•Kipng’eno Koech, a long-time supporter, told the Star he always said the future belonged to youth but authorities mostly paid lip-service.
Image: KIPLANG'AT KIRUI
In most meetings that Anthony Kimetto attended as MP for Sotik, his question would often be,"How is it helping the youth?”
He was often met by silence.
He often emphasised that helping young people go to school and attend college was not enough. Engaging them in projects that generated money for themselves would be the most vital part in empowering them, he said.
The three-term lawmaker from Sotik died on Monday after a long ailment his family says he fought for over 10 years. He had diabetes. He was age 80.
He represented the constituency since 1997 until he got swept away by the 2007 ODM wave in the region.
Kipng’eno Koech, one of his long-time supporters, told the Star that the man always insisted the future belonged to the youth but he was concerned the authorities did not do enough to equip them.
“Sotet [his local political name] always foretold that the future was for the young people. But the powerful in his generation failed him. They did not do enough to fund such aspiration.”
Flipping through the National Assembly’s Hansard bears this out.
For example, while contributing on the floor of the House on October 17, 2007, on a motion about national youth policy for a youth development Sessional Paper presented by then Youth minister Mohammed Kuti, Kimetto said many policies were not effective in empowering young people.
He said while various initiatives focused on training “most of our youth in polytechnics, [there were] no clear modalities in this Sessional Paper how the Ministry will assist the youth after they graduate from those polytechnics.”
“What are they going to do after completing their studies?” he asked.
“[The minister] has not allocated money to cater for the youth after they complete their education in polytechnics. Most of them stay without jobs after completing their studies. They also lack the startup capital to enable them to put into practice the skills that they learnt in the universities, polytechnics and other colleges.”
He said back in his rural constituency, he had a CDF arrangement where he would give road construction projects to organised youth groups to have the millions trickle down to them, rather than rich contractors.
“In my constituency, I have contracted the youth to do roads using the CDF money. However, the CDF Act does not allow us to engage the youth to do the roads. Why do we not allow them to do all the roads in our constituencies and pay them? If we do that, they will become very useful to the society. They will not engage in crime.”
If the lofty policy talks in elegantly furnished offices about youth issues continued, he warned, “then our youth will grow old without doing any constructive work".
And for trained health workers who are jobless, the MP had a solution in mind.
Give them millions to start private clinics and dispensaries in villages.
“Every year, we train nurses from different parts of the country. Why do we not set aside money to enable them to set up private dispensaries and clinics in villages? We can also have health facilities in villages which are funded by the Ministry.”
Kimetto’s passion for youth empowerment seemed to have borne fruit in his own family as two of his sons became influential.
His son, Dominick Koskei, got elected MP in the same constituency in 2017, succeeding Joyce Laboso (who had become Bomet governor). But he has been defeated in the polls by former Nairobi provincial commissioner Francis Sigei of the United Democratic Alliance.
Koskei defended his seat as an independent after losing in the UDA primaries on April 14 to Sigei.
His other son, Peter Koskei, ran unsuccessfully for the Narok West constituency seat as an independent candidate but lost to incumbent MP Gabriel Tongoyo.
(Edited by V. Graham)