Youth attached to the National Hygiene Programme dubbed Kazi Mtaani programme clean up a section of Dedan Kimathi Street in Nyeri town on February 9, 2021. PHOTO | JOSEPH KANYI | NMG
President William Ruto has ended the Kazi Mtaani programme that offered unemployed youth environmental jobs, saying his administration will instead focus on affordable housing projects to absorb more young people in construction.
Dr Ruto said the work in which the youths were recruited to plant trees and collect garbage will now be undertaken by county governments.
He was speaking in Soweto, Kibra, in Nairobi Tuesday, where he launched the affordable housing programme, which will be rolled out across the country.
“We have plans for our young people...I assure you that in these housing projects, all of you will be involved,” President Ruto said.
“We will have enough job opportunities for our young people without using them to collect garbage. The garbage collection will be facilitated by Nairobi Governor Johnson Sakaja, who will ensure that they are dumped in the respective dumpsites and maintain a clean city,” Dr Ruto added.
Kazi Mtaani project was launched in April 2020 by former President Uhuru Kenyatta to cushion unemployed youth living in informal settlements from the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic.
More than 280,000 youths from 1,100 informal settlements across the 47 counties benefited from the programme in its first and second phases.
The government had disbursed Sh1.3 billion for phase one, Sh2.4 billion and Sh5.6 billion had been earmarked for phases two and three, respectively.
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