Lack of skills affects fresh graduates’ ability to do business in their area of study. PHOTO| FILE
In the last decade, youth unemployment has been rising.
Indeed, recent data from the Ministry of Education indicate that of the 1 million young people entering the job market from universities and colleges every year, only one out of five is likely to get a job in the formal sector.
During the Third Annual National Youth Convention in Nairobi in April, Dr Eric Nyanjom, the director of the African Migration and Development Policy Centre (AMADPOC), noted that Kenyan university and college graduates enter the labour market without marketable skills.
“The lack of skills affects fresh graduates’ ability to do business in their area of study. Also, those already in business need further skills so that they can manage their businesses meaningfully,” he added.
Last month, Education CS Amina Mohammed directed all universities and colleges to establish career service offices. The offices will act as a bridge between industry and academia by equipping graduates with marketable skills.
"If properly implemented, the CS’s directive can improve skills training among university and college graduates," said Mr Raphael Obonyo, convener of The Youth Congress (TYC), a non-governmental organisation that champions youth leadership and development in the country.
"But tackling youth unemployment goes beyond skills training, and will require strategic partnerships in research and training between universities, colleges and local manufacturers, and grants and incentives to spur youth entrepreneurship," Mr Obonyo added.
Youth unemployment, estimated at 70 per cent, requires joint interventions by the government and the private sector.
“Most of the government’s projects, objectives and targets should focus on the youth,” said Ms Margaret Mliwa, a programme officer at the Ford Foundation. "This will ensure that the benefits of growth reach the youth to help alleviate poverty," she added.
Mr Obonyo and Ms Mliwa were also at the youth convention, a national gathering that brings together national and county governments, policy experts, researchers, civil society, and development partners to assess the status of youth development countrywide.
There was heated debate on youth unemployment, amidst increased corruption in the government and negative ethnicity.
The more than 500 youth leaders from the 47 counties identified unemployment as a huge challenge, deeply rooted in corruption, which is slowly destroying their future, “when opportunities for the youth are channelled elsewhere, and when jobs are withheld because of the tribal factor”.
During a plenary discussion, Ms Rachel Muthoga, the deputy chief executive officer of the Kenya Private Sector Alliance (Kepsa), was at pains to explain the role of the private sector in reducing youth unemployment.
In fact, 14 of the 25 questions asked during that session were about youth unemployment.
Ms Muthoga explained that during the 2016/2017 electioneering period, most private companies were forced to reduce staff.
“Others closed down their operations, resulting in job losses. In addition, local manufacturers passed on to consumers the burden of higher input costs due to surging power bills, transportation costs, currency volatility, raw material shortages and inflation,” she explained.
Consequently, it is difficult for local manufacturers to compete effectively with imported goods that retail at lower prices.
“This makes it hard for private companies to create new jobs,” Ms Muthoga said.
Following the March 9 handshake between President Kenyatta and ODM leader Raila Odinga, things started looking up.
It reduced the political tension, which had made investors apprehensive. But three months later, the youth have yet to feel its impact.
“If its meaning were told to the youth, it would be great for healing the nation," said Mr George Kegoro, the Kenya Human Rights Commission director.
Renewed investor confidence
While many saw the handshake basically as a political move, it seems to have jump-started business.
"International goodwill and foreign policy are benchmarked on political stability,” said Dr Scholastica Odhiambo, an economics lecturer at Maseno University. She added that sometimes the foreign aid Kenya receives is pegged on democratic rights. “Social sectors such as education, health and security are highly donor-dependent.”
The renewed investor confidence and the government’s move to repeal the capping of interest rates will undoubtedly drive youth entrepreneurship. Treasury Cabinet Secretary Henry Rotich has noted that the capping of interest rates reduced access to credit, especially for small and medium enterprises (SMEs), viewed as high-risk borrowers.
“When young entrepreneurs are viewed as high-risk borrowers, it works against their socio-economic development,” noted Ms Mliwa.
In addition, SMEs are the engine that drives Kenya’s economic terrain and provide the highest number of jobs for the youth.
The convention also noted that the counties offer great economic potential for young people.
“Counties are the emerging economic power blocs, and the government should tap into public-private partnerships to accelerate devolution and open up the interior of the counties for economic development opportunities,” said Mr Per Knutsson, head of the UN Resident Coordinator’s Office and strategic adviser. "This will position Kenya strategically," he added.
Dr Nyanjom concurred, adding that opening up the country would reduce the need for the youth to come to Nairobi to look for jobs.
Meanwhile, Mr Obonyo noted that the dwindling job opportunities in Nairobi have pushed a huge population of the youth into informal settlements, where they are marginalised.
Lack of inclusive growth
According to Mr Kegoro, the poorest in Kenya are young people, who have no jobs, housing, or source of livelihood.
“They lack access to clean water, sleep in open parks and struggle to raise Sh1,000 rent,” he said.
His views are supported by a 2012 study by the Africa Development Bank (AfDB), Urbanisation in Africa, which established that urban development in Africa has failed to bring about inclusive growth, which has in turn resulted in the proliferation of slums, urban poverty and rising inequality.
The study noted that rural-urban migration and population growth rates in cities are the major causes of the proliferation of informal settlements in Africa.
A 2017 AMADPOC study conducted throughout Kenya established that, given the high population growth rate, the number of young people is increasing by the day.
“In Kenya’s population pyramid, the bottom is heavily overloaded, yet the number of people at the top are very few, making it very light,” said Dr Nyanjom.
He noted that Kenyans have high dependency rates, which has fuelled a spending culture among young people, leaving them little to save, condemning the youth to early poverty.
