Top news items in major Kenyan media outlets

The following are news highlights in Kenyan media outlets on Tuesday.

-- Parliament resumes sittings Tuesday afternoon, with one of the issues they are expected to fast-track is this year's national budget. The estimates are expected to be submitted to Parliament by Tuesday next week, and thereafter handed to the departmental committees and the Budget and Appropriations Committee by end of April as the country prepares for the general election in August.

The government is further expected to increase its allocation to the Health ministry in a supplementary budget to accommodate a 40 percent pay increase it recently offered to striking doctors. (Daily Nation)

-- Kenya has started a digital skills training program to enable a million young people to secure freelance online work in the next one year in a bid to tackle acute youth unemployment problem.

Kenya has the highest rate of youth joblessness in East Africa, the World Bank said, with 17 percent of all young people eligible for work lacking jobs. (The Standard)

-- Tea export earnings declined by 3.6 percent in 2016 compared to the previous year due to a rise in volumes at the auction whose impact was partly mitigated by a strong dollar. (Business Daily)

-- Kenya is grappling with acute shortage of skilled artisans with practical skills to support economic growth as citizens are obsessed with degrees, according to the government. It would start a million artisan program to develop requisite skills. (The Star)

-- The government is optimistic that its Foreign Affairs secretary would clinch the African Union (AU) Commission chairperson position. The government has received positive feedback from 51 AU member states it has reached out to. (People Daily) Endit