President William Ruto, while presiding over Madaraka Day Celebrations in Homa Bay County last week, announced the return of the ‘Kazi Mtaani programme but with a new name, ‘Climate Workx’.

The Head of State ordered the immediate rollout of the programme in all counties, giving young Kenyans renewed hope of eking out a living through engaging in the many social works enlisted in the programme.

Consequently, the announcement has sparked a wave of jubilation among the youth, who say it has come at the right time when it is much needed to salvage a good number of them from oppressive poverty.

Thirty-eight-year-old Caroline Anyango is jubilant about the Climate Workx Programme, saying she is very aware of the impact of the past Kazi Mtaani programme on her life.

“Having participated in the Kazi Mtaani programme during President Uhuru Kenyatta’s regime, I am confident that the Climate Workx Programme would blow a fresh ounce of life to the youth who are currently jobless and languishing in abject poverty,” said Anyango.

Apart from improving the economic status of the young, the community works are designed to beautify and inject good sanitation in the country, given the impact left by the former social works programme initiative, Kazi Mtaani, adds Anyango.

A resident of Oruba Village in South Kanyamkago location in Uriri Constituency of Migori County, the first-degree graduate is sure that all those who would be enlisted to work in the programme would have their bread well buttered and a smooth life to enjoy.

“Am happy that the government is unveiling programmes that prove that the leadership has the interest of the young people at heart,” she concluded.

Also celebrating the programme is Collins Chacha, a resident of Mabera in Kuria West Sub County, who participated in the defunct Kazi Mtaani.

“The programme did a lot in this area, more so at the County Government cleaning department and at the water department that had several of the recruits posted to work in their areas,” he noted.

The programme also saw tree seedlings planted in schools and in open public lands. “This makes me happy that the re-introduction of a similar programme in the name of Climate Workx would do wonders in transforming the country’s sanitation status and through beautification drives,” Chacha asserted during an interview with KNA in Migori town.

Mr. Lawrence Matiku, who has five jobless graduate children, believes the Climate Workx programme would touch directly on the lives of the youth, like the Kazi Mtaani programme, which the government pumped millions of shillings into to provide employment to millions of the unemployed youth who could not fend for themselves and their families.

The money they earned from the works of cleaning culverts and roads, from collecting garbage and cleaning government offices, and from beautifying roads was good enough to make them live a decent life,” confirms Matiku, whose graduate children were beneficiaries.

According to information available about the yet-to-be-inaugurated programme, some 110,000 young people will be recruited to perform various social community works aimed at combating youth unemployment while also supporting the government’s climate resilience and infrastructural maintenance agenda, among others.

The programme targets young people aged between 18 to 35, who will be paid Sh500 per day for performing various listed community works.

Only one person per household would be allowed to apply and be recruited for the short-term employment and priority will be given to former and ex-National Youth Service recruits.

The programme would be implemented under the oversight of Kenya Rural Roads Authority (KeRRA) and Kenya Urban Roads Authority (KURA) engineers in coordination with officers from the national government administration (NGAO).