 very good morning to you, welcome back to the show. Rather, if you're just joining us with Carrie Boussana, this is a Y in the morning. You can reach us at Y54 on Facebook, Y254 underscore channel on X, not Twitter anymore, and all those other lovely social media platforms, still at Y254 channel. My name is Valentine or at Colour Me Val, and now we are at that place. We're going to talk about the state of the nation, but I told you, I think I'm going to change your name, and I'm just going to be voices of the youth. I'd like to believe we're all youthful in this particular set right here, right now. And we do want our voices to be heard. A lot has been going on this week, the past other week, Finance Act here, Finance Act there, House Levy like this, definitely, definitely something to talk about. And of course, I always like to squeeze in at least one international story. Now, before we go any further, allow me to allow my panelists to introduce themselves. Hi, good morning. How are you? We are very fine. Looking very sharp, I say, this Monday morning. Thank you very much. Maybe I'll start with you, sir. What is your good name? Yes, my name is Steven Mwangi Kimani. I live in Swama Connection. I come from Ramuru. Now, I'm very grateful to be here with you, to share about what's going on in this country, because we don't have any other country. It's true. Apart from this one. I'm very grateful to, because it's my first time to have a conversation with you in the studio Y254. Go to Sao, Karibu Sanam, it's good to have you. What did you tell me your alias is, again? My name? Your alias? My alias, I'm a businessman. At the same time, I'm a politician. The last elections are fired as an MCF for a movement toward. But the next time I'm planning to, the people of Ramuru, they're coming to tell me I'm the best to fight for a member of parliament in this constituency. Because for the last 20 years, they've been recycling through the, between two members of parliament. But this time, they have made a change. They want, they need a change. And you are that change? Yeah. Who called me past 30? Yes. Okay, all right, all right. And you, sir? Okay, thank you. My name is Karib Ikenye. I'm a law student here at the University of Nairobi. And I'm also the president of the Nakuru County Students Caucus. I've been here before, and I'm so very much humbled to have gotten this opportunity to grace your shows once more. Yes. Much welcome, very, very welcome, guys. So I don't, I was planning to start international and then come back home, but I think home is best, eh? East-West home is best. So let's start with what's been happening. So yesterday, his Excellency, the president, had a conversation with two particular reporters, and he was just basically giving, or taking stock for what he's been doing the past year. And funny, during our introduction, we're talking about CBC and the universities and the TVETs. And that's actually our question, by the way, of the day, go to our socials. And we're trying to figure out how, how some people, most people now have either opted or are being sent to these particular polytechnics versus, you know, actual universities. Do you think it's unfair in any way or manner before we go on? And, okay, let me give you a story. So the story was, or rather, that the background is, there's this young lady who had a feature done on her. So she went to school, studied, got her A-minus smart, and if you know anything about 844, A-minus is not something easy to get. So she got it, but, and she had applied for dentistry at the university at degree. But what she got instead was a diploma in nutrition. And so she's now trying to contest it. And yes, there are leeways for her to find another course, I guess, because this is a window that allows you to appeal that particular decision by the bodies involved. But generally, as a country, do you feel like we're being pushed somewhere we don't want to go in terms of education? Okay, thank you, thank you so much. Based on that particular story that you've just told us, it clearly depicts a picture of incompetence on the side of those bodies that are mandated to allocate students to different courses or different career parts that they have selected. And having a lady score an A-minus and later on missing out on what she had desired to, you know, she has fought her way up and later on missing on what she desired, then that one she'll raise some alum about or rather on our systems of education. But one very funny thing or one very interesting thing that I'm happy about is that we are on our path to, you know, getting off from this 844 system. So maybe the lady might seek redress from that particular body, but at least this one should raise an alum about some of the technicalities that we have in our educational institutions and structures that, of course, we need to look into. Yes. Now I brought it up, Mr. Shimura, because that's something his excellency addressed yesterday. And he talked about how one of the things he's proud of is having first stabilized CBC and now the TVETs that, you know, are able to give scholarships now and other bursaries and all these things. But what ground does it sound like? People are OK. OK, let me say that on the ground, people are not OK with the Kenyan-Kwanson government. One, during the last selection campaign, it means a lot of promises which have become broken promises. And the Kenyans are losing their faith each and every day. For instance, like education sector is a very sensitive