COUNTY GOVERNMENT OF MERU

OFFICE OF THE GOVERNOR

REMARKS BY HON. KIRAITU MURUNGI, GOVERNOR OF MERU COUNTY DURING THE OFFICIAL CLOSING CEREMONY OF THE MERU YOUTH CONFERENCE, 4^TH MAY, 2018

Our Chief Guest, Prof Margaret Kobia, MGH-Cabinet Secretary, Ministry of Public Service, Youth and Gender Affairs

Ms. Aisa Kirabo Kacyira- Deputy Executive Director, UN-Habitat

The County Commissioner

Deputy Governor,

Members of Parliament,

The Speaker, County Assembly of Meru

Members of the Meru County Executive Committee

Honourable Members of the County Assembly of Meru,

Distinguished Guests,

Ladies and Gentlemen.

(Welcome the visitors to Meru)

I am very happy to join you in the closing ceremony of what has been a very successful youth conference. At the same time I am sad because we have come to the end of a very lively and stimulating debate, as well as bidding farewell to our friends and partners whose fellowship we have enjoyed very much.

Allow me to thank our chief guest for finding time to be with us here today. As reiterated in many occasions in the past, my government is committed to working very closely with the national government to bring services to the people we serve. I hope that we shall partner to improve the lives of our young people in the spirit of the aspirations of this conference.

I thank my brother, Dr Rugalema- first for the honour of being our guest for 3days; secondly for a very powerful keynote address at the opening ceremony of the conference yesterday and thirdly for his commitment and that of FAO to partnering with the county government to improve the livelihoods of our young people. We hope to firm up this commitment so that youths can reap the benefits of your expertise especially in the field of agribusiness.

Let me also express my gratitude to Mr Emre Yuksef for honouring our invitation to be with us and for a very powerful statement in support of what this conference and what the Meru Youth Service hopes to achieve. We were very impressed by your visit yesterday to some of our vocational training institutions and farms and we hope to partner with TIKA especially in mechanization of agriculture and provision of modern learning equipment for our vocational centres. Indeed there is a mismatch between the skills that young people have and what the job market needs. We hope that our partnership will help bridge this gap. I would like you to convey our special regards to the Excellency the Ambassador of Turkey and we shall be sure to inform him that he was ably represented.

To our friends, ECHO Network Africa, we are grateful for being with us since yesterday and for leading a discussion on Empowering the Youth through Innovative Finance and Entrepreneurship Development. It is an area that we shall need capacity building for our young people and we shall be looking forward to your support.

A conference becomes a success only if participants arrive. They are the lifeblood of a conference. Thus, we do express our sincere thanks to all the youth leaders who have been with us since the opening of the conference.

Let me thank Mr Daniel Kiogora and his entire department of Youth Affairs and Sports for going the extra mile to make sure that this conference and the Meru Youth Service programme becomes a success.

I would like to commend the County Assembly for the support they have accorded this programme so far and I hope that you will pass the Meru Youth Service bill to secure this programme beyond our political term and make it a model institution for youth empowerment.

Finally, allow me now to specially thank the UN-Habitat team led by Mr Douglas Ragan and Abdallah for helping us put this conference together. I wish to express my most sincere gratitude to the Executive Director, Ms Maimunah and yourself for dispatching this very able team not only to assist in planning of this conference but also to help in drawing a roadmap that will be used to address the various challenges affecting our young people.

As with all such events - and this conference has been an outstanding example - our minds have been bombarded by a torrent of ideas, information, statistics, experiences and visions. There is, indeed, plenty to reflect upon and, if this in any way enhances our individual and collective contributions to alleviating the youth challenges, then the conference can truly be adjudged a success.

As you we have heard, young people are facing numerous challenges, but also they have practical solutions to these challenges and are willing to overcome them with our assistance and support. The challenge remains that of support and assistance, and not of lack of solutions or willingness.

As I stated yesterday, we are counting on young people to radically transform this county and spur its socio-economic development. At the same I want young people to be rich and prosperous.

I therefore call upon all of us to support and assist the young people to defeat youth poverty, helpless, apathy, radicalism, drug abuse and alcoholism and help them become self-reliant and the leaders of today as they should be. My government has committed over Kshs. 100 million annually for the Meru Youth Service Programme but these resources are not nearly enough. We shall appreciate any kind of assistance from our partners to make the dreams of our youths a reality.

Thank you.

God bless you all, and God bless Meru