Kenyan graduates will now find it easier to land a job if the new proposal by senate is anything to go by. The Senate wants the government to scrap clearance certificates as a requirement for those seeking employment at public institutions.
The legislators unanimously supported a petition by Nominated senator Isaac Mwaura which calls for scrapping of the documents, whose issuance attract a fee of not less that Sh1,000 each. This means that each job seeker will have to part with around 6,000. This amount, given the hard conditions of life,limited many job seekers as many were unable to afford it. Many Kenyan youths therefore ended up jobless or ended up in fields they had no expertise in.
The petition on fees charged to the youth when seeking for jobs and amounting to kshs 6,000 is covered in today’s daily nation and the standard.
We need to make sure that these fees are scrapped.Let’s discuss this and other current matters on Citizen TV now#YouthUnemployment pic.twitter.com/zKJINTeZeC
— Isaac Mwaura CBS MP (@MwauraIsaac1) October 24, 2018
The proposal by the senate will surely be a welcomed news to many young job seekers out there.
Currently, to land a job in Kenya one needs the certificates of good conduct, clearances from the Credit Reference Bureau, Ethics and Anti-corruption Commissions, Kenya Revenue Authority and the Higher Education Loans Board.
The propsal was made by nominated Senator Isaac Mwaura who also argues that the retirement age should be lowered from 60 to 55 years to create more employment opportunities for the youth.
“Majority of the youth seeking jobs cannot afford these costs especially during the transition from college to the job market,” Mr Mwaura said.
Nominated Senator Mary Seneta said the requirements are overburdening parents who have already paid huge amounts of fees.
Senator Christopher Langat (Bomet) argued that the youth are already facing enough obstacles and therefore there no need to impose more.
“We are sitting on a time bomb; our youth are very frustrated and when you add such bottlenecks, it hurts them more,” he said.
Mwaura’s proposal was also supported by Nairobi Senator Johnson Sakaja who said the levies is evidence of the government’s apathetic approach to issues affecting the youth.
According to a survey by the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS), seven million Kenyans are unemployed. Out of these, 1.4 million have been desperately looking for work. The rest have given up on job hunting, with some opting to go back for further studies.
According to the survey, up to 19.5 million Kenyans are active in the labour force, majority of them in low-cadre, poor-paying jobs.
In 2016, there were about 25 million Kenyans in the working-age bracket of between 15 and 64 years. Out of these, 78 per cent were economically active. Over half of the country’s working-age population has primary school level of education.
The working-age population is expected to increase to 28.5 million by 2020. About 4.2 million working-age Kenyans were either in college or secondary school, and not active in rolling the wheel of the economy. The report shows that 5.6 million working-age Kenyans were economically inactive.