MP's push to bar 35-year-olds from jobs self-defeating

NAIROBI: Nominated Member of Parliament Johnstone Sakaja has sponsored the Youth Employment Authority Bill, which is yet to be discussed by Parliament.

This Bill seeks to bar Kenyan citizens above the age of 35 years from securing employment in Government irrespective of whether they have the qualifications to be considered for such jobs. The contents of this Bill negate constitutional provisions under the Bill of Rights.

As a legislator, Mr Sakaja must be aware of the supremacy of the Constitution which makes any law in competition with it a nullity to the extent of the inconsistency. In all fairness, the scope of the Bill is not only dangerously narrow, it assumes the proportions of a populist move.

Fairly speaking, Mr Sakaja could be meaning well, but his Bill borders on what renowned author Michela Wrong calls “uncritical absolutism of youth”. It is understood that Members of Parliament must appear to be doing something worthwhile, either as service to the electorate, the country or as insurance for the 2017 General Election, but reason must prevail.

Granted, youth form a bigger percentage of the Kenyan population and investing in them is a worthwhile cause, but we cannot lose sight of the fact that a country that ignores its senior citizens is one without proper steerage. As such, though empowering the youth is quite noble; it should not be done at the expense of the other cadres of citizens.

Mr Sakaja’s Bill is discriminatory and unconstitutional insofar as it presumes people above 35 years have outlived their usefulness. This Bill presupposes they are no longer productive. The Government is an equal opportunity employer and if Parliament discusses and adopts the proposal, it will have abandoned its citizens at a time they need it most.

At 35, most people are only beginning to experience the rigours of real life: work, parenting. It is a time when parents must have the means to finance the education of their children. If the means to do this is denied them, how can the Government hope to beat illiteracy, and by extension, poverty? What happens to people who spend years chasing after degrees in various fields? Does their education lose value because they are over 35 years of age?

An obsession with empowering specific groups of people amounts to disrupting social and family values. While empowering the girl child has enabled her to compete on an equal footing with the boy child, it has had its negative side in the neglect the boy child finds himself in. It is only now that research is showing that having been left to his devices, the boy child is turning into a cry baby.

Kenya belongs to all of us regardless of age, and since the Constitution guarantees us equal rights, it follows that we must be given equal opportunities in employment unless the mandatory retirement age of 60 years bars one from seeking employment. While the Sakaja Bill seeks to entrench despondency, developed democracies are doing their best to accord comfort to the senior citizens through social security.

Senior citizens are taken care of through legislation and are able to access funds every month for their upkeep, yet Kenya is completely unable to efficiently disburse money for the Pesa Kwa Wazee programme. Legislators will be doing this country great service if they let objectivity prevail and come up with motions that add value to the country without targeting sections of the citizenry for marginalisation.

Mr Sakaja would make an important contribution to the country by seeking ways to make the Pesa Kwa Wazee less hectic, more transparent and beneficial to the country.