Alfred, a university graduate may take his own life if he does not secure employment soon.
He expressed frustration in his search for a job, narrating how his peers were ridiculing him.
Alfred Kibet Kirui, graduated with Second Class Honours (Lower Division) degree in Soil, Water and Environmental Engineering from Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology last year and is frustrated ue to unemployment.
Ruth Rono, 27, from Baringo County also became the talk in most corners of the country after failing to get a job despite graduating with a First Class Honours degree from Chuka University three years ago.
Her sad story touched hearts, helping her land employment in one of the government corporations. It is Kibet’s argument that a degree certificate is just a piece of paper, however, that has elicited sharp reactions from the public and brought to the fore a discussion on the state of our education system and its contribution to the soaring unemployment rate.
In the face of a biting jobs shortage, many are lost on what needs to be done to correct the current situation.
Should we blame employers, institutions of higher learning or the graduates themselves? And are graduates airing their plight justified in doing so?
Figures from institutions of higher learning show that slightly above 600,000 people are graduates, out of about 30 million Kenyans in the working-age bracket of between 15 and 64 years.
According to a survey done by the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics last year, seven million people – translating to about 7.4 per cent of Kenyans – are unemployed, far from a 40 per cent figure that has formed the talk in most conversations targeting the employment sector.
Whereas the survey dismisses the argument that graduates form a huge population of the unemployed, it also paints another picture. That they are more when considering the number of young people actively searching for employment opportunities.
It revealed that nine in every ten unemployed Kenyans are 35 years of age and below.