The recent protests in Kenya brought out in broad daylight one major problem the country faces: Joblessness.
As the demographic of the demonstrators showed, the most affected are the youth, and middle-aged adults, men and women in equal measure.
Recent data by Kenya Bureau of Statistics shows that youth aged 25-34 years — the age bracket that captures graduates — are unemployed with an average of 1.7 million youth being unemployed in 2022.
Equally 3.12 million youths aged between 20-34 years were jobless last year, a sharp increase from 1.85 million in 2019, the Nation reported on Wednesday.
I thus informs many of the youth who go to the streets are actually educated youth, idle and bitter with little or no means to fend for themselves and their kin.
Any small trigger is an opportunity for them to remind government of their presence and that they should be included in development. This means investment in education, health, security and IT, among other sectors, to create jobs with a decent pay.
During a recent international university student recruitment drive, my counterpart mentioned two very interesting points: That their university eyes students from Kenya on three grounds — good behaviour, top performance and their likelihood of completing their course is almost 100 per cent.
Thus, nearly all Kenyans who go on self-sponsorship basis or obtain a scholarship to this university graduate. This means Kenya has a huge potential in its youth that it is not tapping into.
The second point was that Ghana is also always high in their interest for the simple reason that the country upholds democracy.
One of the Scandinavian countries I recently visited employs the youth a lot. I was surprised when at a sports store, one of the attendants got really interested in me when I mentioned I was from Kenya.
He really engaged me, and ended up revealing he was interested in my vibe, as one of his former roommates at the university he is in, was a Kenyan and that he just loved our vibe. Of course, I marketed and demystified Kenya, freely, and to my level best, and hopefully convinced him to one-day tour.
When I left the mall, I wondered if I could do such a job while in campus, and how uncool my ilk and I thought we would be at that age. This is because we luckily never lacked. But when I thought about the possibility of a fat bank account, I know I would have somehow entertained the idea in campus.
The student informed that the stores, such as the one he was working at, give students many opportunities. The students are employed on hourly basis and get paid per hour. Their working occasions are very flexible, especially early to late evenings and weekends.
It also seemed like their employers, going by the enthusiasm they have when serving you, treat them with dignity. This in turn gives the student a healthy study work and life balance, including financial independence, which equals confidence. And if anything, this becomes good experience that would benefit them in their future endeavours.
For the foreign students, it becomes an opportunity to fine-tune their acquisition of the language of that particular country.
For the stores, what better employees can you have than the creme de la crème of society, meaning students, studying in diverse areas, with ethics indoctrinated by their respective universities?
This type of student attendants know they are there for a short time, thus burnout would not be something employers have to contend with. Their grasp of work seems good, as they can engage customers entirely.
Can this be replicated at home?
Since Kenya is a democratic state, the government cannot force private entities to do this, but in their own capacity, they can lobby for students to be prioritised for this kind of hourly jobs, with descent wages, especially, past work hours once the main employees have left for home. Students are flexible, and with lesser commitments, they wouldn’t mind such an arrangement.
In turn, our young Gen Z students need to act the part, in terms of work ethic and being trustworthy. Employers also need to be fair and not take advantage of the youth. This is very common nowadays. In this case, the government, through the concerned players in the labour industry, needs to set tough policies that protect both the employer and the would-be student employee.
This kind of arrangement, promoted by the government, will encourage our very brilliant youth to work harder, avoid situations of negative peer pressure and contribute positively to the development of our country, through the sectors they will serve in.
This type of work-study arrangement will also encourage other uneducated youth to work harder and join technical colleges or universities. Also, a lot of idleness that contributes to delinquency and lawlessness will be tackled and it will be a win-win situation for the youth and the government.
Vera is a part time lecturer and a communications researcher [email protected]
