Running Head: YOUTH UNEMPLOYMENT IN KENYA 1 UNEMPLOYMENT IN KENYA 6 Youth Unemployment in Kenya Kenya is one of the developing countries in Africa that experiences a high rate of unemployment particularly among the youth. Unemployment is considered as a situation where able-bodied people looking for a job are not capable of finding. Despite the attempt made by the government to make primary and secondary education free, the rate of unemployment among the youth is increasing. According to ILO, unemployment rate can be considered as the number of the people without employment within an age group divided by the age group’s labor force (Africa Check, 2018). One of the most recent survey done by the Basic Labor Force in 2015/2016 and released in 2018 reported that around 1.22 million unemployed Kenyans are between 15-34 years. According to Africa Check (2018), this number makes up to 11.4% of those who are part of the labor force. This placed the official unemployment rate to be at 11.4%. Around 20.9% of those aged between 15-34 years were visibly unemployed (Africa Check, 2018). For the millions of unemployed young Kenyans, unemployment has made life for them brutal and harsh with each day remaining a gamble and meeting basic needs becoming a difficult challenge to handle. It is sad enough that in Kenya, education has not changed much regarding youth unemployment. Several young people in the country have either been financed or have incurred a large debt to get an education but they still find themselves unable to secure a decent job like the early generation could. Consequently, most young Kenyans often find themselves running informal businesses, work in sectors that were long neglected by the private and public sectors. It is unfortunate that young people are expected to be entrepreneurs themselves out of poverty with absolutely no support structures in place, and continues to downgrade to subsistence living (Awiti & Scott, 2016). Like in many countries, young people are told that they can be entrepreneurs and create jobs but not all people are entrepreneurs. Kenyan government takes a big percentage of the blame because it is responsible for creating job opportunities for its citizens. Some of the reasons behind the rising cases on unemployment among the youth include: Corruption – This has proved to be one of the reasons for unemployment and underdevelopment for most countries across the world. However, in Kenya, the vice seems to have its roots deeps in the ground. Corruption has taken over the well-being of the country with political leaders as the initiators. There is a mentality that if you do not have connections, you cannot find a job and it is slowly gaining ground as one can hardly get a job without a connection (Hope, 2012). This is mainly caused by nepotism and triba.

1. Running Head: YOUTH UNEMPLOYMENT IN KENYA
1
UNEMPLOYMENT IN KENYA
6
Youth Unemployment in Kenya
Kenya is one of the developing countries in Africa that
experiences a high rate of unemployment particularly among the
youth. Unemployment is considered as a situation where able-
bodied people looking for a job are not capable of finding.
Despite the attempt made by the government to make primary
and secondary education free, the rate of unemployment among
the youth is increasing. According to ILO, unemployment rate
can be considered as the number of the people without
employment within an age group divided by the age group’s
labor force (Africa Check, 2018). One of the most recent survey
done by the Basic Labor Force in 2015/2016 and released in
2018 reported that around 1.22 million unemployed Kenyans are
between 15-34 years. According to Africa Check (2018), this
number makes up to 11.4% of those who are part of the labor
force. This placed the official unemployment rate to be at
11.4%. Around 20.9% of those aged between 15-34 years were
visibly unemployed (Africa Check, 2018).
For the millions of unemployed young Kenyans, unemployment

2. has made life for them brutal and harsh with each day remaining
a gamble and meeting basic needs becoming a difficult
challenge to handle. It is sad enough that in Kenya, education
has not changed much regarding youth unemployment. Several
young people in the country have either been financed or have
incurred a large debt to get an education but they still find
themselves unable to secure a decent job like the early
generation could. Consequently, most young Kenyans often find
themselves running informal businesses, work in sectors that
were long neglected by the private and public sectors. It is
unfortunate that young people are expected to be entrepreneurs
themselves out of poverty with absolutely no support structures
in place, and continues to downgrade to subsistence living
(Awiti & Scott, 2016). Like in many countries, young people
are told that they can be entrepreneurs and create jobs but not
all people are entrepreneurs.
Kenyan government takes a big percentage of the blame because
it is responsible for creating job opportunities for its citizens.
Some of the reasons behind the rising cases on unemployment
among the youth include:
Corruption – This has proved to be one of the reasons for
unemployment and underdevelopment for most countries across
the world. However, in Kenya, the vice seems to have its roots
deeps in the ground. Corruption has taken over the well-being
of the country with political leaders as the initiators. There is a
mentality that if you do not have connections, you cannot find a
job and it is slowly gaining ground as one can hardly get a job
without a connection (Hope, 2012). This is mainly caused by
nepotism and tribalism which are common norms in the country
today.
Low levels of Education – Kenya is one of the countries in
Africa that have financed free primary and secondary education
(Escudero & Mourelo, 2014). This has increased the number of
students joining universities as every individual is given equal
access to education. However, a good number of the students
still do not get proper education when it comes to tertiary level

