President Uhuru Kenyatta has launched a new program to empower the youth dubbed Generation Unlimited Kenya (GenU Kenya) on Wednesday, August 5, 2020.
The virtual event was hosted by media personalities Waihiga Mwaura and Adelle Onyango.
Generation Unlimited was established as a global multi-sector partnership to meet the urgent need for expanded education, training and employment opportunities for young people, aged between 10 and 24.
State House Deputy Chief of Staff, Policy and Strategy Ruth Kagia explained that the government had learned from past youth interventions that were not as successful.
She disclosed that the GenU steering committee consisted of 10 young people.
Kagia is passionate in education and has years of experience having worked as World Bank's global education director, she oversaw the coordination of the World Bank Education Global Program with a total active portfolio of Ksh1.1 trillion in 90 countries.
The Ministry of ICT which was recently given the mandate to handle youth affairs was key in the creation of the project.
GenU Kenya has been adopted and aligned with President Kenyatta's Big 4 Agenda to streamline education, training and employment.
The program was lauded by Education CAS Zack Kinuthia who explained that the government would tackle the flood of young people in the job market.
GenU Kenya will build a multi-stakeholder public private partnership between youth, development partners, international finance institutions, private investors and other Kenyan stakeholders.
The framework will catalyze capital, demonstrate effective models and influence policy in support of replicable and/or scalable youth development initiatives and youth-led transformative action across Kenya.
Kenya will be the first of a group of six frontrunner countries to launch the program.
President Kenyatta was endorsed as a global champion of the young people's agenda and in June 2019, he was invited and accepted to the Generation Unlimited Global Leaders Group of 11 members.
As a UN global leader, the president advocates for global partnerships by leveraging his influence to access opportunities, and mobilise resources to provide every young person with access to quality education, training or employment by 2030.
