Nothing is as dehumanising as having to depend on someone else for your livelihood. The experience is not just depressing; it is traumatising. Unfortunately, that is what millions of young people are undergoing because they cannot get jobs.
Some are forced to live with their parents longer than they should because they have no choice, and they include a growing number of college graduates, unfortunately. Those from poor backgrounds do not even have that option. If they are lucky, they may venture into hustles unrelated to their training, while others yet join the throngs that invade offices in search of non-existent jobs.
When I was a young man long ago, there was no scarcity of jobs. Those were the days when, after college, you could be recruited as an untrained teacher or banking clerk in a day without too much fuss. They were the days when you did not need to prove to a policeman that you are not a criminal, or to some nosy outfit that you did not owe anyone any money.
The pay may not have been much — my first salary was Sh9,000 per month in a day secondary school — but it housed and fed me for all the three months I worked in the place where the girls stuck out their tongues in open flirtation while the boys fought in class to test their mettle.
Today, this country is in a crisis of soaring unemployment, and the statistics are quite disheartening. According to the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics, last year alone, 3.12 million youths aged between 20 and 35 did not have jobs, a stiff climb from similar statistics two years ago, when 1.85 million wandered the streets without much hope.
And here we are not talking about the vast hordes of ill-educated chaps who survive on casual labour. While high unemployment rates are not peculiar to Kenya, we cannot wait for outsiders to create jobs for our youth.
And lest someone goes off tangent and start blaming the “Handshake government” for this sordid mess, lack of jobs did not start yesterday; the situation has been deteriorating for years and the rapid rise in population has made matters worse. One sign that an economy is in trouble is when the private sector cannot create jobs because it is struggling for its own survival, while the public sector is clueless about what to do to reduce its bloated workforce.
Industrious people
On the whole, Kenyans are industrious people and given a chance, most of them would not need to be in formal employment. However, providing the right environment for small businesses to thrive has proved difficult especially. It is not the business of the government to create jobs; all it can do is lure domestic investors in the manufacturing and agri-business sectors through policies that do not include taxing them to the bare bones.
It can also focus on the most vulnerable sector of the population — educated youth — and devise measures to channel their restlessness to productive use. Any neglect may turn out to be disastrous for there is nobody as dangerous as a disillusioned, under-employed youth brimming with energy and nowhere to take it.
For their own survival, responsible governments always put youth employment at the top of their list of priorities. This is only prudent. An educated unemployed populace is difficult to control as history has illustrated.
To its credit, the Kenya Kwanza government had this in mind when it launched the Hustler Fund to provide capital to would-be entrepreneurs at the bottom of the pyramid, but the success of this initiative is still unclear.
For sure, these small loans for individuals have not succeeded in uplifting the living standards of many at the individual level, though they can certainly work if channelled to groups, especially those run by women. With their chamas, they have become a force to reckon with in the economy. What the government should do is immediately stop issuing loans to individuals and concentrate on funding organised groups.
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Where I was born, the whole countryside has turned green, and everyone is walking around with a smile of relief. Those born in cities do not get to enjoy the glory brought out by the first few weeks of rain on land that has been parched for too long. It is a season of rebirth which everyone celebrates. It is also the season when hope is reborn, for the green on the field means food to harvest in several months.
However, this excitement must be tempered by two things. First, no one can tell whether the harvests will even materialise. The rains may misbehave the same way they did last season, stopping suddenly, and allowing the hot sun to scorch the maize, beans and other legumes prematurely. Nothing is as saddening as watching your crops dry up.
The second is that this country has enough land to feed itself even in times of drought. However, our farmers are not benefitting much from government support to increase their yield. Where are the field extension officers of old? BY DAILY NATION