Former Cabinet Secretary, Justin Muturi has lashed out at government over what he termed as charity handouts, disguised as jobs for the youth.

His remarks come against the backdrop of heightened criticism over economic empowerment drives that the Government has been spearheading across the country, with the latest being at State House grounds on Saturday.

Muturi has now told off government for pushing ‘poverty Olympics’ instead of tackling the structural unemployment crisis.

“The UDA government’s “solution” is to hand out boda bodas and call it empowerment. That is not job creation, that is locking youth into a poverty cycle and asking them to clap for it. It is like giving someone a spoon to dig a dam,” Muturi has said.

Muturi, who is also the former Attorney General and Speaker of the National Assembly, also accused the Government of embracing tokenism masquerading as policy, noting that serious economies invest in innovation hubs, manufacturing skills, tech funding, and green energy jobs.

“Kenya’s ‘youth policy’ is basically: Here’s a wheelbarrow, now go make us proud. It’s policy cosplay, not policy substance. When the Head of State pushes boda bodas and car washes as a “vision” for the youth, the underlying message is, we do not expect you to dream big. It’s an insult wrapped in a smile. It says, ‘your ceiling is casual labour, not boardrooms’,” Muturi stated.

He said a country that produces more boda bodas than engineers is planning for economic stagnation.

Although small hustles are welcome, Muturi said the wheelbarrow should not be the centrepiece of national youth policy because it is a confession that the government has no industrial vision.

“Kenya’s median age is around 20. That is a goldmine of potential, if invested in properly. Instead, Ruto is dishing out hardware for small hustles while ignoring large-scale job creation in tech, manufacturing, creative industries, and renewable energy,” the former Speaker said.

He also added: “Calling it empowerment… true empowerment gives people the tools to change their lives permanently, not survive from day to day. The boda-boda policy is poverty with a helmet.

Terming it a ‘political trap’, Muturi said short-term hustles keep the youth dependent and grateful during campaign seasons and that amounts to political clientelism as opposed to empowerment and that is why they are turning to protests, not wheelbarrows.

“Kenya’s youth don’t need charity handouts dressed as jobs. They need opportunities that match their ambition. Give them laptops, coding schools, seed funding, manufacturing jobs, not a lifetime subscription to hustling for survival. Mr President stop calling crumbs a feast,” he uttered.

Muturi has also said that Ruto’s regime is obsessed with optics as opposed to outcomes.

“Everything is staged, from “prayer rallies” to tightly choreographed church appearances to photo ops with supposed beneficiaries of non-existent programs. Cabinet Secretaries compete on who can hold the most press conferences rather than who can deliver results. Government officials now measure success by trending hashtags and the number of influencers they can bribe to sanitise their record,” he said.

But the former CS said no amount of public relations can hide the rot because Kenyans can see their taxes being squandered, hunger in their homes, feel the collapse of public services and hear the same promises repeated over and over again, with nothing to show for them.

According to Muturi, under President Ruto’s leadership, the Kenyan economy is not recovering, but it is gasping for air.

“Ruto promised a “bottom-up” economy, but all we have got is bottomless suffering. The small businesses he claimed to champion are shutting down. Farmers are in distress. The job market is shrinking. The Hustler Fund, which was marketed as a financial revolution, has turned out to be a digital joke, more of a data collection scheme than an economic intervention,” he noted.

Muturi also added: “If this trend continues, the only thing rising will be public anger. The President may have stopped campaigning, but he has not stopped politicking. Every speech is a blame game, every policy a short-term gimmick, every failure is someone else’s fault. Meanwhile, the country drowns.”

But Deputy President, Kithure Kindiki, who has been leading the empowerment programmes, has continually dismissed critics, saying it is not about political gimmicks, as perceived by a section of Kenyans.

He said the journey of Kenya’s transformation is on course, one step at a time, adding that key National Government development programmes are running in all counties, to actualise the vision of Kenya’s transformation and the creation of an equal opportunity society.

“The biggest and most powerful investment Kenya will ever make is improvement of the education system and increasing the job and income opportunities for its young people. The Government will increase its interaction with the youth, engage with and listen more to them as well as act on and implement far reaching governance and accountability changes, incorporating the views and input of young people,” he said.