A nominated Member of the Nyeri County Assembly is backing the creation of a County Youth Service to help alleviate unemployment among young people.
Kariithi wa Wambui says the move will not only create jobs for the youth but also address crime rates in the county owing to a lack of income-generating activities.
The legislator says the bill has already been tabled before the County Assembly for debate and could be legislated into law by November this year.
If approved, according to Kariithi, 10,000 young persons from the 30 wards stand to benefit from paid contractual work, courtesy of the County Government.
“We have already drafted the County Youth Service bill which I hope will help in addressing youth unemployment in this county," said Kariithi.
According to Kariithi, funds from less critical projects can be reassigned to programs that will help young people earn a living.
"Overall, we need at least Sh80 million to absorb a total of 10,000 young people into paid work where they can serve the community and spur key development projects within our county,”said Kariithi.
He was speaking on a local vernacular TV on Wednesday.
Kariithi linked the recent chaotic youth protests in Karatina to entrenched poverty and lack of employment opportunities among the youth in the Mathira constituency.
He says the scenario has snowballed into a security concern in the area with incidents of shop break-ins and daylight muggings reported almost on a daily basis.
“The ugly scenes that were witnessed in Karatina town during the anti-government protests were fueled by high levels of poverty among those living in informal sectors around the town," the ward rep said.
He added that most of those people settled in Kia Jamaica, Kawangware, Ragati and Kiandundu slums after they were moved from Blue Valley slums in Nyeri town.
The displacement has spilled over from the slums into the town with erstwhile protesters now breaking into private business premises and robbing market women in broad daylight.
Kariithi has also called for the establishment of a county solar farm to help address the soaring energy cost for the county government which he has termed unsustainable.
He says the challenge of the high cost of electricity in the county standing at Sh120 million per year has been aggravated by rampant theft of high mast street lights and solar panels by the public.
Among towns that have been hit hard by stolen street lamps include Mukurwe-ini, Chaka and Nyeri town where out of the 35 lights that had been installed only 15 are still working.
“Power bill for the County Government stands at Sh120 million every year with the burden set to hit Sh200 million in the next five years," he has stated.
Kariithi said there is a need to come up with an alternate mechanism to lower electricity costs and curb the increasing cases of vandalism and market lighting installations.
He added that one such program is to start a solar farm from where electricity can be sold to Kenya Power.
This allows the utility firm to distribute the same to them at reduced charges.