Unemployment is a big concern in any society. This is because;
employment is one of the tools for wealth creation at both the individual and
national level. The rate of unemployment in Kenya is estimated to be 40% of the
labour force with youth taking 67% of the total.[1] Most of
the unemployed youth in Kenya have been through the formal education system but
do not have any vocational or professional skills.[2] Graduates from primary and secondary school
make for 82% of the unemployed and university students make up for 1.4% of the
unemployed. The youth who make up 75% of the total population are the mostly
affected by unemployment.
This article features youth unemployment in Pumwani. Pumwani is an
administrative area in Nairobi, which houses the largest public maternity
hospital in Kenya. It has an estimated population of about 29,616 people.
Unemployment is quite dominant in Pumwani, which houses a myriad of youth who
are unemployed either due to lack of willingness to get formal or informal employment,
due to lack of formal education or lack of employment opportunities. However,
there are a number of young people whose unwillingness to seek any form of
employment causes them to venture of into the world of self employment. These
particular individuals become an inspiration to many other who still hang on
the ideal of getting employment as opposed to creating jobs for themselves and
their peers.
Jared Okoth is one of the young people in Pumwani who together with
his peers has created employment for themselves and many other youths in
Pumwani. He is 30years of age, engaged to one beautiful Roselyne Opondo and
loves watching movies as a hobby. He and his peers are in the poultry business,
which is their source of livelihood.
They
started the poultry business over two years ago and their focus is broilers,
which are chicken reared mainly for consumption. They get 100 one-day-old
chicks from Kenchick industrial area at the rate of Kshs. 50/- each, a deal,
which comes with two free chicks. Kenchick provides support in terms of free
training for their clientele that includes basic skills on building the poultry
house, information on the best chicken feeds and medication.
The group has to buy chicken feeds for Kshs. 3,800/- per 70 kg,
which will last the chicks for one week. The chicks are reared for 6 months
after which they are ready for market and are sold for a price of between 450
to 500 shillings. Jared sells his chicken in Barma market, City market and to
private households. His main marketing strategy is by word of mouth making it
mandatory the group to not short-change their customers. Initially the group
was making a profit of 2000 shillings after the rearing cycle but presently
they make a profit of about Kshs. 8,000.
Nevertheless, the group faces a number of challenges, first is the
feeds are too expensive thus reducing their profit margin. Secondly, the
chicken may be under-weight after the rearing cycle meaning that they fetch
less, since they are sold according to their weight.
In bids to expand their business, the group tried to access the
youth enterprise fund. The youth enterprise fund is an initiative by the Kenyan
government that was established to counter youth unemployment. The government
set aside 1 billion Kenya shillings in the financial year of 2006/07 and
consequent years through the fund in order to provide loans to youth owned
enterprises. However, Jared and the group found it difficult to access the government
loan due to first, the fact the fund only gives 50,000 shillings as a loan.
This to Jared was not enough for them to effectively expand their business. In
addition the above, the authorities disbursing the funds, ask for a bribe of 5%
of the total loan in order to process the money for the youth groups.
Despite the foregoing challenges, Jared and his peers are still very
optimistic about their future. For Jared, he sees himself as a large business
and land owner in the future, with three bright kids. He hopes to give his wife
and kids a life, better than the one he had.
His message to other young people is,
“I believe young people should not focus too much on getting formal
employment. If you look at our country, the opportunities for formal employment
are quite limited. If we bank too much on formal employment we will all turn
out to be thieves just to survive, and for me that is not a choice.”
If you would like to buy chicken from Jared and his group, kindly
reach him on 0736 680 438.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Your thoughts?