area where we mold our people, where we make our future generation and our future leadership. OK, if the Kenyan-Kwanson government, since it's not serious to honor their promises, they are making the nation to head into the long direction. For instance, the minister, cabinet secretary in charge of education, is not the best person to head the education sector. Why do you feel so? Because in the previous, we have experience like Matian and Taiben, how they used to come out to fight for education, to encourage the young people to learn, to support the education sector, and so on. But in the Kenyan-Kwanson government, they are not doing an effort to see that they are empowering our people to all to support their education. And that's why we see that supportment, frustration for our young people who want to do their education, yes. Like, supplementing on what they're saying, one thing that every Kenyan should realize, of course, the president echoed what Mandela said, that education is the only tool that equalizes members of a certain society. But education, each and every day, is becoming more expensive. And it's because those ones who are the receiving end, the students, the parents, they are not involved in these important decision-making processes. Like when we had the presidential working party on the CBC implementation, it was not conclusive, it was not exclusive. Students from different parts of the country were not reached out to give their views. I never saw these people in my home constituency, in Molo. So I feel like, in what he's saying, the government is not being more exclusive on issues that affect us as the receiving end. We are students, as parents, and that's where the technicalities arise from, yeah. Yes, but also on the flip side, again, his excellency also went ahead to say that he is, he has been able to make a move which is high around 50, 56,000 teachers in one particular year, and that has never been seen before. And a funding that was approximately 5.2 billion has been moved up to 10 billion. So are you sure that we are saying the correct thing that education, that particular docket, is being neglected? Is he not trying? Are we being patient? Okay, like he said, the Kenya Kwanzaa government is over-promising, so until we see it being implemented, then we cannot believe. So personally, I will still insist that as we move on day by day, education is becoming more expensive, and we need to rethink about it. Of course yesterday, the president said that there is no government that has ever allocated a higher budget to the education sector than his government. Yes, true. We want to see that budget being implemented. Students are lacking, you know, lockers in schools, students are lacking books. You find 10 students sharing one textbook in Machinani, so we want to see this budget being implemented to the latter, yeah. And speaking of Machinani, maybe as we come to you, we've actually had, we'll still continue to see cases of people who study under trees. And you can't figure out why this budget is so big, yet there are no classrooms. If it just happens to rain, there will be no school for some time until conditions are favorable, which is a bit wanting, isn't it? Yes. So, you know, that's what I'm saying. We want to see the action. You know, even the Bible says the actions that are out of them once. Yeah, a bit like His Excellency. He also likes to go to the Bible. He even sang for us a little bit. I don't know if you heard that. Yes. So, I want to emphasize that it's good the Kenyan-Kwanzaa government to be serious with Kenyans, especially the education and the new CBC system. They have to, you know, together during the campaign, because I was also an aspirant, and we had them, what they wanted to change this country, and Kenyans had a hope with the regime that everything's going to be okay. But it's very unfortunate that everywhere, every sector, in the education, still there is some challenges which the present government has been unable to settle or solve and to make a difference. But now they have been taken to a politics. Breeding the opposition and bringing the previous government. But they have done nothing for the last one year, now year to one year. So, I want to emphasize them, they should work for the people. Because they are given the chance by the people. People voted for them. It's up to them to demonstrate. The leadership that the Kenyans want. And also to face the challenges that we have, head on, without brain game, to other players. Because when you are given the instrument of power as a president, and you have swear with the constitution of Kenya, that you will protect and defend the interests of the Kenyans, you will protect the nation. So you have to deliver what you said you want. So, but for now, we are still experiencing the, of our promises. That's why we are still in that mode of formation. That's why most of the Kenyans are losing hope each and every day. Because they want to see the action, the actual deeds. Yes. All right, now I'm glad you said that so close. It's going to be my next point. So, as you know, we have had the idea, I would like to believe the idea was to demonstrate peacefully, or what is called picketing, which is in the constitution, unless two things are done simultaneously. It has to be a peaceful demonstration, and it must be done without weapons. You must be unarmed. But of course, this is excellency. We've had a tug of war, if you've been keeping up with the going on, on the street. So, we