President William Ruto has pledged to provide young talents with a prominent place in Kenya’s national economy while addressing the audience at the Kenya National Drama and Film Festival.
“This is not going to be the usual. I did promise you three years ago that we are going to give new impetus to the space around sports, youth, creatives, and the whole industry around art, and that’s why I am really happy,”
“Today to preside over the state concert for the finalists of the Kenya National Drama and Film Festival. I have had occasion to watch your performances in the past before Covid 19, that I think was in Bungoma. I also did in 2018 and 2019. And I have firsthand experience of the quality of your performances,”
“I have no doubt in my mind that it is world class. I have watched with satisfaction the Latent talent, and I am convinced that there is a lot to achieve in performing arts.
President Ruto said that the performance was greatly enjoyed, and it provided education on several significant and current issues that continue to impact our society. He acknowledged that drama operates on the levels of aesthetics and morality. The themes presented in the performance deeply resonated with society, particularly in relation to critical aspects of our collective identity.
“And we lose talent, we lose, opportunity and we lose human capital that can drive our country into the future. Continue to demonstrate what is wrong with what happens when our young people get involved in drugs. Continue to expose what’s happening in all our sphere of life, whether it’s in school, whether it’s in places of work, or indeed anywhere else.”
”We should be able to appreciate that some of our children have talents in other areas. Some of our children, when they come forward, when they step forward, for those of us who are parents, for our community, that they are good artists. That they, they have talents in different, gifted in a different way that we should not treat them as though ‘Ni watu Mangaa’”
And I can confidently say in my team, I have many who are graduates who have been in this space. Chipukizi is here. For those who think Chipukizi is doing this for fun, I want to tell you I pay Chipukizi and, he’s not cheap. The Secretary General of, uh, the ruling party. Cleo Malala is a product of art.
KJ here, a member of parliament, second time member of Parliament of Dagoretti South is a product of art and creative economy. Dennis Itumbi here. That young man is a product of the creative space. So we have many who have graduated from that space.
And I want to tell our young girls, young children here today that you too have a future if you are disciplined, if you can perfect at the arts space. And it is the reason why I was deliberate when forming government on Matters creative economy. I did consolidate many of the art issues around the Ministry of Sports and art under Ababa. But I also gave him instructions that we cannot leave our children behind.
That is why we are spending money from the sports and art fund in this drama, in this festival, in this concert, because they form a very integral and very important path of how we can develop this whole industry. From the bottom going up.
When we start with our children in school, we are sure to build a solid foundation for them to explore their talents into, opportunities that will give them the chance to be their best, to display their talent, and to be the great men and women that all artists anywhere in the world are.
YouTube has been a partner with us when we did ask them they allow Kenyans to register from Kenya and to monetize, it was a difficult decision. But again, let me say thank you very much because they have come through for us. That is why we have Njugush around. That’s why we have Butita around. These are our great, artists who today are monetizing their content. ‘Pongezi sana, tuwapigie makofi’
Those two young men you see there, they are making more money than my salary. Those guys are serious entrepreneurs. Congratulations for Trail Blessing. Congratulations for being the example to many of our young people, and knowing that the creative space, the YouTube space, is available for jobs for our young people.
”It is not going to be business as usual. Drama is not just going to be what we see here and then it ends here. We have to think beyond what it is. My suggestion to the ministry’s concerned here is what was the permanent presidential commission on music should actually be changed”
“I am proposing that you change it to the permanent Creative Economy Commission. So that we can bring all art, including music and all the others into one ecosystem, and we can be able to rally government effort, private sector effort in the same direction so that we can derive value, we can monetize, we can commercialize and we can give the best possible chance for those who are talented in this space to explore their best possibilities,”
”There is one resource we have as a country, and I have said it many times, it is our human capital that is the biggest asset that we have as a country. And to sharpen that asset is our men and women who teach from primary school to our universities. And we must make that ecosystem work optimally. It must work as it should.”
“Our universities were settled with huge debts, close to 60 billion. Now we have a new funding model and I am very happy that that sector will now be sorted out. We have increased the resources going to our TI institutions from about 5.2 billion shillings to about 10 billion every year.”
President Ruto announced that there would be an increase in the annual allocation of resources to universities, from approximately 44 billion to 82 billion. The intention behind this decision is to provide the best possible education and support for young people in schools, colleges, and universities.
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“Make sure that there is a deliberate, intentional, practical mechanism of absorbing the millions of young people that join the labor market every year by making sure that we have a credible. And practical plan, and that is my promise to the people of Kenya, that we will have a credible, practical plan to absorb the millions of young people that get out of college every year.”
