 Welcome back to Why in the Morning, and this is the Tuesday Entrepreneurship Show. But today we have a little bit of a change, and we hope that you guys enjoy what we've brought to you. We had brought it in the introduction that we did earlier on today, and we talked about Honourable coming to our set today. And specifically, we have Honourable Jeff Kingangi, pardon me, a member of Parliament, and he's actually the MP from Berry South constituency, and he's here to discuss a few things about the youth. And this is why we have decided to put it under entrepreneurship, because he's here to actually advance and help the youth push an agenda forward to assist them in making their lives a little bit better. And he's not alone on set. My name is Joy Mochache, and I'd like for you to meet the rest of the people who are here with me today. Karibuni Sana. Thank you. Okay. I would like to start from that end. Good morning. My name is Yvonne. I am Communications Officer, Berry South constituency. I'm Edwin Bogo, Berry South constituency. I'm Ajira Trena. Okay. All right. I'm Rachel Loveran, Berry South constituency, and Ajira Trena. I see. Thank you. My name is Kingangi, I'm the MP for Berry South. Okay. So you'd like for me to just throw it to you as honorable Kingangi today. That's right. No problem. And so we have got a wonderful, wonderful discussion lined up for you guys today. And in case you want to chip in, first of all, I'd like to let you know that you can do so through our social media handles, which are right at the bottom of the screen, asking any questions that you'd like. And maybe we'll get some time to discuss and give you back some feedback. So let's jump right in. Just as an introduction, Berry South constituency is actually in Ember County. Actually, it's one of the largest that's getting marginalized and it's actually still on its feet. It's still growing as we speak. There are a lot of things and a lot of developments that may not be reaching that area. And aside from the developments, today we're here to talk about youth agendas, because that's what Moishimere is here to push forward. Isn't that right, sir? That's right. Okay. And thank you very much for inviting us to the studio. Okay. We were very excited, actually, the young people who traveled last night to be here this morning. And we're very excited about this opportunity to be here and to talk about our constituency and the kind of things that we're doing in the constituency. In particular, the youth agenda in the Berry South constituency. Okay. Yes. The youth agenda in Berry South constituency. Maybe we'll just start off by talking about some of the things that are mostly known about the Ember County to be specifically in Berry South constituency. Okay. Thank you. Ember County is one of the counties around Mount Kenya and specifically Mount Kenya East. Berry South is one of the four constituencies of Ember County. And it happens to be the largest of the constituencies in Ember County. Yes. As a matter of fact, almost half the landmass of Ember County constituency is located in Berry South constituency. It is bounded by River Turner. And therefore we have more than 100 kilometers of river which is a boundary between us and Micheacos and us and Kitui County. Wow. And because of that, we are on the drier side of Ember County. And therefore, we have challenges of water. We have challenges of rainfall. But we are lucky. We have a very vibrant community and a very vibrant youth that are coming up. Very ambitious, very hardworking. Yes. And this is what we want to tap into by having a specific agenda that addresses the challenges that are being faced by the youth in their constituency. I see. Yes. And maybe we can talk about some of those challenges because now that we've gotten an introduction and an understanding of what Ember County is all about and specifically what Berry South constituency is all about, let's talk about some of the challenges that the youth are undergoing and then we can talk about some of the measures you would wish to put in place in order to change and turn around those challenges. Thank you. Berry South, as I said earlier, is a dry constituency. It's a semi-arid, a biscuit semi-arid. And because of that, most of the constituents live on arable farming, patient farming, keeping a few livestock and basically doing food, I mean farming for food, not so commercial. And because of that, most of families are challenged in terms of income, having money to push their family through school. Most of the young people go through school with a lot of difficulties. The parents are struggling to get money to pay school fees, but they still do manage to pay through school. And because of that, once you go through school and then you don't have employment, it's a big challenge to the young people, to the family, to even the community. And I give my example of myself. Okay. I was brought up in Berry South. Going through school, I had to get jobs during the holidays to be able to pay school fees for the next time. And once I finished, actually my siblings, about six of them, mostly dependent on what I earned to get through