have a certain school of thought that goes and says, this is no longer picketing. This is no longer peaceful demonstration. Now people are just being violent. They're going to the noctua mawe. They're going to burn things. They're going to loot in people's businesses, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. Incitement, the youth are being misused. This is actually what he said yesterday, versus now the idea of peaceful demonstrations, which he says he is okay with. Do you feel like, something is amiss? Do you believe that we protested? Because he then had said that he supports the police, the police enforcing their particular rights. But okay, we've also been going with the back and forth of police brutality. So what really is going on here? Okay, let me start then. You've been waiting. Yeah. Under the hierarchy of laws in Kenya, the constitution is a supreme law of the land. In that constitution, we have heard about this provision, article 37, that every Kenyan has a right to protest, and every Kenyan has a right to take part in strikes. It is not a conditional right. The only aspect of it having a condition is that people should not be armed. And must be peaceful. That particular provision of the constitution cannot be suspended by anyone. That particular provision of the constitution cannot be limited even by the parliament, because it is a provision under the supreme law of the land. So personally, I think maybe the president did not get it right. Practically, he may want to be on the right side, but theoretically, he's not right. We saw people protesting, and in their exercise of their right to protest, police, the police, under the, you know, I think they were instructed or directed, the police ended up executing so many people. We lost so many lives on grounds that, you know, they were saying that this no longer a peaceful protest. But, you know, looking at it at the kind of force that was being used by the police, it was not proportional to how the Kenyans who were protesting were reacting. So I think this is something that we should revisit. The Aipoa has been so quiet on this. It has been so silent. We need to hear people, you know, we need to hear these institutions come and speak up about this. For Interrupting, but a few days ago actually, Aipoa did come out and call out the police brutality or the cases of police brutality because there's certain regions where we have, seeing our thing is with the digital age, everyone can be a journalist. Just take out your phone, record, post, have a sensational caption, boom, you've spread some type of information. So there were very disturbing videos of police. Again, it could be edited, I don't know, but I'll call them allegations. So allegations of police going into actual homes or people who are not even outside protesting, you know, and then flogging them, literally, that's not beating anymore, that's flogging. Yeah, so. And it's so ironic because the police are supposed to protect properties and lives. But how do you end up getting into someone's house, picking that person, you beat that person up? I think there is even someone who, he has a lot of fractures. I think, anyway, Bele Kothau. Bele Kothau. All right, because again, the government did come and say that it's not just the civilians who are being injured, that they're also members of the police force that are in, you know, quite a dilapidated, let me use that word, state. So it's clearly a back and forth. Well, many, many, many, many, many. So what do you think? Okay, let me say this, protest or demonstration is a constitutional thing. And the Constitution of Kenya is the spring document that we all respect. And that's why we see when the president, the cabinet secretary and the government of state officers, they have to swear with the constitution that they will be fed and protected and to uphold. Okay, that's seven on the constitution 2010. It's very clear regarding the demonstrators, the people who want to demonstrate. And the reason why those people that made the constitution, they wanted to put that article, you know, the Kenya, we have come from a wrong way. In those dark days, where the freedom of expression was at that rate, and nobody was allowed to speak your mind, to speak what you are dissatisfied with. Disatisfaction. And that's why the new constitution came to be in order to give that platform so that everybody can be heard. And every solution can be solved. So in terms of protestors, you can't victimize a demonstrator using the police force or brutality because that protestor or demonstrator, they have something which they are not content with, especially the high cost of living. The life has become harder. And the government of the day is fearing to address the tuition that the citizens are suffering and are going through, because since this government came to power. Although the life there before, we had a COVID-19 pandemic, we have that experience that most of the people lose their job. Economically, this nation was affected because it was an international crisis, yeah, pandemic. Now, after pandemic, we came to an erection. And we saw when we have an erection, nothing's happened until the erection is over. After erection, then the nation started to experience some droughts and starvation where most of the people died, animals. So this nation was very much affected. So since then, we have not yet recovered. We are still under the challenges we as a nation. And when this Kenya power of the regime came to power, came