Youths concern over job losses

Youths across the country have expressed concern over the rising cases of job losses in the last one year terming this as a recipe for economic chaos.

Under the ‘Under 40 for Positive Change’ forum, they termed the trend as worrying noting that hundreds of families have been affected.

This emerged at the end of a two-day workshop held in Heritage Hotel in Naivasha and attended by youths drawn various parts of the country to address the current crisis.

Addressing the press, the youths attributed the current job crisis to the closure of various companies by the government on accusations of tax evasion.

According to the group leader Ramadhan Mario, the blame lay with government regulators who had registered the companies only for them to be closed.

He pointed to the recent closure of Sportpesa and Betin companies noting that innocent workers caught up in the battles had been left suffering.

“Innocent workers employed by the companies have been left suffering for mistakes of other people and as a result hundreds of families have been left sleeping hungry,” he said.

Rama attributed the employment crisis to the unplanned fight against corruption as the government did not think about the repercussions.

The sentiments were echoed by Ndung’u Ngatia who said that they fully supported the fight against corruption and those companies evading taxes.

He however noted that this should be carried out in a humane manner as the consequences had left many workers suffering from job losses.

“As much as we support the fight against corruption we need to also look into the repercussions as the people mainly under 40 years lose their jobs,” he said.

Ngatia wondered how the companies currently been targeted by DCI and KRA were registered adding that this had left the workers exposed to sacking and even arrests.

“It’s not our mistake that we are employed by these betting firms and other companies that have turned out to be law offenders,” he said.

On his part, Suleiman Katana termed the current situation as the worst for the country in years with many families sleeping hungry and facing job losses due to unplanned fight against some companies.

“We demand that government agencies that are mandated to vet companies that operate in the country be held responsible for our job losses emanating from the crackdown,” he said.