Give reasons why there are high number of educated but not employed persons in Kenya

- Unemployment in the country is particularly high with Senior Secondary School Certificate
holders because this class of job seekers do not have any particular skill or skills. They merely
acquired general education. Nobody talks of Primary School graduates because this category of
people is just starting their education. There is a large measure of expansion in the education
sector which is not as much as the expansion in the economy.
- A second reason for the large measure of unemployment amongst primary and secondary school
holders is because of the content of our educational curricular. Unfortunately, most primary and
secondary schools are yet to re- orientate themselves for vocational and technical education. Even with
the new National Policy on Education, most students in our secondary schools have not
embraced technical and vocation education. This is because of the wrong orientation of students
towards technical and vocational education. Most students are not interested in technical and
vocational education which is job – oriented.
- We must state at this juncture that unemployment is already being observed with respect to graduates
of Colleges of Education, Polytechnics and Universities. This is particularly with Arts and Social
Science Graduates and not with Science and Science-related discipline.
- Another characteristic of the Kenyan unemployment situation is that although there is a large
measure of unemployment, there is scarcity of skilled labour. This fact is supported by Eze (1983)
who attributed this to the fault of the country’s educational system which does not emphasize
vocational and technical skills. This is why mechanics, electricians, masons, stenographers, welders etc
are in short supply.
- The Kenyan Government is also to be blame because of the salaries and incentives offered to
those with vocational and technical education. There are no special incentives provided for those with
such skills over others who do not possess such skills. This set of graduates do not also rise as fast as those with no skills in the civil service so in the public service, skilled workers tend to lag more
behind in terms of promotion opportunity than those without special skill. For instance in the
Ministry of Works and Housing; plumbers, electricians, fitters and overseers tends to stagnate in
terms of promotion and earnings as compared with general clerical officers or executive officers. It is
necessary to point out that even at the higher level in the public service, graduates of Arts and
Social sciences who are employed as administrative officers within a short time rise to higher
positions and earn more than engineers, architects and graduate teachers.
- One other characteristic in the Kenyan Labour Market as noted by Eze (1983) is lack of
uniformity in the spread of unemployment amongst the products of our educational system
throughout the country.
- Employers of labour in Kenya tend to be tied to government policies which generally favour the
employment of people of state of origin. It is no secret that there still exists in the country
ethnic and state considerations and sentiments which tend to militate against employment based on
merit and the need of the employers. It is sad to note that most state governments of the
federation openly and privately pursue this as a policy. Most applicants in some states of the
country do not like to seek employment outside their home states. The reason is because of the
attitude of employers of labour towards them. Also, many job seekers feel that they are more
secure in their home states.

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raphael answered the question on August 4, 2021 at 06:14