Former Public Service Cabinet Secretary Justin Muturi has hit out at President William Ruto just a day after he hosted Nairobi youths at the State House and gifted them equipment to start their small businesses.
In a statement titled, "Ruto, Kenya's youth don't need charity handouts dressed as jobs," Muturi argued that the president ought to create more formal jobs instead of parading small businesses as the ultimate dream for Kenyan youths.
Terming the drive as the poverty olympics, he claimed that issuing the youth boda bodas would only lock the beneficiaries into a poverty cycle and was not the job creation he was passing it off as.
"Serious economies invest in innovation hubs, manufacturing skills, tech funding, and green energy jobs. Kenya’s “youth policy” is basically: Here’s a wheelbarrow, now go make us proud. It’s policy cosplay, not policy substance," Muturi stated.
Muturi further alleged that the president's actions were, in fact, serving as a message to the youth that the government did not expect them to dream too big.
As such, he claimed that it would lead to economic myopia, stating, "a country that produces more boda bodas than engineers is planning for economic stagnation."
"Small hustles are fine, but when they’re the centrepiece of national youth policy, it’s a confession that the government has no industrial vision," he added.
He went on to describe the empowerment drive as a mere photo op and urged the President to instead invest in the youth by creating jobs in bigger industries like tech and manufacturing.
"Kenya’s median age is around 20. That’s a goldmine of potential if invested in properly. Instead, Ruto is dishing out hardware for small hustles while ignoring large-scale job creation in tech, manufacturing, creative industries, and renewable energy," he stated.
On Saturday, thousands of Nairobi youths drawn from 1,115 groups from all the County's 17 constituencies flocked to the State House for the empowerment drive and left with a variety of equipment up for grabs.
From motorcycles to tents, each group received equipment according to the request they had made to start or boost their businesses.
380 groups received 380 tents and 38,000 chairs, with each getting a tent and 100 chairs, while 200 groups received carwash stations, 200 others received 120 public address systems, 80 got catering equipment, and 63 groups were gifted 245 motorbikes, among others.
The president also pledged monetary gifts, including for 100,000 young people who will each receive Ksh150,000. 90,000 others of them will also be given money after completing six months of craft training.
