Paradox of ghost technical colleges and big dreams

DP William Ruto lays a foundation stone for the construction of Ndunyu Chege youth polytechnic in Gatanga Constituency. [Photo: Courtesy]

The renewed push by the government to expand technical education is a realisation that youth unemployment is not just an economic issue but a political ticking time bomb.

But this problem is not unique to Kenya. According to Unesco, at least 475 million new jobs need to be created over the next decade globally. Those jobs are expected to cater for more than 73 million youth currently unemployed and the 40 million new annual entrants to the labour market.