NAIROBI, KENYA – “The most betrayed lot in this country are the youth,” says John Mutua, who is unemployed despite his two college degrees.
Mutua says Kenya is doomed because of its sky-high unemployment rate, currently more than 40 percent. Mutua says he wonders why the government is not coming up with new strategies and employment programs, especially for youth.
Herman Kamau, who owns a cybercafé and photocopying shop in Nairobi, says the problem of unemployment drove him to self-employment. “I saw no need to wait for employment after I completed my degree in Information Technology. Especially when I can invest in a business and earn a living from it,” he says.
Kamau says his search for a permanent job in the information technology sector resulted in a string of disappointments. “I was forced to accept short-term contracts in local and companies here in Nairobi, but I was receiving peanuts. I saved as much as I could and with a loan from my bank, I set up this business,” he says.
Pauline Achieng, a university student believes Kenya’s youth are a dynamic group, but because they are left with nothing to do, says they have become a drain on society. She says the impact of two-decades of increasing youth unemployment have been devastating for her peers.
“With labor market conditions continuing to worsen, long-term unemployment for youth is rising in all parts of Kenya,” says Achieng, who is about to complete her bachelor’s degree in art. “Young people who lack general education or work experience, are vulnerable to the crisis,” she says.
Statistics show that unemployment has been rising steadily in Kenya since 1963 when the country attained independence. Unemployment rates nearly tripled from 6.7 percent in 1978 to 19.9 in 2006. Today more than 40 percent of the country is unemployed.
But Kenya is not alone. Global youth unemployment has reached its highest level on record, and is expected to increase through the end of 2010, according to the International Labor Organization, ILO. The ILO released a grim report last month in conjunction with the United Nations International Youth Year.
The report, ILO Global Employment Trends for Youth 2010, revealed that of the world’s 620 million economically active youth, aged 15 to 24, nearly 81 million were unemployed at the end of 2009 -- the highest number in history. The youth unemployment rate increased from 11.9 percent in 2007 before the global financial crisis and was now more than 13 percent at the end 2009, the most recent statistics available. In Kenya, more than 2 million young people are unemployed according to official statistics, but local economists say that number is likely much higher.
Youth in Kenya face serious challenges, including high rates of unemployment and underemployment. The overall unemployment rate for youth is double the adult average. Worldwide, youth unemployment is expected to increase to more than 16 million in the next two years, and to 24 million by 2017. As the outlook for young people searching for jobs in Kenya continues to worsen, many young people say they see little benefit in furthering their education or job training. The government has responded to the youth unemployment crisis by creating several new programs, including The Youth Enterprise Fund as a part of the economic stimulus package of 2009, but critics fault the program for being too focused on entrepreneurship and less on traditional job creation.
Increased Number of College Grads Flood the Labor Market
Unemployment in Kenya has continued to skyrocket since the early 1990s. Successive governments have struggled to bring to an end a crisis that has no reprieve on the horizon.
"You have a large number of people looking for secure jobs but cannot find them," says Noah Chune, chief economist and director of research and education at the Central Organization of Trade Unions–Kenya, COTU-K. "The danger is that they will become fed-up and remove themselves from the labor market.”
Chune warns that many currently seeking jobs may lose their applicable job skills, like technology skills that fast become outdated, and their employment prospects will continue to worsen.
Such concerns are understandable in the wake of the new ILO report that cast a gloomy picture on youth unemployment. According to the Ministry of Youth and Sports, there are only 125,000 young people, 18-35 registered with formal employment nationwide, among Kenya’s population of nearly 39 million.
Kenya’s labor minister, John Munyes, puts the figure of unemployed youth at 1.9 million, with the majority of the unemployed between the ages of 15 and 24. Munyes conceded that the government has not been able to create enough job opportunities for millions of youth entering the job market annually. Munyes says the 750,000 students who graduate from educational institutions here each year will continue to flood the unemployment lines.
Chune says one reason new graduates struggle to find a job is because they still lack the necessary skills to compete in some markets. “Currently, the educational system produces graduates who lack the necessary skills to compete in the labor market,” Chune says. “[There is a] demand for new types of knowledge, skills, and expertise that are lacking in the existing labor force. Therefore, unemployment is not just a lack of jobs, but also lack of job skills due to inadequacy of training infrastructure. Many lack the means to acquire skills because of high levels of poverty.”
More than 60 percent of Kenyan youth live below the poverty line.
Government Action Plan Focuses on Entrepreneurship
Last month’s ILO report explains how unemployment, underemployment and discouragement can have a long-term negative impact on young people, compromising their future employment prospects. The study also highlights the cost of idleness among youth, saying, "societies lose their investment in education,” when new graduates cannot find employment. “Governments fail to receive contributions to social security systems and are forced to increase spending on remedial services," the ILO report concluded.
In Kenya, government action to tame rising unemployment rates has been widely criticized. Over the course of the past year, new programs have been slow to emerge, but “noticeable,” Chune says.
The creation of the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports in 2005 was created in part to address youth idleness, training and employment options. In 2007, the Ministry debuted a Youth Employment Marshall Plan, which seeks to promote the successful transition of youth from school to work and, thereby, to contribute to economic development. The Plan aimed to create 500,000 new jobs by 2012, by expanding the number of technical training institutes and subsidizing students, supporting entrepreneurs in rural areas, initiating labor-intensive public works, developing the information and communication technology (ICT) sector. The plan also included a section on paying young people to plant trees, through a Trees for Jobs program, to help reverse the effects of deforestation. Last year, a total of 55,500 jobs were created up from 34,000 the previous year. The construction industry registered the highest number of new youth employees, especially in the private sector.
Another new program, The Youth Enterprise Fund, is a revolving loan facility that has so far distributed 1.6 billion shillings, $207,000 USD, to more than 55,000 youth enterprises across the country this year. And in May, the World Bank approved $60 million USD for Kenya to support unemployed youth in the country via The Kenya Youth Empowerment Project, KYEP, which will support Kenya's efforts to increase access to youth-targeted temporary employment programs and to improve youth employability. Statistics on the success rates of those programs are not yet available.
“Skills training and gainful employment is not only crucial for the nation’s economic development, prosperity and social stability but also is vital for enabling each individual to develop their full potential and to live in dignity,” Chune says with a sigh.
