Youth Congress demands apology from CS Amina over HELB remarks

The Youth Congress is outraged by Education Cabinet Secretary Amina Mohamed after her statement that the government intends to use police to crackdown Higher Education Loans Board  (HELB) loan defaulters.

“We demand that the Cabinet Secretary immediately withdraws the statement and tender an appropriate apology and clarification that this does not represent the position of the government,” Raphael Obonyo, co-founder of the Youth Congress said in a statement.

“Deploying police to arrest HELB defaulters is to ignore the real problem, which is unemployment.  Also, the unfortunate statement amounts to criminalization of poverty,” he added.

Over 50 per cent of graduates churned out of the universities in Kenya yearly do not get jobs, another significant number are underemployed or underpaid.

The constitution expressly provides for youth empowerment, article 55 obligates the government to take measures including affirmative action programmes to ensure youth employment and development.

The congress demand that the government take all the measures necessary to tackle employment among the youth in the country.

Report from Raphael Obonyo