school. Of course they worked, but they worked themselves, but primarily dependent on what I earned to be able to go through school. So you can imagine if a family has put a child through school and then at the end of the game, that child does not have employment. It's a big blow because it's a whole family's investment. It means the siblings that are following that young person are also suffering. And they're looking at you and saying, what are you doing here? Why don't you get a job? Why don't you help us? So it's a big challenge. So that's one of the challenges, employment and employment fruition. Right, I see. And before we talk about the rest of the challenges, we have actually some people from Nigeria right here sitting with us. And I hear that you are the CEO. Okay, Karibusana. And before we come to talk to you about the Agira digital, as it's called, because it's actually a part of the solution for these challenges, we want to finish talking about some of those challenges first and then we'll come to a solution, which Agira is a part of that solution. Isn't that right? Okay, so Zawa, let's go to the next challenge. So the other challenge is that my area, there is the business of Mugoka, which is Mira, which is a good thing because the community earns money through the sale of Mugoka. But it's a challenge to the youth. Because it's easy money, then the youth are attracted to getting to the industry, which is not right in any community for youth to be engaged in business. We want the youth to remain in school, grow, be competitive like other Kenyans, get an education. If in the future they choose to go back to Mira business, that is a decision being made by a mature person. But for the youth, for the young people, it is always a risk. Because once they go there, then they're exposed to drugs, they're exposed to other behaviors, they mix with adults, and they don't have a space where they can grow. With mentors, with people who are encouraging them to look beyond to look at the rest of Kenya to integrate and to plug into the economy in a more broader way, rather than just buying and selling of Mira. So Mira to the youth is a challenge in terms of people dropping out of school, children dropping out of school. Dropping out of school, and even sometimes when they do finish school, it's something that they jump onto because there's not much else to do. Yes, when they finish school, they don't have engagement, they don't have a job, then it's difficult for them to sit around there doing nothing. When the rest of the family, they are doing Mira business, so they join in, again getting exposed. So that is a challenge. And finally, that the youth need to be exposed to what the rest of the world is doing. And secondly, they need to be exposed to people who have been in similar situations who have succeeded. So they are able to show them, hey, look, you can aim higher. Look at me, I was where you are, now I'm here. You can chase me. And when they get there, and the younger ones, when they get there, the others also in militia, so we need role models. And we need a space where very people can model each other and encourage each other to come out of this situation. I see, I understand. And also some of the things we're going to be talking about are also the lack of investment for things like technical skills, education and normal life skills and also business skills. Things that they can grab on to and hold on to in order to create a better life for themselves after they're through with school. And wow, so some of the things that you want to introduce are these technical skills. And maybe we can hear about them because now that we're done talking about the challenges, we'd like to talk about some of the solutions. I want to talk about the youth agenda. First now. In general. Okay. And then I'll let Yvonne introduce the innovation hub that we've created and the Agila program. Okay. Broadly speaking, we have looked at the youth and we want to engage all youth very constructively so that those who are school leavers, they have something to do. Those who are waiting to get a job, they have something to do. Those who, the youth who are already working in businesses like Border Border, others are also trying other businesses, we want to engage them. The first program is about football. We are engaging them through football. Beginning from grass root and building up at least to a final. Yes. To the finals. Yes. And right now they're very, very busy competing. And it's become very competitive. The discussions are coming out of there. Right. And when we're talking about solutions, this is what we're talking about. These are the solutions we're talking about. Exactly. Because again, that gives us opportunity. To engage with the youth and to hear what are their challenges? How best to help them? What do they want? Which path should we be concentrating on? And this conversion happening when you're playing football. The other one is a challenge of those engaged in the Border Border business, riding motorcycles and carrying passengers. There are a lot of accidents happening. Most, a lot of them, because of maybe