the economy needed an overhaul, because, by itself, access to credit does not guarantee creation of jobs.

“Yes, let’s pass this motion, but it will not go anywhere until we discuss how to restructure our economy. We may give the money to the youth, but if we don’t think how it is going to be spent, it will be useless,” said Prof Nyong’o.

Dr Khalwale said many of the youth did not take loans “because of the fact that they have to pay back”.

“Kenyan youth must realise that to be given interest-free loans is a very good thing. It is like a grant. They should stop hoping for free things, because, it creates a begging mentality,” said Dr Khalwale.

Prof Agnes Zani said it is difficult for the youth to access the Youth Fund because of the terms that are in place.

“The band for youth is very amorphous, one fund alone cannot serve all the youths in the country,” said Prof Zani. “If we’re going to save the youth from unemployment, we have to look at what situation they are in.”

Prof Zani said the young people should leverage on their skills to come up with projects that will prove viable.

“If we look at the Youth Enterprise Development Fund, it has been there for a long time, yet there has been an escalation of youth unemployment. We need to go back, look at what went wrong and come back with another fund,” said Prof Zani.

Liza Chelule and Fatuma Dullo opposed the Graduate Enterprise Fund saying there was a fund that served the youth, and no audit had been done to determine the weaknesses of the Youth Fund, before setting up another fund.

Prof Kindiki asked for the motion to be put on ice because the Jubilee administration was working on a similar motion, which is “very comprehensive”.