Former Public Service Secretary Justin Muturi has criticised President William Ruto’s youth empowerment programme, describing it as charity handouts disguised as jobs that fail to address Kenya’s serious unemployment problem.

Muturi posted on his X account on the evening of Saturday, August 9, 2025, stating that Kenya’s youth do not need “charity handouts dressed as jobs.”

“Instead of tackling the structural unemployment crisis, the UDA government’s “solution” is to hand out boda bodas and call it empowerment. That’s not job creation that’s locking youth into a poverty cycle and asking them to clap for it. It’s like giving someone a spoon to dig a dam,” he said.

He called the programme “the poverty Olympics,” arguing that instead of solving structural unemployment, the government’s solution is to hand out boda bodas and call it empowerment. Muturi said this is not real job creation but a way of locking youth into a poverty cycle. “It’s like giving someone a spoon to dig a dam,” he added.

Muturi also said the government’s youth policy is “tokenism masquerading as policy.” He explained that serious economies invest in innovation hubs, manufacturing skills, tech funding, and green energy jobs. Instead, Kenya’s policy is like giving youth a wheelbarrow and telling them to make the country proud. “It’s policy cosplay, not policy substance,” he said.

He pointed out a hidden message behind the government’s promotion of boda bodas and car washes as youth jobs.

“We don’t expect you to dream big.”

Youth deserve real opportunities

According to Muturi, this sends an insulting signal that young people’s future is limited to casual labour rather than boardrooms.

Muturi warned of economic shortsightedness, saying a country producing more boda bodas than engineers is planning for stagnation. While small hustles are acceptable, making them the centrepiece of youth policy shows a lack of industrial vision.

He criticised the initiative as political theatre, where handing over boda bodas makes good photo opportunities but does not build futures.

“The youth become props, not partners in development,” he said.

Muturi called the programme a missed opportunity for a generation, since Kenya’s median age is around 20 – a golden chance for investment in technology, manufacturing, creative industries, and renewable energy.

Finally, he emphasised that dignity matters. True empowerment should equip people to change their lives permanently, not just survive day to day. He called the boda boda policy “poverty with a helmet.”

Muturi concluded by warning that short-term hustles keep youth dependent and grateful only during campaigns. “That’s political clientelism,” he said. “Kenya’s youth need real opportunities matching their ambition – laptops, coding schools, seed funding, and manufacturing jobs – not a lifetime of hustling for survival.”

“Stop calling crumbs a feast,” he ended his message with a call to the President: