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Kenya Unemployment woes |
SOCIAL CONDITION
There is a dishearteningly high rate of unemployment in Kenya
that has brought
in its wake a plethora of problems
The growth rate of job opportunities has been sliding downwards since 1970. While the population growth rate stands at 2.4 per cent a year, the growth rate of employment is only 1.9 per cent per year. Adding insult to injury is the unfortunate fact that at least 10,000 jobs have been slashed each year since 1997.
More than fifty two per cent of new job seekers fail to find employment. According to the International Labour Organisation (ILO), while 350,000 new jobs were created in Kenya last year (2000), there were still 148,000 people unable to find work.
This has resulted in a negative impact on society in general. Crime is on the increase; closely followed by prostitution, and worryingly, among girls who are not yet teenagers. Despite angry denials, it is a fact that some people operate brothels where young girls are «service providers», and are paid a paltry sum while being guarded closely against any attempt at escape.
Sad to say, a number of these girls are lured away from – and with agreement of – their parents, by promises of being found employment. With fifty three per cent of the rural population and forty nine per cent of the urban population living below the poverty line, many parents accept such offers with eagerness. However, while official attention in Kenya focuses mainly on child labour in factories and other forms of formal employment, many children suffer at home from being used as hired servants. The fact that these children are in most instances «employed» (at times they are not even paid) by their relatives, only worsens the situation.
Tricksters
The unemployment scene has also been a good breeding ground for tricksters. These either work as agencies or individuals, demanding a lot of money with promises of plum jobs that never materialise. Indeed, some of these tricksters take the money and then mysterious «disappear», changing locations frequently. It seems that it’s sufficient to place a well-written «ad» in the newspapers, provide an address to which desperate job seekers can refer to, and «bobs your uncle», you’ve got a victim.
These pseudo employment agencies charge anything from a few thousand shillings, to as much as fifty thousand shillings from a prospective client seeking employment. Promised jobs can even be (and frequently are) given as being available in foreign countries.
Go into one such office and on the wall you’ll see hanging an apparently genuine certificate proclaiming that the owner is a genuine employment agent. And they’re wise, these tricksters. They won’t consider everyone. Indeed, they require fairly reasonable qualifications from those seeking employment. On the other hand, some agencies will promise high salaries but state nothing as to qualifications required. Others even state that no qualification is necessary!
Employers who are genuinely seeking personnel are sometimes duped by prospective employees. A certain Dr. F.O. Were was conned by a «nurse» who claimed to have highly-placed connections at State House, and to be a relative of Tanzania’s President Benjamin Mkapa. «She really took me in», said Dr. Were. «She had such a likeable character that no one, not even the most doubtful of Thomases, would not have believed her».
Kenya’s unemployment problem is set to rise but it would be prudent to consider carefully Dr. Were’s warning: «I believe conmen (both men and women) study their victims before they strike. It’s a deadly game of wits, where the smarter one emerges victorious. It could happen to you!»
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