NYS targets jobless Mombasa youth in new project roll-out

The newly re-launched National Youth Service Youth project was rolled out in three constituencies in Mombasa County on Monday, by the government.

The project was re-launched in Mvita, Nyali and Kisauni constituencies in a ceremony attended by area MPs Abdulswamad Nassir, Hezron Awiti and Rashid Bedzimba, respectively.

In Mvita, Public Service, Youth and Gender Affairs Cabinet Secretary Sicily Kariuki, who presided over the re-launch, announced that 1,350 youths in the constituency have been registered in the program, aimed at empowering them.

Speaking at Mombasa’s Tononoka Grounds, Ms Kariuki said 400 youths from the constituency had been captured in the biometric register while the rest would be included as the projects get implemented.

The government was keen on solving issues of youth unemployment and that so far 76,000 from 72 constituencies have been registered in the programme and have raised at least a billion shillings from their savings, she added.

ENCOUNTERED HITCHES

“This programme started in the 72 constituencies in a pilot phase but encountered hitches but we are now up and running,’’ the minister said.
The minister also commissioned Mackinnon (Marikiti) Market and inspected works at the sprawling Kongowea Market which had stalled but is now being rehabilitated following a directive by the President. The two markets are part of the areas where the youth under the NYS initiative have been cleaning.

The NYS empowerment programme, she said, was one of the ways of dealing with unemployment by boosting the youth from their little savings.

Mr Nassir said that Members of Parliament have agreed on increasing the number on the bio-metric register and also on the service programmes that they will be rendering.

“We will increase the number from 498 to 1,350 youths,’’ said the Mvita MP adding that they would soon hold a meeting with NYS Director-General Richard Ndubai over the issue.