the condition of the road, but some of them is because the riders are not competent. And then they run into problems with the police. And then there is the insurance cannot be paid because the rider did not have a license. So we have set up a program where we help them go through proper driving school training and acquire a driving license. At the moment we have 200 of them who are already engaged, who are in school. And in a few weeks, we'll be having a graduation. And then push more into the driving school so that they come up with skills. And also, this is a good thing for the community because some of the accidents which are happening because they do not understand the traffic rules, now we expect them to reduce. And we expect the insurances to pay because the people who are doing this business are qualified and have the driving license. And then finally is the program which involves the Constituency Innovation Hub and the Ajira training, which I would like Yvonne to introduce. Thank you. Okay. So initially what happened was the government felt the need to actually empower the youth by giving them technical skills or giving them a place where they can be able to venture into the online sphere. So through the Ministry of ICT, the government partnered up with members of parliament to create what is known as Constituency Innovation Herbs. And the Constituency Innovation Hub is basically a space that is equipped with free Wi-Fi and the government then gives you hardware about 13 to 14 laptops and young people can come there and they can use their hardware, they can use the free Wi-Fi to kind of help them as they go along. However, what happened was, okay fine, the CIH has been established, the Wi-Fi is there, the hardware is there, but then how do we get the youth to move from wherever they are, whether it's in their houses or it's just sitting by the road or pull even that youth who is busy picking mogoka. How do I pull this youth to come down to the CIH and actually use it and in turn, how do I get or put into this youth something else that will help them move away from the vices that they are currently facing at the moment. So the ICT authority, ICTA, then introduced what is called Agira Digital Training. Now, Agira Digital Training, as many of us would know, is a platform that now is a bridge between the people and people who are giving work online. So you don't have to go to an office to actually feel like you're working, you can actually work from wherever you are. So Agira Digital Training is a one-week training and the youth come to us and we partnered with ICTA. So initially the first cohort, we had ICTA trainers who came and it was a TOT program where some of our youth were actually selected and some of them, two of them actually sit here. And it was to ensure that instead of having ICTA workers coming from Nairobi to Embarrass South, they actually now empower the youth in the home ground to continue the program. So the youth come in, they come every day from 8am to 4pm. They go through the basic skills that they require from communication skills, soft skills, marketing skills. They go through the different jobs that are available and the different jobs that are marketable right now to the European market, to the American market, because you know like you get what we call virtual assistants, it's basically... Virtual assistants. Yes, virtual assistants. I'm an assistant, but I'm sitting in Kenya. My employer sits in Europe. Oh okay, that's pretty cool. It's pretty cool. I assist my employer in his or her work, but I don't need to be physically there. I just need to work according to their timelines. Yes. You see, if it's content writing, being a university student, you know how many thesis or how many projects you have to work on at a particular time. You've got seven units that you're doing in a semester. You've got seven projects that you need to kind of present. But you don't have this time. You know how life is very fast in Europe and America and all those other areas. You have to work, you have to go to school. So what do you do with your projects? You disseminate your projects. You look for a worker online. There's always that format that they have to write the projects in. You give that work to somebody in Kenya. That person will type out that project for you. And then you will present it to your lecturer. Your employer will get the grade, but it's actually your work. Right. And then, and you've got, obviously you're getting some kind of pay out of it. And it's work. It's work. So basically this is an online market where you focus on creating work for the youth. Yes. And I like what you called it, the Concentration Innovation Hub. I love it because it's all about innovation. You've innovated various ways in which our youth can communicate, even if it's with, like you said, international communities. Yes, yes. Having people do certain work for them and getting paid for it. And I think that's amazing. And you've identified, it looks like you're really working on technology and ICT. Yes. And Moshi Muro mentioned football. Yes. So the two things I'm seeing are sports. Yes. And