First daughter Charlene Ruto on Wednesday February 7 delved into the issue of unemployment in Kenya, advising millions of jobless youths who are struggling to make ends meet.
In a media interview, Charlene passionately advocated for young people to take charge of their futures by forging their own paths rather than waiting for elusive job opportunities.
Highlighting the stark reality of limited job prospects for the youth, Charlene emphasized the need for proactive measures, urging her peers to explore alternative avenues to secure their livelihoods.
“The best thing we can do for our young people is create opportunities for them. I’d like to call on our young people, let’s not sit and be lazy,” she posed.
She shared her own experience of being inundated with resumes from desperate young job seekers, underscoring the urgency of the unemployment crisis.
“Through our organizations, if maybe we were to employ as many people as people, because I cannot tell you the number of CVs on my desk and the requests for jobs, maybe we would employ 3,000 young people.”
“It is a drop in the ocean, we are 70% of the over 50 million population of Kenya,” she reflected, acknowledging the immense challenge posed by the sheer number of job seekers compared to available positions.
With Kenya’s youth constituting a significant portion of the population, she stressed the importance of creating opportunities and leveraging networks to empower young entrepreneurs.
As the patron of the Smachs Foundation, Charlene reiterated her commitment to supporting youth-driven initiatives and encouraged aspiring entrepreneurs to pursue their passions relentlessly.
Also Read: Govt Clarifies Charlene Ruto’s Absence After Appointment as Blood Ambassador
Charlene Ruto Shares her Beekeeping Business
“I’ve grown up knowing about the farm life. On our farm we started doing beekeeping but more for pollination services. I started looking at it from an agribusiness perspective and I realized the potential that beekeeping has as a business,” she said.
She emphasized the value of innovation and creativity, urging young Kenyans to approach her with tangible ideas and projects rather than generic pleas for employment.
“You are passionate about something, don’t give up on that. Reach out to us and give us your idea.
I give a listening ear to somebody who has already started something, and I can see where they are going, and I can put something in other than somebody who is like ‘give me a job’…which job?” She posed.
She further urged the youth to be innovative in projects such as tree planting and beekeeping promising to give a listening ear and support to their projects.
Charlene added that these projects will empower Kenyan youth by providing them with capital, agricultural training, agribusiness lessons, and government funding.
Also Read: Govt Clarifies Charlene Ruto’s Absence After Appointment as Blood Ambassador
Unemployment in Kenya
The Kenya National Bureau of Statistics has put the figure of the unemployed Kenyans at 2.97 million a number which is on the rise as the cost of living and additional taxes have led to job losses in the last one year.
Data by the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) states the unemployment rate in the country decreased to 4.90 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2022, from 5.30 per cent in the third quarter of 2022.
Kenyans residing in urban areas are more affected than their counterparts in rural areas. In the survey, 4.8 percent of graduands were among unemployed Kenyans.
The Government is however deliberately implementing programmes and policies that will create jobs for the youth.
President William Ruto said there is need for urgent, intentional and strategic measures to address unemployment in the country.
He said the Government has identified the Affordable Housing Program, digital jobs and export of labor as some of the programmes that will be exploited to create jobs.
“Unless we intentionally work on programmes that create jobs, we will continue to have millions of our young people in the streets jobless as the unemployment crisis escalates,” he said during the official opening of the Trans-Nzoia Community ICT hub in Kitale.
“Already, 120,000 young people are monetizing their talents at digital hubs that are being established at technical training institutions and ICT hubs in the wards. We want to grow that number to 500,000 by the end of this year,” he added.
