NAIROBI, KENYA: President Uhuru Kenyatta has challenged Kenyans to stop concentrating too much on how to make money at the expense of passing good values to their children for a better tomorrow.
He encouraged parents to pass good values to their children in order to build hopeful generations ready to take on bigger tasks ahead of them.
The President was responding to a question on his dreams when he was young asked by Purity Kendi, a MasterCard beneficiary from Laikipia County.
Purity who is currently a masters student in California asked the president what inspired him when he was growing up to become what he is today.
Like every young person, I dreamt of being a success and everyone is a creature of environment that they grow up in, I would be lying if I did not say that I did not want to be like my father,” he said.
“The environment I grew up in inspired me to be the president of Kenya,” he added stressing on why he wants Kenyans to create a good, firm moral grounding.
According to the president, Kenyans have lost the sense of family grounding affecting the current generation.
“I think we have lost that sense of family and grounding that some of us had the advantage of having, we have become too individualistic, materialistic and a lot of our children are losing hope because of the kind of environment they are growing in,” he said.
“We need just to get back and recreate those values that our parents had and that we have unfortunately failed to pass on to our children,” he said.
“Recreating the values would, for instance, help us bring up a generation of Kenyans who have an opportunity that I had and help them become presidents, ministers, chief executive officer and not just think on how they are going to get next buck.”
Uhuru was speaking at the official launch of MasterCard Foundation Young Africa Works program which aims to help 30 million young people across Africa secure dignified and fulfilling work by 2030.
The Sh30 billion will be used to grow micro, small and medium enterprises, (MSMEs), increase access to digital work opportunities by expanding the Ajira Digital Programme, and expand vocational and technical skills which are critical to the growth of the economy.
The Mastercard Foundation initiative is a partnership between Mastercard Foundation, government, and the private sector and aims to enable five million young people to access dignified work.
The country was chosen to be among the countries where the first phase of the programme will be implemented owing to its economic and social policies, dynamic private sector and innovative entrepreneurs.
