By The Banana Peddler
I understand how desperate everyone has become in a nation where bad governance destroys jobs but hardly creates any. For a long time now, I have warned of the danger that unemployment poses to this nation. I previously wrote on The Star and my readers will bear witness that I put joblessness rate at 60 – 70 per cent as opposed to 18 or 19 per cent as bandied by officialdom.
Nonetheless, Kenyan job seekers under this regime should get one thing clear: People in this regime are too busy stealing that they have no time to think of a solution to the unemployment scourge. The same song they were singing in 1994 is still the same song I hear these days. It will not change. It seems to me that Kenya has the highest number of selfish people/thugs per square kilometre.
The wicked crackpots in this administration don’t care about their neighbours. Those who pose as policymakers are only buying time – time to consolidate their position as Cabinet Secretary, director, governor or President. Uhuru and Ruto and their blood thirsty idiots that are after the perks of office: Free lunch, easy money, free security, free overseas treatment, and opportunity to be worshiped as gods. They don’t think about the next generation; they think about the next election.
The state of young graduates in Kenya is really precarious. I have always known that we shall reach this crisis point where schools churn out graduates that are not prepared for the workplace. Our colonial masters knew what they were doing. They knew that political independence without economic independence means nothing. And so they encouraged our fathers to study English, Accounting, Sociology, Law and Philosophy in universities.
Indeed, they were encouraged to study Education courses so they would pass the same nonsense “knowledge” to the next generation which would pass it to the next. Those who dared to study Engineering, Mathematics, Botany and Pharmacy were limited to learning the theoretical aspects. Post-independence leaders were yet to settle down and think when a thugs masquerading as a founding father shoved them aside, seized power and kept the people’s lands to himself. The rest is history.
I have given this background to enable the jobless non-Kikuyu graduates understand where they are coming from. What to do then? These accidental human beings by birth should first recognize the worthlessness of their certificates. Since government jobs are no longer there for them but for the Kikuyus, the only course open to today’s graduate is to start a business on his own. T
he handicaps for those who choose this course are known: lack of capital (because the banks lend at 30-60 per cent and you must bring your grandfather to prove that he has more money than the loan you are seeking), corruption and lack of electricity. Fellow Kenyans of this side of the fence, it is better you gather money through the same way you gathered school fees and start a small business. It could be bananas (if you come from a place like Kisii where there is plenty of rain), chicken, fish, pepper, onion or yam farming.
The alternative for those who can’t engage in physical labour is to sell their talent to a private person or company that needs it. You don’t have to write a long proposal to get recognised – so long as you are sure of yourself. If you know you have a skill, try and identify those who need it. The internet is a huge marketplace. But, as usual, those who benefit financially from it are in Europe, Asia and America. If we Africans feel ashamed, let us invent something for mankind.
Those who like trading can understudy an experienced trader or undergo a short period of apprenticeship with him. Many traders succeed by cheating and lying. People with character may not be comfortable with that. But they can engage in distributorship of goods. The obstacle here may be the lack of a good transportation system. Nonetheless, you can brave the odds –travel 700km on dangerous roads every week or two. With as little as Ksh400million, one can bring in goods from Dubai. Kenya is a consumer nation; I assure you they will buy anything.
POf course, I know that everyone would jump at any job offer from government agencies like the CBK, KRA KPA, KAA, CJ, AG, and the IG. The average non-Kikuyu jobseeker should understand that jobs in such “lucrative” agencies are reserved for the insignificant minorities that have fathers and mothers in high places.
We all can’t be there. I advise the jobseeker not to envy them, however. They are there not because of what they can offer; they have been kept there so they can earn money without working. Do not be lazy like them. Al Shabaab, kidnappers and other criminals have been sending a message but our myopic leaders are yet to understand.
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