President William Ruto has handed chiefs new powers as the government prepares to roll out the Climate Worx Mtaani Initiative.
While addressing chiefs at the Kenya School of Government on Tuesday, September 16, the President called on chiefs to embrace professionalism and new roles as the government prepares to hire youths for the project.
The President gave chiefs a mandate to oversee the hiring process in the Climate Works Initiative and to ensure the employed individuals were from a specific location.
"We want to have a localised program," Ruto said. "We also want to spread employment so we don't have multiple youths from the same family getting the jobs."
In addition, the Head of State also gave chiefs the powers to deal with corrupt individuals in their locality accordingly.
"Chiefs, I need you to be my eyes. If you spot a bribery incident, look for my number and call me if necessary. Corruption is killing us," he added.
In a bid to fight crime, Ruto also disclosed plans to give chiefs the capacity to enforce the law and arrest suspects in the event there are no police officers around.
The first phase of the Climate Works project is set to kick off in Nairobi on October 1, with Ruto confirming 20,000 young people set to be stationed at different intervals in a trial system.
Among their responsibilities the youth will be tasked with include planting trees along its banks and creating sustainable urban spaces.
They will also be challenged to come up with plausible solutions to the climate change challenge in Kenya.
The government's plan is to observe how the plan is being implemented in Nairobi before embarking on the second phase of the project in major cities across the country.
Ruto's Climate Works project bears some similarities to his predecessor Uhuru Kenyatta's Kazi Mtaani initiative, which was abolished when the Kenya Kwanza regime took over.
