Young Kenyans deserve more than casual job offers

Unemployment is a time bomb waiting to explode. As proof of their might and raw energy, the youth often resort to violence to express their disenchantment with the establishment.

Three times since last year’s post-election violence, they have uprooted the railway line and disrupted transport between Kenya and Uganda.

Luckily, the Government is alive to the dangers posed by idle youth.

The Office of Prime Minister Raila Odinga has sought to channel the untapped energies by engaging them in productive engagements through Kazi Kwa Vijana (KKV) programme.

On October 19, the PM told a national steering committee of KKV, which he chairs, that the implementation of the Sh15 billion youth employment initiative was critical to the nation’s political and social stability.

We applaud the authorities for appreciating the existence of the germ of social unrest that has been festering for years. The need to channel idle energies to productive use is even more urgent.

With more than 20 public and private universities churning out more than 60,000 graduates every year and hundreds of thousands of others leaving middle level colleges, the scramble for employment is certainly one of the fiercest in Africa. Jobs abound but what lacks is a proper mechanism of matching skills with opportunities.

That is why we have too many qualified teachers who cannot be absorbed by the Ministry of Education, nurses who have been waiting for years to join Ministry of Health, and hundreds of agricultural extension workers whose impressive certificates cannot earn them a living. It is for the same reason that virtually all ministries say they have a shortage of skilled personnel. We acknowledge that generating 300,000 new jobs in six months in a subdued economy such as ours is no mean achievement.

Unfortunately, this noble attempt to address runaway employment raises more questions than answers. Sadly, again, all the questions have to do

with accountability.

That Treasury gave out Sh15 billion in six months, which translates to Sh30 billion per year, says a lot about the Government’s capacity to generate employment — if it can put its act together.

We say so because there is no timeframe for the Kazi Kwa Vijana programme and from the look of things it is going to be a permanent fixture of national budget making.

Why would a Government be keen on keeping the most productive portion of its population in limbo by creating seasonal jobs to absorb its frustrations? Sh30 billion, if allocated properly, can generate hundreds of thousands of job opportunities.

The domino effect cannot be gainsaid: regular income translates into higher purchasing power, which in turn leads to higher consumption that is key to keeping the manufacturing sector robust. This is the philosophy that informed the KKV programme — to multiply opportunities.

But its execution has been so haphazard that the desired outcome might not be achieved.

There is a feeling that KKV has flung open the window of opportunity for graft. Not surprisingly, KKV is eliciting comparisons with YK92, Kibaki na Warembo, Kazi na Uhuru nebulous election campaign outfits.