The white-collar-job curse holding back Kenya’s potential

By Bantu Kivai

Kenya: A story is told of Bela Guttman, the coach of the all-conquering Portuguese football club Benfica of 1961 and 1962. When he asked for a pay rise from his seniors and was ungratefully rebuffed, he was so infuriated that he quit and reportedly delivered the (in)famous Guttman curse: “Not a hundred years from now will Benfica ever be European champions”.

Since then, Benfica has played eight European finals — including the Europa League final two weeks ago against Sevilla — and lost each one. It has been 52 years since Guttman left the club, and it is frightening for the fans to imagine the curse may yet be lifted for another 48 years.

Ironically, at around the same time, power was changing hands in Kenya in the name of independence, and we inherited our own curse from the colonialist — the white-collar curse.

This white-collar curse, or the job curse, has coiled itself around the population of young Kenyans such that one can glide into political office simply by promising to create jobs.

The situation is so dire that people are willing to leak professional exams, parents think nothing of coughing out hefty sums to get their children employed, and university students are willing to seduce their way to good grades.

The grimness of the state our society is in dawned on me as I conducted interviews a couple of weeks ago for a vacant position in my company.

“What will you do if you don’t get a job in the next two years?” I asked most of the candidates.

Keep in mind that it takes an average of two years for a college graduate to get a job in Kenya. Also, on average, every home in Kenya has one unemployed youth.

Exceptionally gifted

Most candidates said that they would look for “something” to do, others said that they would not lose hope and would continue knocking on more doors and, of course, praying.

One of the interviewees struck me as exceptionally gifted, but he was unaware of it. In his free time, he repairs computers and laptops, mostly for friends and referrals, charging an assessment fee of Sh500. Last month, he had six clients — without any advertising or “taking the job seriously”.

Yet, the only thing he had been doing full time is looking for a job.

Most young people will decry a lack of capital. In a basic business class, the four factors of production are taught. In Kenya, the assumption is that capital is the ultimate factor. Consequently, young people believe if they had ShX, their life would automatically be better — they would have a better job, better prospects, and on and on.

I think the Government was trying to solve the capital problem when it created funds for women and youth in groups. But a better solution would have been to finance strong business plans presented by both individuals and groups. Entrepreneurship is the missing factor of production, not capital.

There is no doubt entrepreneurship is a tough, sometimes painful journey for those who choose it; it is not for the faint hearted.

The upshot is that the few who succeed can employ those still engulfed in white-collar malaise.

Youth Empowerment

But I am hopeful for a time when more young people will look to start their own businesses than spend years looking for a white-collar job.

When that time comes, a degree will not be a passport to the workplace, but rather a form of empowerment on the solitary journey from entrepreneurship to financial independence. Cheating in exams will be a lazy option and buying a master’s degree will not make sense.

I just hope we will not fall victim to Benfica’s 100-year curse, or else we will be forced to bear the tragedy of the job curse for another 50 years.

The writer runs a lighting technology company.

bizbeat@standardmedia.co.ke