"This tallies with the AfDB study, which established that inequality in African cities remains the second highest in the world, with an average Gini coefficient (dependency ratio) of about 0.58, well above the world average of 0.4. An increase in opportunities for the youth will yield higher socio-economic gains, which translates to more savings and accelerates Kenya’s economic growth,” said Dr Nyanjom.
Cycle of poverty
"The situation calls for sustainable development models that address not only poverty alleviation, but also drastically eliminate inequalities such as lack of access to business financing, and inadequate education, training and employment opportunities, challenges that further aggravate the cycle of poverty among the youth," said Mr Obonyo.
Mr Raymond Ochieng, CEO of the National Youth Council, noted that including the youth in governance is crucial to them and the country’s development, and that the council needs to be strengthened.
He said the council, the voice of the youth in leadership and governance, is weak, has inadequate resources and lacks the support of the youth.
While reading 2018/2019 budget, Treasury boss Rotich said that the government will merge the Uwezo Fund, the Youth Enterprise Development Fund (YEDF) and the Women Enterprise Development Fund to form the Biashara Kenya Fund, which will drive enterprise development.
“However, Biashara Kenya Fund might not improve access to financing for youth start-ups if it has the same tedious loan application process riddled with heavy documentation, which the youth have to pay for, giving rise to corruption at every stage,” noted Mr Obonyo.
Likewise, Ms Mliwa noted that it is important for the Biashara Kenya Fund to avoid the mistakes that crippled the Uwezo Fund and YEDF.
While devolution accounts for 40 per cent of the national budget, there are barriers that prevent young people from accessing employment and business opportunities in the counties.
While devolution accounts for 40 per cent of the national budget, there are barriers that prevent young people from accessing employment and business opportunities in the counties.
"The youth leaders decried the high cost of registering businesses in the country, failure to implement the 30 per cent access to government procurement opportunities, and the high cost of winning a tender because of the chain of cartels in obtaining the necessary paperwork and in the process in the counties. These barriers should be speedily addressed," Mr Obonyo said.
"The “Big Four” economic blueprint was seen as the new development vehicle that, if implemented without corruption, would re-ignite the livelihoods of young people in Kenya. It offers Kenyan youths opportunities to come up with innovations that save on costs, time and increase productivity in manufacturing, housing, food security and healthcare," said Dr Alex Awiti, the director of the East Africa Institute of the Aga Khan University.
And Mr Cornelius Ombagi, a policy analyst in the Ministry of Public Service, Youth and Gender Affairs, urged the youth to position themselves to tap into the four thematic areas.
But Dr Awiti faulted the youth for not taking advantage of their huge numbers to proactively place themselves in the midst of major development projects, or even elect leaders with integrity, accountability, and good governance.
Indeed, 473 of the youth leaders indicated that they were already unhappy with the leaders they had elected just eight months earlier.
In particular, Dr Awiti challenged the youth to “cause a disruption” and “hack into President Kenyatta’s ‘Big Four’ agenda”.
"You can find your space in the ‘Big Four’ through innovation and new construction designs that save on time and costs, and that are adequately smart. You can show the president how to attain food security when 70 per cent of the country is arid and semi-arid. You can show the president how he can produce low-cost, smart buildings….” he challenged them.
Mr Ombagi noted that the youth do not even make use of their numbers — over 75 per cent of registered voters according to the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission — to get the leadership that they deserve.
“On voting day every Kenyan is given time to go and vote, but there are complexities in understanding what young people do with that democratic opportunity,” said Mr Ombagi. “Even though the government has issued you with national identity cards and given you the right to choose who to vote for, it cannot control how you decide…,” he said.
“In such a scenario, who, between the youth and the government, disempowers the other?” he asked.
Mr Cornelius Ombagi, a policy analyst in the Ministry of Public Service, Youth and Gender Affairs. PHOTO| COURTESY
The convention appealed to young people to participate actively in leadership and governance.
“The youth can organise themselves into citizen accountability networks and groups if unhappy with elected leaders and hold them to account,” said Mr Obonyo.
Already, The Youth Congress is spearheading a campaign #YouthTribeKE to reduce ethnic polarisation among the youth.
Dr Nyanjom pointed out that if the government creates opportunities for the youth in the “Big Four”, Kenya would tap into the creativity and innovation of this huge group.
Mr Obonyo appealed to the president to ensure that the “Big Four” delivers decent jobs for the youth and addresses the inequalities in access to education, health, housing, health services and jobs.
Charting the way forwardAt the end of the convention, the parties agreed to work together and share the work as follows:Ratified 10-point agenda for youth socio-economic developmentThemed “Create an inclusive society and promote cohesion: a call to action by the Youth”, the convention made a call to action to both the youth and the government to accelerate youth development and the country’s socio-economic growth.What the government will do1. Speed up the review of the National Youth Policy to reflect on the current status of the youth and their emerging issues.2. Ensure that the “Big Four” delivers decent jobs and opportunities for the youth.3. Create a ministry for the youth to effectively handle young people’s pressing issues to avoid the progression of challenges into problems like unemployment and lack of access to business grants and start-up capital.4. Tap into public-private partnerships to accelerate devolution and open up the counties for economic development.5. Invest in youth to bridge the gap between the rich and poor.6. Act on and tame corruption before it bleeds Kenya and destroy the future of the youth.7. Capture the interests of the youth in the “handshake” reconciliatory process by ensuring that the youth in Kenya are not simply villains or victims of political processes.What the youth leaders will do8. Unite the youth into a tribe, the Youth, so that they can harness their numbers into a political constituency to deliver the Kenya that carries their aspirations.9. Form citizen accountability groups at the county level to enhance their participation in governance, check t excesses at county level, and demand financial accountability and better services.10. Innovate around the “Big Four” thematic areas and create jobs for themselves.
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