What young Kenyans expect from President Kenyatta

Scholastic Changayo, a linguistics graduate from Marsabit County, said she was hopeful that President Kenyatta would honour his election campaign manifesto to create more jobs for the youth. PHOTO | JAMES KAHONGEH | NATION MEDIA GROUP

What you need to know:

  • Charles Okemwa, a media graduate from Kisii County, felt that Kenyans should now move away from politics and focus on building the country.
  • Eric Ogugu, a graduate teacher from Nakuru County, is optimistic that the Teachers Service Commission will hire more teachers in the next five years.

A number of young people have spoken out about their expectations, hope and aspirations during President Uhuru Kenyatta’s second and final five-year term in office, even as they lament about unemployment, polarisation of the country while calling for an enabling environment to conduct business in Kenya.

Caren Wangui, a third year student of Moi University from Murang’a County is hoping that in his second term in office, Uhuru Kenyatta will speedily solve the stalemate of university lecturers’ strike for her and her fellow students to go back to school.

LECTURER'S STRIKE

“We have barely learnt in this academic year. The learning programme has been affected twice this year by the lecturers’ strike. We hope Uhuru will pay lecturers so that we can finish our studies on time,” Wangui said.

Eric Ogugu, a graduate teacher from Nakuru County, is optimistic that the Teachers Service Commission will hire more teachers in the next five years.

“There is an acute shortage of primary school teachers in the country, yet there are so many graduate teachers who are yet to be employed. We hope that this time the government will take shorter time to address this shortage by hiring more teachers as soon as they graduate,” Ogugu said.

He added: “I am currently employed by the board of management in a school in Molo sub-county. The pay we receive as BOM teachers can’t sustain a young person who is about to start a family. The government should, therefore, ensure that teachers like me are paid well.”

HOPE

Diana Muga, a young farmer from Kitale in Trans-Nzoia County, was optimistic that the government would empower local farmers to produce foodstuffs to cater for the country’s needs.

“Kenya has the capacity to produce enough food for every citizen. It’s embarrassing for our people to die of famine. Why should we import maize when we have a productive country and a pleasant climate that supports agriculture?” Muga posed,

She added: “The government should empower more young graduates to venture into agribusiness. This would also reduce the worrying rate of unemployment in the country.”

Charles Okemwa, a media graduate from Kisii County, felt that Kenyans should now move away from politics and focus on building the country.

“The country has been on a standstill for virtually the whole year because of politics. We now need to focus on other things as Kenyans.”

HEALING

On uniting the country, Okemwa said that leaders have the responsibility to prevail upon their supporters to ensure that normalcy returns in the country as soon as possible.

“Kenyans should not be divided along political lines. After all we are united by the common challenges that we share such as poverty and joblessness as young people,” he said.

Scholastic Changayo, a linguistics graduate from Marsabit County, said she was hopeful that President Kenyatta would honour his election campaign manifesto to create more jobs for the youth.

“The government did not employ as many young people as it had promised during its first five years in office. We hope to see some change this time with more people being hired. I have been graduated two years now and I haven’t had any meaningful job,” Changayo said, adding that she would not mind any job offer from the government.