ICT. Yes. Slash technology. Yes. And I think these are wonderful things and wonderful ways to engage the youth. Yes. And actually a good thing is, yes, a lot of people are interested in free Wi-Fi as you may say. And the moment someone knows this free Wi-Fi somewhere, you know, you're just like, why not? Why not? So yes, they'll go and use it and find that, look, I can make some money instead of sitting here and like Moshi Muro said, pinching Mogokau or just wasting time with some friends. Yes. And that's exactly what we want for our youth. Yes. This is a wonderful agenda. And like you were saying, kindly continue. Okay. So those are the jobs that are available. The reason why I'm very passionate about this is because I myself was an online worker. So I know what it takes to actually work and I know that it pays off. All you need to have is consistency. You need to be consistent. You need to have good work ethics and you need to have great relationships with your employers. And the one thing that you need is just one job. You just need that one job. And the moment you secure it, that's it. Jobs just come flying through the window. People are making money from this and they're making very good money from it. But unless we tell our youth there's something else available for you out there. And not only tell them, bring it to the door. Bring it to the door and actually open the door and tell them, look, this is it. Then they won't know it. Then you won't be able to engage them. And that's exactly what we are doing. We've opened the door. We are now showing them this is the way. It's up to you to take it. And luckily for us, we've actually been very blessed. The youth of Marysouth are eager. The first cohort, we had about 60 youth. And I had to cut down the youth. I had to cut down the numbers. It reached that point. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It was like an overflow. Yeah, it was an overflow. It was an overflow. We've got to see us coming in. So much interest. So much interest. So much eager. I'm telling you, like my phone was dinging the whole of Sunday. Like, I want to come in on Monday. I want to come in on Monday. Up until about 10 p.m. in the evening, that's how eager they are. Last week I had a parent who called me out and told me, look, my child wasn't called in the first cohort. I need my son to be in the second cohort. I love it. I actually took the number. Then I called the boy. The boy was there in 30 minutes. That's it. That's how much they need it. That's how much they need this. I see. That's how much they actually need it. Yes. And before Moshi Miwa says something, I'd like for Edwin and actually Rachel to touch on the Ajira Digital Kidogosana to kind of expound on it. I know that you've already touched on it. But because you're here, you're wearing the shirts, I would love for you to give some detail. All right. Thank you. I'll start by saying it's... Please keep your mouth. Yes, yes. Thank you. I'm grateful to be part of the Ajira team. And not only the skills, OK, we are equipped with, for helping the clients outside the country or between the countries and what I mean, the skills can be used to maybe even in the schools. The youths who are already in the schools and the work we present to our Ajira. And I can say that it's just a... I'll say it's a dirty work because I took one of those skills. Yes, yes. Yes. So I'm grateful and encourage all the youths who are in the government and the whole government. When you're saying you took one of those skills, are you saying you were a part of... Yes, you know, I was a part of the process. That's interesting. And I was chosen to share the skills which I learned and part of it I learned in the university. Actually, I'm in Chuka University. Yes. And I'm grateful to share all the skills. And if I may use this in Kisahili. OK. Easy skills to pair with. Of course. The idea is to pair with money. To pair with the work we present. To pair with the work we present. Motivation with idols. You can market yourself through on social platforms. Yes, yes. Even the Wi-Fi initiative. Yes. So, I encourage all the youths to join hands with Moshi Mua. Moshi Mua is a very busy person. She's always eating and eating. Wow, lovely. Now that I've created this initiative. Thank you. Thank you for that. Yes, Madam CEO, Rachel. Yes, talk about this a little bit. OK. This is your program thing. It has really expanded us. Your program thing. I love it. It has really expanded us, by the way. As you said, as I've been saying, even at school, just some minutes ago, I think not today, but yesterday. It was called by someone to help the person to submit the project. Wow. No, because this, as Jera, you have been taught to grammar check. When you submit your project to the teachers, it becomes perfect until it's like, how do you manage to do this? When you do it with soft copy. How do you manage to do it? The grammar check is OK. We learn those things. We learn those skills. And we are able to produce the best. And then something else. We are much encouraged by the, how these youths are turning up for this thing. It's really encouraging. We were the