Jobs key to stopping protests, says Kagwe

Agriculture Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe.[File,The Standard]

Agriculture Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe has warned that Kenya will continue to see youth unrest unless job opportunities are created to pull young people away from protests and property destruction.

Speaking on Saturday, July 12, Kagwe said rising youth unemployment has become a major driver of street demonstrations that often turn violent.

"When everyone has a job, you won't hear of people on the streets. Everyone will be busy working you can't leave your job to go throw stones somewhere. No one can come here, stand outside, and throw stones into this factory," noted Kagwe.

He observed that protests threaten Kenya's economic prospects by scaring away investors, which in turn kills opportunities for job creation.

"We do not want to see what we are seeing on the streets during protests seeing people attacking the police, doing such things. We do not want that kind of behaviour. The first solution to this problem is for people to be employed. And the way to get jobs is by having peace, because if there is unrest, do you think any investor will come?" said Kagwe.

Kagwe explained that peace and stability encourage investment and that businesses will quickly pull out of a country if they perceive it as unstable.

"If they hear there's trouble, that there's conflict, they'll say, 'I'm not going to that country.' Even someone who was planning to employ three hundred people will leave. They'll go to Uganda, to Tanzania, or elsewhere and the people in those countries will get the jobs," added Kagwe.

He noted that protests and chaos end up hurting the same youth who desperately need employment.

"We want to create as many jobs as possible and that is the solution to our problem, and that is how we will stabilise our nation called Kenya. So we must think like people who own this country. So if Kenya is being destroyed, whose Kenya is being destroyed," he noted.

He urged young people to consider the long-term consequences of participating in violent protests and political unrest.

"If you destroy a factory today, where will you work tomorrow? What will your children eat? What will you use to buy clothes?" posed Kagwe.

Kagwe added that building a peaceful and economically stable Kenya is the surest path to prosperity for the youth.