How Martha Koome’s search for 500 new employees collected 60,000 CVs
More than 60,000 Kenyans are competing to fill 563 job vacancies announced by the Judiciary recently, pointing to the unemployment crisis in the country.
Chief Justice Martha Koome said the positions advertised on October 8, had attracted 60,000 applicants and others had been left out at the close of the application window on October 29.
This happened after the website crashed in the final days as more Kenyans logged in to try their luck.
The applications were received online on the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) portal.
The CJ acknowledged at a meeting on Thursday that some candidates were unable to log into the portal because of high traffic.
As a result, the JSC resolved to extend the application window for another five days, starting on Monday, November 8, to Friday, November 12.
“The commission has resolved to extend the application window to mitigate against these challenges and to give every Kenyan a fair opportunity to be considered for these positions,” she said.
“Those who had submitted their applications before the original deadline should not reapply.”
Jobless Kenyans
The job slots include 500 court assistants, 30 drivers, 10 charge hands, four superintendents of works, four senior quality surveyors and six law clerks.
Others are one senior public affairs and corporate communications officer, two senior clerks, one risk management officer, one senior architect, one senior civil engineer, one senior mechanical engineer, one senior electrical engineer and one senior draughtsman.
A plain assessment shows a case of a website crashing due to bandwidth issues. But it’s more than that.
Data from the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) shows that half of jobless Kenyans have given up looking for work due to shrinking opportunities.
The report, covering the quarter to March 2021, shows that 1.23 million out of 2.49 million jobless Kenyans aged between 15 and 64 who qualify for the labour force were not actively looking for work.
This is because Kenya’s economy was hit hard by the Covid-19 pandemic that has seen many businesses downsize operations in a bid to survive.
An economic survey by KNBS indicates that in 2020, the industries that accounted for the highest wage employment in the private sector were manufacturing, agriculture, forestry and fishing; and wholesale, retail trade and repair of motor vehicles.
Over the same period, most industries recorded negative growth in employment except for the activities of households as employers.
Fall in employment
The accommodation and food service activities sector was the most affected, with a decline of 38.7 per cent in 2020. This was followed by administrative and support services, transportation and storage and education.
The drastic fall in employment in the accommodation and food service sector could mainly be attributable to public health measures imposed by the government to contain the spread of the coronavirus.
Some of these measures led to the closure of entertainment businesses and eateries, forcing most establishments in the sector to lay off workers.
In addition, travel restrictions and a ban on night travel led to the loss of business by most hotels and rooming places. Consequently, many businesses in the sector sacked their workers while others closed down due to lack of business.
Wage employment in the public sector registered slow growth of 2.2 percent in 2020 compared with 2.7 percent in 2019.
Education had the highest share of employment in the public sector, accounting for 43.2 percent, followed by public administration and defence.
Human health and social work activities recorded the highest growth, 5.8 per cent, mainly attributable to the hiring of more health workers to enhance the fight against Covid-19.
The number of self-employed and unpaid family workers declined by 4.1 per cent in 2020 compared with an increase of 6.9 per cent in 2019. BY DAILY NATION
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