first cohort. We were trained. Now we are training. It's encouraging us. The second and the third cohort, we're like, we're almost 100. Wow. The second and the third. No, the third is still ongoing. It will commence tomorrow. Then we'll be ready for graduation. The youths are really encouraging us. They really want to do it. Yes. And we'll also thank the Mushi Miwa for this project, for the free wifi. The laptops, he's given us laptops in this age. So we will be able to assist them. So if someone is at home and may bid for the job, we bid for jobs. We sing their concert recreat. If someone at home has bid for the job, but you have a problem with the wifi, you have a problem. You don't have a laptop. You don't have a smartphone. You just run to the CIH. You get the free wifi and the free laptop. And then you're good to go. You get your money at other times. Going down to the mogoka thing, idling. Yeah. That's a wonderful initiative. Thank you so much. I'd like Mushi Miwa to say what he wanted to say. And then, Yvonne, maybe you can touch on Ujanja Machinani. And then I shall finish off by talking about the Mamba League. I just wanted to say how this has opened floodgates. Yes. One of the things which has happened is that the youth came up with their own ideas. And before the week was over, they were bubbling with ideas. To the extent that I said, look, we have to make this sustainable. And what we have done now, we have created what we call the Community Empowerment Center. It will be run by a trust. It is an independent body, company limited by guarantee. And the guarantors are the trusts. Under this program, the center which we are building will now accommodate other initiatives coming from the youth. Amazing. They're proposing that, look, most of the people now have smartphones. Yes. Even people in the rural areas have smartphones. That's true. And smartphones tell us to die on you. And in many cases, it's just a question of the software. And they say, we know how to do this. We can teach each other how to do it. So in the center, there will be those people who will be doing smartphones. Others are repairing computers. Others are installing. They're teaching each other. They're teaching each other. And these were the students for the first cohort. Now we have the center director and the trainer here. The minister only sent only one person to just oversee, to just see that we're taking off properly. And in terms of sustainability, now the trustees are also free now to walk away, look for partners to partner with them, and then just push it off. They are able now, the center will accommodate more suggestions. Those who want to do online work can do it. Those who want to do hardware repairs can do it. Those who want to do mobile phones can do it. And then we had a very interesting entry. There are people who want to record YouTube. So we're looking for a container. They want to start their YouTube channels. YouTube channels. We are looking for a container so that we can make a studio. Like this one inside a container, just to be smaller. Yes, yes. But we want to do it inside a container so that our youth can come and record whatever it is and post it online and make some money. Make some money. We have one of the trainees who came in the first cohort. He sees as a comedian. Wow. But he has never had a chance. No platform. He's waiting for the studio so that he can channel with comedies in the YouTube. We have dancers. We have a group of dancers in the town. In fact, they get exposed. Right now they're participating in promoting our team in Africa and in Egypt. They're participating in the dances and whatever. And all this. And the more coming they want to record. We want to do this. The pastors who was to preach and record it. And we are creating that space. It's so, so, so exciting. It's so, so exciting. And I'm glad that you said, if one is going to talk about Wichita Machine and because it's one of those things that sprang up and everybody said wow. Everyone said wow. And we went to see the minister. And the minister said what? Is that yours? Can I have it? No, no, no. You cannot have it. Can I have it? We said no, you cannot have it. This is Better South Youth and it is an initiative that you can plug in and come in to help us. And that is why the minister said I am coming. And he said he told the peers we're going together. So this Friday at nine o'clock the minister is flying in with the peers. We're going to receive him. There were 200 board of boarders who are undergoing training. We'll be there to receive him and give a motorcade to the center and the rest of the youth will be waiting. Amazing, amazing. These guys, 100 of them will be having gowns waiting for graduation. Graduate. We have a professor. And that's always a great feeling. We even have a professor who is coming to conduct the graduation in style. Amazing, I love it. So it's so exciting. Yes, yes, yes. That we feel this is a way to go even for the rest of the youth in Kenya and we're very, very, very excited about this. And we are hoping that it's actually going to spread from very south into the whole of