Youth groups in Ijara Sub County want the local leadership to formulate a mechanism to help unemployed men in the region retrace their footing in the society, amid fears that majority of them were engaging in antisocial vices out of desperation.
Speaking during the Ijara Youth Annual consultative forum, they raised concern over the growing number of jobless local youths, resorting to drug abuse and a life of promiscuity after losing hope in life, while others were said to be contemplating joining radical outfits to make ends meet.
They expressed fears that the current youth unemployment crisis was a time bomb in waiting, unless the local leadership worked on modalities to absorb the idle lot in gainful activities to contain looming crisis of moral decadency in the future society.
Ijara youth leader Salah Yarrow Omar, urged the government to engage the youths on construction of roads, bridges, water pans, ICT infrastructure projects and recruitment in security related services, as a top priority to facilitate their livelihoods.
Omar said most of the local young men had lost meaning in life, even at they advanced in age, but unable to meet marriage obligations, especially among the majority Muslim faithful, where such unions were strictly pegged on financial prowess prior to the ceremony irrespective of other factors.
However, the youth leader commended Garissa governor Nathif Jama for his recent bold initiative to facilitate the marriage of 88 desperate couples by offering them household goods, paying for their rental houses for 6 months upfront, with a two month food ration for a start, saying such gestures should be replicated in the entire region.
He asked the county Senator Abdul Mohamed Haji to liaise with the governor and his Deputy Abdi Dagane to convene a regional leaders’ conference to deliberate on mechanism of establishing a kitty to facilitate such pertinent social matter, affecting the very core of the next generation.
The meeting also heard that local youth were even opting risk their lives by engaging in the infamous illegal migration across the Mediterranean and the Black Sea to seek greener pasture in the Western and Middle Eastern countries, where such dangerous trips have been characterized by boat accident, or abductions by human trafficking gangs.
Participants of the forum candidly expressed critical issues such as the revival of Ijara Vocational Technical Training College, amid calls for youth to enroll in large numbers in technical institutions to undertake courses like joinery, carpentry, mechanical engineering, ICT and tailoring, which had promising prospects in the local job market.
The youth also asked local authorities to facilitate a mentorship programme for graduating youths and demanded the opening of a local Huduma Centre and a power substation in Masalani town to ease provision of essential services for the overall economic development of the far off sub counties of Bothai, Ijara and Hulugho.
They also urged the Garissa county government to install street lights in Masalani town, being the Ijara sub county headquarters to enhance security and improve trading activities in the area.
Equally, they called on the local security apparatus to remain vigilant, amid reported cases of drug trafficking from the neighbouring Tana River and Lamu counties.
Key leaders at the well-attended session included SUPKEM representatives and respected religious scholars Sheikh Hassan Omar and Sheikh Abdu-Rahim, who shared valuable guidance to youths tempted to seek greener pasture out of the country.
By Mohamed Dahir
