• Oguna said youths should embrace Ajira digital to exploit opportunities.
• He spoke when he met over 100 Machakos youth in Machakos County on Friday.
Image: GEORGE OWITI
Government spokesman Cyrus Oguna has told youths to take advantage of the Internet so as to improve their livelihoods through various available opportunities online.
Oguna said youths should embrace Ajira digital to exploit opportunities not only available in the country but globally.
"Over 1.25 million Kenyans are already earning a living from Ajira Digital. We are asking young men and women to be able to exploit this platform because it opens an array of opportunities that were not there before, " Oguna said.
He spoke when he met over 100 Machakos youth in Machakos County on Friday.
He said Ajira Digital was an important platform because it creates an environment that allows young men and women to access opportunities that are bound globally.
Oguna also told the youth to be aggressive and follow necessary procedures to benefit from various government development projects and grants meant to empower them.
"As our economy gets digitised, we must be able to educate young men and women to be able to exploit opportunities beyond Kenyan borders, " he said.
He added, "Ajira digital is a platform that allows young men and women to be able to access opportunities that are away from this country. It is able to open a platform for them where they can be able to be employed away from countries in this region like Taiwan, Brazil, among others. "
Oguna said they had conducted such sensitization meetings with youths in Kisumu, Narok and Machakos and will get to other counties across the country.
He said youths should desist from political misuse and instead take advantage of available government empowerment programmes and opportunities so as to improve their livelihoods.
"They must be aggressive, creative, able to stand and be accountable," Oguna said.
Oguna challenged the youth to also seek job opportunities in neighbouring countries and other continents just the way their counterparts from other regions across the globe do.
"We also need to have Kenyan youths moving in large numbers, but they must learn a language that will enable them to interact there, " Oguna said.
He said 70 per cent of Kenyans are youths translating to about 37 million people.
This, Oguna stated was a big group that can help in nation-building.
"We are here to talk to the youth on various government projects that have been initiated by President Uhuru Kenyatta's administration with the intention of empowering them with information, tools, skills and opportunities to enable them to prosper in life," he added.
Oguna said youths will only be able to contribute to nation-building if they have enough skills and are given opportunities.
He told the youth not to fully rely on employment and instead hustle to be self-employed either fully or as side hustles.
Oguna told the youths to also take advantage of job opportunities that arise from various government projects such as the construction of hospitals, roads, bridges, schools among others.