Our Kenya

Uhuru Youth Unemployment Policy

5 min read

Youth unemployment was one of Kenya's most critical challenges during Uhuru Kenyatta's presidency, with over 60 percent of Kenya's population under 25 and youth unemployment rates exceeding 35 percent by some estimates. Uhuru's government launched several initiatives targeting youth employment, including the National Youth Service (NYS) program (before it became synonymous with the NYS Scandal), Ajira Digital program training youth for online work, Kazi Mtaani (work in neighborhoods) cash-for-work during COVID-19, and the Youth Enterprise Development Fund. However, these programs were undermined by corruption, limited scale, and the structural reality that Kenya's economy was not creating jobs fast enough to absorb hundreds of thousands of young people entering the labor market annually.

The NYS program, originally designed to provide paramilitary training and skills development for young Kenyans, was rebranded and expanded under Uhuru as a flagship youth employment initiative. The vision was for NYS to train tens of thousands of youth in construction, agriculture, and other trades, then deploy them on infrastructure projects across Kenya. For a time, NYS did provide opportunities: young people received training, stipends, and work experience. However, the massive corruption that saw over KES 9 billion stolen through procurement fraud destroyed the program's credibility and effectiveness. The scandal revealed that programs meant to help youth were being looted by politically connected networks, a betrayal that fueled youth political anger.

Ajira Digital, launched in 2016, represented a different approach: training youth for the global digital economy. The program provided digital skills training (web development, graphic design, data entry, digital marketing) and connected graduates with online work platforms where they could earn income from international clients. Ajira Digital was innovative and aligned with global trends toward remote work and digital nomadism. However, its scale was limited (tens of thousands trained over several years compared to millions unemployed), access was concentrated among already-educated urban youth, and questions persisted about whether online gig work paying a few dollars per task constituted meaningful employment or just digital-era exploitation.

Kazi Mtaani (work in neighborhoods) emerged during the COVID-19 pandemic as a emergency cash-for-work program. The government hired thousands of youth, particularly in informal settlements, to clean drainage systems, collect waste, and improve infrastructure in their neighborhoods. Beneficiaries received daily wages, providing critical income during lockdowns when other economic opportunities disappeared. The program was popular and visible, with tangible environmental improvements in many neighborhoods. However, it was temporary, corruption in selection and payment processes was rampant, and once funding ended, participants returned to unemployment. Kazi Mtaani demonstrated that government could create jobs through direct public employment, but also that such programs required sustained funding and institutional capacity Kenya lacked.

The Youth Enterprise Development Fund, established pre-Uhuru but expanded during his presidency, aimed to provide credit and business development support to youth entrepreneurs. The fund offered loans at concessional rates for youth starting or expanding businesses. However, like many Kenyan government credit programs, it faced implementation challenges: loan recovery rates were low, political interference in allocation was rampant, many beneficiaries lacked business skills to succeed, and the fund's impact on overall youth employment was marginal. Critics argued that entrepreneurship, while important, could not be the primary solution for youth unemployment when most young people lacked capital, networks, and skills to succeed as entrepreneurs.

The structural problem Uhuru's government never solved was job creation at scale. Kenya's economy was growing at 4-5 percent annually, insufficient to absorb the 800,000+ young people entering the labor market each year. The manufacturing pillar of the Big Four Agenda, meant to create hundreds of thousands of factory jobs, failed to deliver. Agriculture, which employed most Kenyans, was in decline due to climate change, land fragmentation, and productivity constraints. The service sector growth was concentrated in low-productivity informal activities (matatu touts, street hawkers, salon operators) that provided survival income but not decent employment. Uhuru's government built infrastructure but the construction jobs were temporary, and many went to Chinese workers on SGR and other Chinese-financed projects.

The political consequences of youth unemployment were significant in the 2022 election. William Ruto's "hustler" narrative resonated powerfully with young Kenyans who felt excluded from Uhuru's Kenya. The image of a president and his allies living lavishly while youth struggled resonated. Programs like NYS and Ajira, meant to demonstrate government responsiveness, were too limited in scale and too corrupted to change perceptions. The combination of high youth unemployment, rising cost of living, massive debt accumulated for infrastructure that didn't create jobs, and visible elite enrichment created a youth demographic deeply alienated from Uhuru and open to Ruto's anti-establishment message, regardless of whether Ruto would actually deliver differently.

See Also

Sources

  1. "Youth Unemployment in Kenya: Trends and Policy Responses," Institute of Economic Affairs Kenya, 2020. https://www.ieakenya.or.ke/publications/youth-unemployment-kenya
  2. "Ajira Digital Program Evaluation," World Bank Kenya, 2021. https://www.worldbank.org/en/country/kenya/publication/ajira-digital-evaluation
  3. "Kazi Mtaani: Impact Assessment," Ministry of Labour and Social Protection Kenya, 2021. https://labour.go.ke/kazi-mtaani-impact-assessment/
  4. "Kenya's Youth Bulge and the Employment Challenge," African Development Bank, 2022. https://www.afdb.org/en/documents/kenya-youth-bulge-employment-challenge

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