No matter how much the Presidential candidates disagree;
they all agree on one thing- the high youth unemployment rate in the country.
Youth unemployment is a ticking time bomb that if unchecked, could have dire
repercussions for the country.
To tackle this menace, a Cord government proposes to create
a million jobs every year immediately it gets into power. Cord plans to do this
by expanding college and university education, so that youths acquire skills
that are critical to the functioning of a modern economy. The coalition
proposes to increase the number of graduates in the STEM disciplines- Science,
Technology, Engineering and Mathematics, which it believes will propel the country’s
technological take off. In addition, a Cord government plans to streamline the
inefficient youth fund, and enable more young people to access business grants-
which don’t have to be repaid back.
Eagle Coalition’s Peter Kenneth takes a slightly different
view to tackling the unemployment menace in the country. His major priority is
to revitalize the agricultural sector which he argues is the economic backbone
of Kenya.
He sees a strong agricultural sector as the panacea to the rural-urban
migration that has put so much strain to the city and urban authorities. He
wants farmers better paid for their produce, so that they not only produce food
to feed the country, but also get income that will improve their livelihoods.
His ultimate aim is to make farming ‘cool’ so that many youngsters could return
to farms in the villages. He is particularly against the real estate
encroachment into once farming only areas, which he sees as jeopardizing the
country’s food security. He also proposes to set up a polytechnic in every
county, so that youths who miss out on universities could be trained to get
useful on the job skills to help them be employable. This comes even as the
middle level colleges, which used to provide on the jobs skills-, are either
being upgraded to full university status, or being gobbled up by universities
that are ever hungry to attract more students.
James Ole Kiyiapi seems to share many ideas with Peter
Kenneth, although he puts more emphasis on the manufacturing sector, as opposed
to Peter Kenneth’s emphasis on the agricultural sector. James Ole Kiyiapi
believes that we should empower the youth in the Jua Kali sector by importing
machines, so that youth businesses could be more efficient, and yield more
returns. He believes manufacturing is the best bet for tackling unemployment,
since it has a large spiral effect, that even the less educated could be
employed in the sector. In that respect; Martha Karua, Amani coalition’s
Musalia Mudavadi, Eagle coalition’s Peter Kenneth and James Ole Kiyiapi seem to
share the same ideas on how to tackle the youth unemployment problem.
While Jubilee Coalition does have the same ideas as Cord,
one of its members not too long ago, had brought up a bill in parliament that
would have seen a radical drop in the unemployment rate in the country. Joshua
Kutuny- the outgoing Cherangany MP, had proposed that Fresh graduates be put on
internship for a maximum of three years after graduating from University. In
such a dispensation, Fresh graduates from colleges and universities would be
absorbed by government ministries, parastatals, schools, hospitals, colleges
and universities and other public bodies on an internship basis, as they
acquire key job skills. They would be paid a monthly stipend of say kshs.10,
000 for a maximum of three years, during which time they should have gotten a
job. Human Resource experts often argue that it’s often easier to get a job
when you have one foot in the door, and in such an arrangement, graduates would
get on the hands job training, and build their networks so as to increase the
chances of being hired. Since the Fresh graduates will be absorbed by public
institutions, the possibility of being misused by employers who want cheap
labor would be reduced. Besides, fresh graduates, who are often cash strapped,
would get an allowance for basic living, which would remove the dependency on
their parents.
By allowing graduates to work in public institutions, Kutuny
argues, a sense of patriotism in young people would be inculcated, not much
different from the days when high school graduates had to go to the National
Youth Service- NYS, for a year.
Each coalition has strong points, so the winning coalition
will need to borrow a raft of measures from each of the candidates. Kutuny’s
ideas, for instance, could be implemented immediately to stem the rising youth
unemployment. Peter Kenneth’s idea seems most plausible when looking to curb
the rural urban migration, and boost the skills of the youth that are locked
out of universities while Cord’s ideas are more futuristic rather than looking
to offer immediate solutions, and are aimed at a high tech economy country.
In the same breadth, whilst all candidates seem excited by
the idea of encouraging entrepreneurship, it should be remembered that starting
a business is not child’s play. Not everyone is cut out for business. Even as
they encourage this idea of starting businesses, it should be only in so far as
the businesses will create decent, clean and rewarding jobs.
For the rare gems that want to get into business, and prove
to have the talent to do that, they must be encouraged through specific
measures such as the strengthening of our venture capital market, strengthening
the capacity of the youth fund, and encouraging banks to take a more proactive
approach in lending to promising young business savvy graduates.
In retrospect, it is absolutely imperative that whichever
presidential candidate wins in the next election solves the problem of youth
unemployment once and for all. Psychologists often lament that the problem of
unemployment is not just a lack of money for the unemployed person. Work
confers a sense of identity, which is why people who are suddenly laid off from
work quickly turn into depression. Work also provides the stability- for young
men especially, to start families, as it is often noted that men without jobs
take longer to start families, and are much more likely to turn out as violent
fathers due to their diminishing economic role, in the process increasing the
divorce rates.
