Mwamsha Links Limited is the latest of the company set up by youth in Mombasa that has benefited from an empowerment program initiated by UDA Vice Chairman Hassan Omar.
The company, started by a group of 15 youths involved in the UDA campaign in 2022, has ventured into the construction market.
They received various construction equipment including a concrete mixer, concrete hoist, vibrator poker, a compactor, and misc construction equipment, among others, worth about Sh2 million, at Junda in Kisauni subcounty on Saturday.
This is part of the Hassan Omar Hassan (HOH) Empowerment Program, which started in May 2023, and has seen about 300 youth empowered through seed capital to establish their business ventures.
So far, Omar said, some Sh30 million has been used to help the youth start businesses through at least 17 different companies.
Omar said the idea was a deliberate move to help Mombasa youth come out of the vicious cycle of poverty that often catapults them into vices like violent extremism and deadly youth gangs.
Speaking in Junda on Saturday, Omar said there is strength in unity and youth can benefit greatly from empowerment programs if they stay disciplined and focused.
“Mwamsha Links Limited (MLL) has taken the lead to show that empowerment can work and people can come together and join hands to propel themselves to better livelihoods,” Omar said.
The HOH Empowerment Program, he said, is meant to help Mombasa youth have entrepreneurial minds and start businesses.
There has been grumbling among a section of the 2022 UDA poll losers that they have been left behind in the appointment of state jobs.
This has seen the UDA brigade in Mombasa show cracks with different factions emerging.
However, Omar has been trying to paper the cracks and create unity, especially among the youth, through the seed capital he has been giving them to start up businesses.
Last Monday, UDA Nominated Senator Miraj Abdillahi asked Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua to convene a meeting of the Mombasa UDA coordinators and some MCA aspirants who lost, who she said have been left in the cold after working so hard for the party.
Senator Abdillahi said the UDA coordinators are the ones that should be credited for delivering 44 per cent of the Mombasa votes to UDA in the 2022 general election.
“The house is collapsing. We need an urgent meeting, Deputy President. Come meet our UDA coordinators and MCA aspirants who lost,” Abdillahi told DP Gachagua at Frere Town primary school.
However, on Saturday, Omar said not all the 486 people who were involved in the UDA campaign in Mombasa will get state jobs.
“As you wait for jobs, you can be in business,” Omar said.
He said as the one who was in charge of the UDA campaign in Mombasa, he had a register of 486 people who were directly and indirectly involved in President William Ruto’s campaign in Mombasa.
However, he warned that it is difficult for President Ruto to appoint all the 486 to state jobs.
“I knew it was almost impossible for 486 people from one county to get state jobs after the election victory.
“That is why I started this empowerment and have so far sponsored at least 290 youth from the 486 to start business and have used Sh30 million,” Omar said.
He said:
“We want to make Kenyans to be entrepreneurs so they can build the economy through the entrepreneur economy. So that even that small ordinary person can have a contribution to the Kenyan economy.”
He said although some of the volunteer campaigners wanted to have money given to them so they could divide and do their stuff with it, he came up with the idea of youth grouping themselves in 15s so they can start up businesses.
“Sh100,000 cannot do much for an individual compared to Sh1.5 million for a group of 15 people,” Omar said.