There is one thing that I always find impressive about my fellow-Kenyans, and which touches on what I would define as one of our core “national values”.
This is that there is apparently no limit to the sacrifices that parents are willing to make to give their children a good education.
In nations that are economically advanced enough to provide authentic free education, no such sacrifices may be necessary. But in a country like Kenya where free education is always promised but somehow never quite delivered, heroic self-denial is the default setting when it comes to parents and their children’s education.
Sacrificing to keep the children in school, all the way to some form of tertiary education and training, is however only half of the story. The other half is that there is an underlying assumption here that the sums spent in doing so are actually an investment. And that the older children, once they get a decent job, will help in the education of the younger kids, and the children will collectively support their parents in old age.
This of course is where the problem lies: as a parent you can do all that is within your power to give your children an education; but you are relatively helpless when it comes to getting them a decent job.
From talks I have had with politicians over the years, I gather that this is the one thing that is most often presented to those seeking elective office as the most urgent request: “Please help my child get a job”. (The “child” in this case being a man or woman of 20 to 30 years in most cases).
And I have come to believe that it is this immense pressure on elected leaders to do something to help young men and women to get jobs, that lies behind the proliferation of “industrial parks” which are supposedly being planned for all over the country.
I specify “planned for” because if there is indeed an authentic industrial park in some rural part of Kenya employing thousands in a variety of manufacturing and service jobs, I have yet to hear of it. On the other hand, you can barely open a newspaper these days without coming across a news story of the “launch” of one such industrial park, on a large piece of land which has been “set aside” for this purpose.
The term which comes to mind here is “virtue signalling”. It is a term mostly used on social media to dismiss what is seen as an empty display of noble intent, which is not likely to be followed up by any noble deeds.
In our distinctly Kenyan context, “setting aside” land for an industrial park is a way of signalling to the voting public, “I have set in motion a process that will lead to thousands of jobs being created right here in our county. But you must be patient as these things take time. And of course, you will only get the full benefits of this project if you vote me back into office for a second term”.
There are no easy answers in this matter of helping young people obtain economic opportunity.
But perhaps the right place to start is to set up an office within the county government, dedicated to just this single overwhelming priority.
I remember reading in a biography of the US President Lyndon Johnson, how it was that when he set out on what he termed ‘The War on Poverty’, a key priority of his legislative agenda was the creation of an ‘Office of Economic Opportunity’ which sought, through a variety of programmes, to find ways to help lift up those American communities which had been “left behind”.
Some of the programmes succeeded. Others did not. But at least there was a clear focus on the fact that creating economic opportunity was at the heart of ending poverty.
Given the kind of sums that are usually mentioned when an “industrial park” is launched, I would say that there is enough money in most counties to support an effective Office of Economic Opportunity.