MPs halt construction of multi-million youth empowerment centres

MPs have directed for the halting of the construction of youth empowerment  centers across the country following revelations that there was no value for money expended on the government projects.

Lawmakers sitting in the National Assembly’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) yesterday questioned the expenditure of Sh506 million on the youth empowerment centres by the State Department of Youth affairs, pointing out that they remained operational for the last five years.

This emerged after the Principal Secretary for Youth affairs, creative economy and Sports, Fikirini Jacobs, appeared before the House team for the examination of the Auditor General’s report for the financial years 2023/24 and 2024/2025.

In her report, Auditor General Nancy Gathungu highlighted that out of an intended 290 youth empowerment centres, only 156 have been constructed leaving a balance of 134 yet to be constructed.  It however emerged that despite the 156 being complete, they had remained operational with no staff with MPs describing them as just empty structures.

Gathungu also brought to the fore that the Youth Empowerment Centres project had been subjected to successive underfunding of its development budget since the year 2020/2021 financial year.

 “In the circumstances, the State Department’s ability to realize the Vision 2030 requirements by constructing two hundred and ninety (290) YECs could not be confirmed,” reads the report in part.

The MP Tindi Mwale-led committee was convinced that there was no value for money already pumped into the youth empowerment centres and argued that it was illogical to continue with the construction of more centres without first operationalizing the existing one.

“What was the intention of the construction of these youth empowerment centres? It can’t be that years on they still haven’t been operational. There exists such a center in Teso South but is just an empty structure. My efforts to repurpose the land on which the centre sits so that it can benefit from another government project have been futile,” said Teso South MP Mary Emase.

“Why can’t we operationalize the already existing ones before moving to construct others?”

Rarieda MP Otiende Amollo stated that the continued underfunding of the projects was because the policy makers behind it were convinced that they were not important.

“There is no need to put more in the youth empowerment centres without the state department first operationalizing the existing ones. If Treasury is downscaling the funding for these projects, then it means that the policy makers behind them do not see their value,” said Amollo.

The lawmaker was referring to data by the Auditor General’s report revealing that out of a total Sh1.4 billion requested by the State Department in the last five years, it only received Sh506 million covering the period between 2020/21 to 2024/25 financial years.

In his response, PS Fikirini blamed the delayed completion of the youth empowerment centres on the underfunding but revealed that the construction of three new centres was ongoing, in Tarbaj in Wajir County, Ganze in Kilifi County and Thika in Kiambu county.

“The non-operationalization of these centres is occasioned by the understaffing in the state department as well as the challenges we are facing with funding. Another thing to note is that these centres were to each have three wings with one being constructed by the County Government, one by the MP through the National Government-Constituency Development Fund (NG-CDF) and the other by the State Department. Those completed only have one wing completed by the State Department,” submitted the PS.

As a correctional measure, however, PS Fikirini announced that his state department had partnered with the Ministry of ICT to establish ICT hubs in the youth empowerment centers in a bid to operationalize them. So far, he said, 25 centres have been operationalized under the partnership.

This revelation however attracted sharp criticism from the committee. The Lawmakers claimed to have no knowledge of the agreement where the centers were to be brought up jointly.

“You cannot tell us that it was envisioned that the centres were to be constructed jointly. We are not aware of such a thing.  But if that is the case, where is the memorandum of understanding or policy guiding the same?” posed Lugari MP Nabiii Nabwera.

“Rarieda MP Otiende Amollo added, “If one wing was to be constructed by NG-CDF then I’m not aware and I have been an MP for the last nine years.”

MP Emase held that if the State Department had been unable to operationalize the centres, they should be handed over to TVET institutions which would put the spaces to better use.

Committee Chairperson Tindi Mwale has now directed that the PS provides a status report of all the youth empowerment centres across the country for further review.