Off the wire
• Kenya licenses bank to spur real estate investment  • Kenya calls for more investments from Egypt  • Kenya to license illicit arms in border areas  • Kenya's Bungei wants cheats slapped with stiffer penalty to tame doping  • Spain approves measures to try and eradicate football violence  • Kenya's Cherono, Chebet ready for Seville cross country  • Vietnamese gets 5-year imprisonment in Kenya for possessing wildlife trophy  • Uganda calls for deployment of regional force in S. Sudan  • Xinhua Asia-Pacific news summary at 1645 GMT, Jan. 13  • Xinhua Insight: Xi calls for more anti-corruption efforts despite achievements  
You are here: 　 Home

Kenya launches program to empower youth from informal settlements

Xinhua, January 14, 2015 Adjust font size:

Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta on Tuesday launched youth empowerment program which he said will be extended to all 47 counties in the country.

Kenyatta said the project will be used to upgrade Mukuru kwa Njenga, Korogocho and Mathare informal settlements in Nairobi County.

"We are committed to ensuring equitable development in informal settlements and all other parts of the country," Kenyatta said during the launch in Nairobi.

He said the youth empowerment program, similar to the one initiated in Kibera last year, would engage youth in activities that would impact positively on their lives.

Under the program, the government will engage 3,500 youths in each of the three settlements to be trained by National Youth Service Personnel to sustain them in the future.

The program entails clean-up of informal settlements, opening- up of roads, street lighting, construction of medical clinics and police posts to ensure security of the residents.

Much of the land in slums in Kenya is government-owned and the rest is owned by landlords who build shacks and rent them out to 99 percent of the tenants, where the average room is 12ft by 12ft with mud or corrugated tin walls.

Water and electricity in these slums is an issue as much of the power is tapped illegally from the power mains, and water diverted from pipelines taking water to uptown estates where most slums are located.

The president regretted that informal settlements that accommodate 75 percent of residents of urban areas, lacked social amenities including roads, hospitals and sewerage systems. He said income generating programs will occupy youth and ensure they do not engage in unlawful activities.

"It is an unfortunate fact that in the past, development has been skewed in favour of areas where the rich live. My government is addressing the situation," he added.

The president said all Kenyans, irrespective of their places of domicile, have a right to services and quality development that will transform their lives. He said the national and county governments will continue to collaborate together to improve the living conditions of inhabitants in Nairobi and other counties. Endi