Growing number of graduates good sign but that’s how far it goes

I know some matters are very sensitive. I’m one of the people who love to keep secrets especially where revealing them can damage other people or the nation. But there are secrets better revealed if that way it can stop a malpractice or can be a call to action. Last week I was invited to a graduation ceremony to one of the universities in Kenya. I was to witness an award of a PhD in the same ceremony. I took upon myself to sample how many universities were holding graduations and asked through their officials the statistics on graduands across various faculties on diverse levels. Moreover, I also sought to know how many more were holding graduations in this month of December. Some of the information was available through press briefs and features by the University themselves in the mainstream media. There was scanty information available in their websites as well.

Well, the number of graduates is impressive. It just shows that Kenya is growing into a knowledge based economy and I anticipate lots of such industries to emerge and grow. I also love seeing a large community of intellectuals as I anticipate they will engineer positive change and developments in our economy as would be the case in the world. However, some reality check is important. Do we have capacity to tap the intellectual power of these people through proper engagements? Is our economy able to generate requisite jobs for them? Is there a proper solution to the growing joblessness in our economy?