Why World Bank is pumping billions into Kazi kwa Vijana

A Sh5.6 billion programme to tackle unemployment is expected to provide income to hundreds of thousands of youths in the next few months as the grand coalition government moves to address a problem a report lists as one of the main reasons for the 2008 post-election violence.

The Kenya Youth Empowerment Project is viewed as one of the most ambitious attempts ever to deal with unemployment in East Africa.

The growing emphasis on the creation of jobs stems from the realisation that the grand coalition government has not done much to address a crucial segment of the accord that required coalition principals – Mwai Kibaki and Raila Odinga – to create jobs for the youth.

The programme will be divided into three sections, including an effort to export 10,000 youth into the international job market every year from 2011.

Another component of the initiative involves offering immediate internships to about 11,000 primary and secondary school leavers between the ages of 15 and 29.

They will be retained by employers under the umbrella of the Kenya Private Sector Association (Kepsa) and will be paid about Sh6,000 a month in a programme expected to cost Sh1.2 billion.

The Youth Enterprise Fund will be strengthened with additional budgetary funds in a bid to boost entrepreneurship.

The scheme is meant to expand the Kazi Kwa Vijana Initiative to offer wages to thousands of youth.

The World Bank and the government are jointly financing the plan that will be coordinated by the Prime Minister’s office.

“I think the initiative is welcome because there is probably no greater challenge this nation faces than mass youth unemployment,” said Umuru Wario, chief executive officer of the Youth Fund. “It is either we tackle it, or the country explodes.”

According to the Waki report on the bloodletting that followed the disputed 2007 General Election, one of the factors that contributed to the fighting was the large number of idle youth. The report said lack of a regular income meant many youth were eager to join militias to earn a living.

A 2004 World Bank social development report rated Kenya as one of six countries that face a high risk of conflict due to demographic pressure resulting from the large number of idle youths.

A key architect of the latest initiative was former Youth PS Kinuthia Murugu, who made a presentation on the subject to the National Economic and Social Council on October 4, 2008.

He pointed out that by 2012, there would be 16 million Kenyans between the ages of 18 and 35, and the number will rise to 24 million by 2017.

Despite this, he said, there were no deliberate attempts to combat the problem.

Among the solutions he proposed was an initiative to export jobs, modelled on a similar effort in the Philippines, which has an estimated 9.1 million of its citizens working abroad.

That proposal has been adopted and a Cabinet memo on the subject seen by the Sunday Nation has been approved.

The scheme will involve registered employment agencies being given the task of advertising for jobs and recruiting potential beneficiaries. Successful candidates would receive help from various government organs including the Youth Fund.

According to Mr Wario, the organisation will offer the recruits pre-departure training, including tutorials on the culture of the nations in which they will be working.

They will also carry out due diligence on employers abroad in collaboration with the International Organisation of Migration and help them obtain visas.

Successful candidates who cannot afford air fare will receive a loan which they will be required to repay when in employment.

The second component of the project is an expansion of the Kazi Kwa Vijana Initiative that was rolled out in 2009 to offer young unemployed Kenyans a chance to earn subsistence income.

They are expected to take part in infrastructure development projects and other community initiatives identified at the local level.
Economists say this method has been used to tackle unemployment in countries with a “youth bulge”. But they say the government must find more sustainable means of keeping the youth in work.

“We must start somewhere,” said Dr Samuel Nyandemo, an economist at the University of Nairobi. “That is why temporary jobs help. In the long-term, we must be able to help the youth to get proper employment or set up entrepreneurial enterprises in which they can earn proper income and get the capacity to invest and create jobs.”

The internship programme is supposed to help 11,000 youths gain work experience in the private sector.

Kepsa has already received Sh1.2 billion to finance the initiative which targets youth between 15 and 29 years of age. Kepsa CEO Carol Kariuki was quoted in Business Daily last week saying Kepsa was in touch with its members to work out how to absorb the youth recruited into the programme.

Allied with these initiatives is an effort to expand the Youth Enterprise Fund, which is in its fifth year of existence.

The fund has been marked by low repayment rates for some categories of loans it has offered, especially those that were not issued through intermediary financial institutions like banks.

Speaking in Washington when the World Bank board approved the project, Johannes Zutt, the bank’s director for Kenya, said the country ignores the problem of youth unemployment at its own peril.