Gatanga MP raises concern over foreigners taking up the bulk of SGR technical jobs.
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| Gatanga MP Eng. Joseph Nduati Ngugi flags off the 16 Wings To Fly scholars from the larger Thika District for the year 2020. |
Speaking in Thika Town during the 2020 “Wings To Fly”
flag-off ceremony, Nduati noted that despite the government creating so many
job opportunities within the building and construction sector, the bulk of
these jobs were being taken up by foreigners, leaving the local to do the
menial jobs.
“If you look at the SGR for example, a big percentage of the
technical skilled jobs have been taken up by foreigners. Our youth lack the
skills to take up these jobs. It is high time parents stopped keeping their children
at home as they wait for white-collar jobs that are no longer available,” he
said.
Nduati noted that out of over 647,000 candidates who sat for
this year’s KCSE exams, barely 130,000 students managed to qualify for university
admission, leaving out over 400,000 students.
“Where will these children go if everyone craves for
university education with an eye for white-collar jobs? It is the high time we
embraced technical training. There are so many job opportunities for those with
technical skills, both locally and abroad and the time to take advantage is
now,” said the MP.
He added that the government was laying so much emphasis on
technical education and this year, any student being admitted to technical
colleges (TVETs) was being awarded a Sh. 30,000 scholarship on admission, and
another Sh. 40,000 in form of a loan.
“For the Sh. 40,000, the government will deduct Sh. 26,000 to
cater for your tuition fees and the student is left with the balance of Sh. 14,
000 to cater for his own needs as pocket money,” he explained.
He asked his Gatanga Constituents to apply for this year’s
Sh. 40 million bursary allocation that his CDF office has set aside to cater
for fees to needy students in secondary, colleges and universities.
Thika Equity Branch Manager Sammy Karanu said that out of
the 250 applicants this year from the larger Thika District that consists of
Thika West, Thika East, Gatanga and Gatundu North sub-counties, they selected
16 beneficiaries.
“This is usually a very rigorous exercise due to the very
limited vacancies. We do surprise home visits so as to ascertain the level of
poverty and after evaluating each case by its own merits, we pick the most deserving
cases that we believe have no chance of joining secondary school without
external assistance,” Karanu explained.
Karanu termed the 11-year programme as a great success as it
had produced so many professionals in different fields over time.
“This year alone, over 90% of our wings to fly products in
Thika will join different universities both locally and internationally. This
is a great achievement by any standards,” he concluded.
Among those in attendance was Mercy Wanjiku Kuria, a 2015
Wings To Fly beneficiary from Gatuanyaga Location in Thika East.
Wanjiku scored 377 marks in the KCPE 2015 exams and joined
Kahuhia Girls High School in Murang’a County courtesy of the programme. This year,
she sat for KCSE and score an A aggregate of 82 marks.
She attributes her success to the assistance she was
accorded by the Wings To Fly Scholarship which she says, without it, she would
have never made it through the secondary education.
She challenged those selected to join the programme not to
take it for granted and work hard so that they achieve the goals they had in
life.
Sarah Wambui, a mother of four, could not hide her joy after
her last-born son was among the selected beneficiaries. For this resident of
Mabanda Location in Gatanga Constituency, it was a dream come true, having missed
in three of her previous attempts to have her children benefit from the
programme.
The Wings To Fly Programme awards a comprehensive secondary
school scholarship that includes tuition and boarding fees, books, uniform, and
transport to and from school as well as pocket money for the four years of
secondary school.
Furthermore, the scholars receive mentorship from
outstanding role models from the academia, public service, entrepreneurship, non-profits
and influential captains in various industries.
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