Nairobi. Absolutely, absolutely. They have no choice. Unfortunately, we don't have too much time, but I just want you to say maybe rather quickly about Ujanja Mashinani. Okay. Ujanja Mashinani is bringing, it's a name that's coined, it basically is bringing wit at a rural... I like the name too. It's very clever. It's just bringing wit to the rural kind of level. So during the training we identified there were two gaps. One gap is that we could not bring people on board who didn't have basic computer skills. So we've got two parts of Ujanja Mashinani. We've got Ujanja Basics, which is now pulling the youth, the women, the elderly men, and teach them the basic computer training so that we can then absorb them into the Agira digital. Then we've got Ujanja Mashinani, which is basically using the technical skills that we have and disseminating these technical skills to the youth, to the women, to the men in the sphere in which they're currently working in. The rural areas. In the rural areas, what we're trying to do is we're trying to dissociate that you have to come to the urban area to actually succeed. You can actually succeed when you're in the rural area. If I'm a farmer, I'm a pig farmer, how do I use technology to advance my farming? If I'm a dancer, for instance, how do I use technology, like YouTube, to advance my skills and my talents? So that's basically what it is. And we are really looking forward to it. Ujanja Mashinani will also be launched on Friday. So this will be a big part of the youth agenda. I see. And I shall talk a little bit very quickly about the Mamba League. And Moshi Mua can say his last and final parting was very, very shortly because we are out of time, apparently, and we need to give space to our next interview. And so the Mamba League, as I'm told, is actually running from the 18th of May all the way until the 17th of August. And it's going to be a wonderful football. Is it a football match? Yes, it's a tournament, yes. Football tournament where people are actually going to be winning prices. And these prices are amazing because who doesn't like money? We have the first one going for 50,000. That's for the top winner. And the runner-up gets 25,000. The runner-up team and the third team get 10,000. And then 5,000 for the four other teams, which will come in next after that. And I think these are great, great initiatives and great ways to get people from doing nothing to kind of join sports. And like he said, that was his first thing, was football. So the sports and the technology, they have found a way to put them together so that they can help the youth. And this is exactly what Mamba League is all about. And we are hoping that this will be a success. Now Moshi Mua, we don't have much time, but I want to say maybe your parting words to the youth. My parting words is simple. There is hope for the youth in Kenya. Those who don't have jobs, they all have ideas. You don't have a job, you have ideas. We can talk about your idea. We can bring in people who are in that sector and find out how your ideas can make money. And this is what we are doing at the center. So my word is there is hope for the youth in Kenya. There is hope for the youth in Kenya. Those are honorable Jeff Kingang's last words on this wonderful, wonderful show. And he has come here to talk and push his youth agenda. Remember that you can join and help out. Is there any way, by the way, let's say that someone is not from Beira South, but they're interested in coming there to do these things. Is there any way that they can do something? Yes, this opportunity for the whole of Kenya to plug in. This is how you plug in. The young people that we have trained, we are graduating 100. One of the ways to use them is to invite them to your place to come and teach your youth. And they are quite skilled. And with just past fear, they will come and train. So we are looking forward to that. The other thing is you can bring in your trainers. We train them. And then take them out. And then also you can come and learn from us how the sustainability model that we've created, we can come and discuss and see how you can plug in. So yes, the whole of Kenya, actually we want to infect the whole of Kenya with this hope for the youth, that there is hope for the youth because they may not have a job, but they have ideas. And they have a fresh mind, which has not been used. We can use it to create jobs for them either online or just marketing or just selling the skills that they have. Okay. Thank you. Thank you so much. And that was honorable, Jeff Kigangi. And nobody likes infections. Nobody wants to catch them, but we do hope that everybody does catch this infection and it becomes an epidemic. We hope it becomes an epidemic in our country so that everyone can get some positive help. This is a positive epidemic we're talking about here. Thank you so much for tuning in. We have enjoyed you watching us. Our social media handles are down there on the screen. And remember, my name is Joy Mochache. Fine, we'll enjoy underscore mochache. Thank you. Coming up next is Barry Moses with another tears entrepreneurship show. This has been one in the morning.