with the promises that they are going to address this issue, especially the high cost of living, that we're going to throw out the frozen food and so many things that they promised the Kenyans. So when they fail to do so, the Kenyans, they have the right to question the government of the day, why? We are the hunger, we are buying at the last time 150 cents now, it's about 200 cents. The life has become harder. How can we do so? They have to demonstrate. But the government of the day is not talking about the issue at hand, how we are going to solve this problem that you are having at the moment. And yet people are suffering. The people who don't have a job, the people who don't have the food, the people who have a lot of challenges. But the reason why the Kenyans are demonstrating because the government is not providing any solution regarding the situation that we have in the country. At the same time, those demonstrators, they have the right to demonstrate because they are given those rights in the constitution of Kenya. And that's why you see a police officer cannot arrest a demonstrator and arrest him before the court of law on account of demonstration because it's a constitutional provision to demonstrate. So the problem with the regime, and that's why if they use that route, they are going to make the Kenyan citizen to hit the regime because they have to listen to the people and to address the issues that they are affecting the Kenyans. Those two are in government, may not feel the impact because we are paying the tax. They are the beneficiaries of the tax that we pay. But there's people who are suffering there outside. I come from the ground where I reside. Most of the people, we meet each other with people because some of the elected leaders, when we are elected, they dishonor themselves from the people. So they are not having that touch with the people. So we, that we are not like to be elected. They come to us, so we have the information from the ground that people are suffering. And the life is very hard. So on the other side, the regime, when they feel to address the high cost of living, now the opposition, they're taking that advantage to change the government to address. But they are not what they are doing. They are talking about politics. Promising, promising, promising, promising, promising. And the opposite, they want them to deliver. In terms of deliver, because you have the power, you have everything, what you have to do, just deliver what you told the people to do for them. If I may just interrupt you, I think you may have asked and answered a question at the same time, because you have rightly mentioned COVID-19. COVID-19, again, was a global pandemic. It affected the economy of the entire world. And that was not more than three, four years ago. So the economy is still reeling from what happened. So really we can't have an economy we've given the particular government of the day that's tainted or it's broken somewhere and we expect him to magically fix it. Do you believe the economy is broken? How is it broken? I would not really say broken. It's just that we took a couple of steps back. Have we recovered? I don't really think we recovered yet. Why do you think we've not recovered? But who's the interviewer here? Who's supposed to be there to ask you questions, but I'm glad you're challenging me because when COVID-19 hit, it was a hard hit, yes, but there were a lot of pros. That's when the innovators came out and that the digital space became even bigger where now we can not only have to work on location, it can be hybrid or you can be working from home. So things happened. We kind of made moves, but industry, like tourism, industry, you see- Yeah, we're still picking up. Yeah, we took a really hard, really, really hard hit, very hard hit. People were not traveling anywhere. Even domestic tourism in itself, Ochanato, and Ginegokuja, it was just really bad and tourism is one of our greatest attributes as a country. So we're not really back to where we were, but aside from that, aside from COVID-19 coming and doing what it did, even where we are right now as a nation, because President says, we're not debt collectors. A country cannot thrive on gaining, keeping on accumulating that, yeah, borrowing and keeping on accumulating that we need to tax and that's how the nation will nourish itself. Yes, but at what cost? So it's a double-edged sword. Like, yes, we do need to tax, but at what cost? Okay, yeah. Okay, what I want to comment is that even if the President needed money to run the nation, and that's why they need a finance bill which the Kenyans has become a contestant to the life of Kenyans because of a taxation. And that's why the people are complaining because of where we have come from. Now, they would have considered to give Kenyans more time in order to recover from where we have come from. So in order to move forward. But now, we are pushing Kenyans to impose the Kenyans who are suffering, who are already affected in the past and now to pay more taxes by force, forcing the parliament and pushing to the people of which is not good. They would have engaged the Kenyans. They would have listened to the Kenyans, they have used, like the previous government, they would have been running the government through the taxes, they would have done the same. By giving the Kenyans a chance to build the economy, to recover, then they continue with that plan for finance bills to tax the country. I'll just take it from, sorry, let me start.