By Phil Etale
THE KAZI NI KAZI FALLACY
Ronald Opicho graduated from a local University with a Bachelor of Science in Engineering in 2009. He furthered his studies and graduated with a Masters’s degree in the same field in 2013. Ever since, just like millions of other graduates, Ronald has never gotten a job.
Today, believe me, or not, Ronald is a bodaboda rider in Butere. He has no choice but to content with riding on the dusty roads of western Kenya, endure the scorching sun, and sometimes, having to do with the heavy downpour whenever it rains to ensure his customer reaches their destination safely.
Ronald has a daily obligation of ensuring his boss (the owner of the motorbike) receives his daily fee of Ksh. 300, and so he has to work hard to make sure he has the money by the close of business every day. To him, every day is a working day.
In the field, he sits with many of his colleagues who never went past Standard 8, or some did not even make it past the lower primary. He has no choice but to contend with what puts food on the table. He has a wife and children. Sometimes he struggles to afford school fees for his children, but such is life.
Ronald is not alone. There are millions of people like him whose credentials are gathering dust in their houses. They even do not have safety locks to keep their certificates, they are suffering.
A visit to Muthurwa, Kamkunji, Gikomba, etc, you will find such men and women, SUFFERING in silence. Their only hope is that one day, their years in school will bear fruit.
But alas, when they thought someone had come to give them hope, they are again bombarded with the bitter truth that, KAZI NI KAZI. Now, again, their hope has been dashed. Ronald will continue riding the motorbike until, perhaps, his last day on earth.
What a sad moment for the youth of this country.