3. because of inability to pay for school fees or lack of access to
good educational facilities. This has been a great nightmare for
those who seek employment because at the end of the day, they
would need to get a job to help feed themselves and even the
family. However, no company would be willing to employ
someone who cannot meet the educational requirements that
they consider.
Government offer Contracts to Foreign Firms – This is a major
point of blame that the government takes when it comes to
fulfilling its promises of creating employment opportunities.
The country has universities that offer good engineering courses
but in rare cases will you find a graduate from the local
universities being awarded a contract for the construction of
roads or generally in the construction industry. In most cases,
the contracts are awarded to Chinese contractors who do both
managerial and handwork and only a few Kenyans offering
unworthy man-power yet there are so many Kenyans with
relatively matching or better skills who can competently offer
such services.
Emergence of non-certified Universities and Colleges – In the
recent years, it is reported that several colleges and universities
that are not ISO-certified have emerged offering formal
education to Kenyans. Some universities in Kenya have been
offering courses that do not exists in the job market, in order to
make more profit from fee collection. This has rendered many
students who graduate from these colleges jobless because they
cannot get a job that matches their skills. Some years back, it
was established that Nairobi Aviation College was giving fake
certificates to non-qualified students (Nairobi News, 2015).
This exposed part of the rot that exists in Kenyan Universities
and colleges. The government nullified all certificates from the
college even after a number of Kenyans happily graduated.
Some of them even lost jobs and those who were seeking
employment with such certificates could be turned down
immediately.
Poor Industrial Sector – The country’s industrial sector is fast

4. growing today, however, it still cannot offer enough
employment opportunities for growing number of youths. A
large percentage of Kenyans have good skills and services to
offer but they cannot get placed to give them out (Gachugia,
Mulu-Mutuku, & Odero-Wanga, 2014). This calls for the
government to put more effort in the promotion of the industrial
sector to provide better and improved employment opportunities
for the youths.
One of the major reasons for the increasing unemployment rate
is the large percentage of population growth. This has made
many Kenyans get it hard to find jobs and earn money because
the few opportunities that exists are a scramble to get. Some of
the measures that the country should take include development
of the rural areas. A large percentage of the unemployed youths
are in the rural areas. It is important for the government to
spread more industries and offer more incentives for investors
to build more industries in the rural areas to enable the
community people to get employment (Hope, 2012). This would
create more employment opportunities within the rural areas.
The current education system has been a major blame for the
high unemployment rates among the youth. The education is
based on the general performance of a student rather than
focusing on the potential of a student. This has made passing of
exams a priority for many hence not focusing on their talents
and abilities. However, in the recent budget, the Kenyan
government has increased expenditure on development project
with youth employment a target. Most importantly, the
government has made huge steps in protecting the local
industries to shield them from the tough competition they
experience from foreign companies that bring in cheap products
to kill the potential growth of the local industries. As the local
sectors expand, they provide more employment opportunities for
the youths. Even though great steps have been taken by the
Kenyan government to reduce unemployment in the country, the
number of youths especially graduates who are unemployed is
continuing to increase.

5. References
Africa Check (2018) ANALYSIS: How many young Kenyans
are unemployed? A look at the numbers. Retrieved from
https://africacheck.org/2018/10/08/analysis-how-many-young-
kenyans-are-unemployed-a-look-at-the-numbers/
Awiti, A., & Scott, B. (2016). The Kenya youth survey report.
Escudero, V., & Mourelo, E. L. (2014). Understanding the
drivers of the youth labour market in Kenya. In Disadvantaged
Workers (pp. 203-228). Springer, Cham.
Gachugia, T. M., Mulu-Mutuku, M., & Odero-Wanga, D.
(2014). Role of youth enterprise development fund in curbing
youth unemployment in Kenya. European Journal of Social
Sciences, Arts and Humanities, 2(2), 1-11.
Hope Sr, K. R. (2012). Engaging the youth in Kenya:
empowerment, education, and employment. International
Journal of Adolescence and Youth, 17(4), 221-236.
Nairobi News (2015) Investigators confirm rot at Nairobi
Aviation college. retrieved from
https://nairobinews.nation.co.ke/news/investigators-confirm-rot-
at-nairobi-aviation-college