COUNTY GOVERNMENT OF MERU

OFFICE OF THE GOVERNOR

SPEECH BY HON. KIRAITU MURUNGI, GOVERNOR OF MERU COUNTY DURING THE OFFICIAL OPENING CEREMONY OF THE MERU YOUTH CONFERENCE, 3^RD MAY, 2018

Mr. Gabriel Rugalema, FAO Representative in Kenya

Mr Emre Yuksek- Country Programme Coordinator, Turkish Corporation Agency (TIKA)

Prof Naison Mutizwa-Mangiza - Director, UN-Habitat Regional Office for Africa (ROAf)

County Commissioner represented by Imenti North DCC,

Deputy Governor,

Members of Parliament,

Members of the Meru County Executive Committee

Honourable Members of the County Assembly of Meru led by the Majority Leader,

Distinguished Guests,

Ladies and Gentlemen.

Good morning, everyone!

To our visitors, welcome to Meru County and to the first Meru Youth Conference.

Let me take this opportunity to thank the UN-Habitat team and our Department of Youth Affairs and Sports for putting this conference together. Allow me to specially congratulate the first ever batch of MYS trainees for a successful training programme that has been going on for the past two weeks. This is a day I know a lot of us have been looking forward to.

Today, I join you during the official opening of this very important two day conference to reflect on the challenges facing the youth and come up with possible interventions to alleviate these challenges. This conference is not just important in bringing young people together, but it also provides an opportunity to interrogate the current measures employed to deal with youth issues, and recommend more practical approaches to the various challenges facing our young people today.

I really believe in young people. I believe that young people are the strength, the power and the hope of this nation. That is why my Government deliberately decided to establish the Meru Youth Service to deal with the myriad of challenges affecting the youth in a more sustainable and structured manner. This current financial year we have set aside Kshs. 100 Million for this programme. But these resources are not enough considering the magnitude of the issues to be dealt with. This is why we are calling upon our partners to walk with us on this journey and to support our young people to realize their full potential.

Being young has its fair challenges; vulnerability, unstable sense of self-esteem, insecurity, high societal expectations and lack of a stable source of income are some of them. But being young also carries endless possibilities, creativity, curiosity and energy. We established the Meru Youth Service Programme because we strongly believe that everyone has skills, personality and experience that deserve to be discovered and nurtured in order to make them self-reliant.

My Government has embarked on a very ambitious development agenda for radical socio-economic transformation of this County. We plan to improve agriculture, provide first class health care to our people, make our towns more liveable and dirt free, rehabilitate our environment and make our roads all weather roads. Unless we make smart investments in youth and partner with young people we shall not succeed.

We all know that young people are not a homogenous group. There does not exist a single solution that fits all. Therefore, I urge the participants of this Conference that when you break into your various groups after lunch, deliberate and come up with tailor made solutions that will address the situation and reality of youth, whether they are rural, urban, male, female, unemployed, radicalised, living with a disability, or affected by drugs and alcohol.

As I conclude, I would like to take the opportunity to thank all of you who are working hard to deal with the challenges facing our young people. It is a complex and difficult task, but you are the ones who hold the future of this county and indeed the entire country in your hands.

I wish you a fruitful conference

Thank you.

God bless you all, and God bless Meru.