Graduate’s 20-year wait for job
What you need to know:
- Solomon Mwongela has remained jobless, only securing short contracts.
Every morning, Mr Solomon Mwongela thanks God for the Constitution, especially the establishment of devolved governments.
Mr Mwongela, 46, from Akaiga village in Tigania East Sub-County, graduated from Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology with a bachelor’s degree in Mathematics in 1995.
For close to 20 years, he remained jobless, only securing short contracts.
Being the first university graduate from Mukono Primary School, his joblessness had started to have a bad effect on villagers’ attitudes towards education.
“I had become a laughing stock,” Mr Mwongela says.
When this writer visited him in May last year, he was in a neighbour’s shamba doing casual jobs. He used to get between Sh150 and Sh250 a day.
The father of three now works from a furnished office. He says after filling and sending out over 260 job applications, the best he got were short contract jobs and regrets.
“I had lost hope but it seems my blessing was in devolution. I took part in two interviews and secured this job,” he says.
The county administrative officer went back to the village after a fire gutted his shack in Nairobi when he was looking for a job.
His greatest worry before securing the job were the constant SMS reminders from the Higher Education Loans Board that he owed the lender more than Sh400,000.
“I have even enrolled for a public administration course at the University of Nairobi,” Mr Mwongela recounts.
He has also started constructing a decent house in the village.
