The promise of employment after college is a fallacy orchestrated by the current static educational system. The system has immensely taught good students, bad habits, not to mention the fact that seeking employment in today's Kenya is almost an oxymoron. It is a hoax, a nugatory and a pointless habit of seeking nonexistent jobs. This unavailing promise has caused all manner of hopelessness to all who believe and continue to believe in the creed.

The current education system is to a student memorization of dogma, formulas and creeds to attain a 'good' score. It defines what a good score is but doesn't explain how a good score guarantees a decent livelihood. The academic system should embark on a mission to produce students who are competent, innovative and self-reliant.

Most students, if not all, are working hard on that false premise of employment. But what we have gotten over the years are desperate CV carriers with no inspiration knocking down doors looking for fictional jobs. Others are posing at strategic corners with job- seeking placards. That is a blatant display of a failed education system.

Every graduate throws their caps in the air but with a furtive emotion of what follows the hype. The math has been well calculated, English so well-articulated, science so well understood, the dogma so well seated in the mind but life ahead is precarious. A degree has become a torch with a dull light. As useless as a fork in the sugar jar.

The call to action

We have heard these one-size-fits-all calls to action such as, ‘Education is the Key to the Future’ , Education is Power' , ‘Study to Excel’ , 'Aim Higher' , ‘Education is Excellence!’ etc. While they sound genuine in their face value, they are also in all essence misleading.

Misleading because of the way they are explained and understood by students. For instance, when I was in primary school our motto was, ‘study to excel’. But excelling in my teachers’ understanding was working at a bank, post office or any job that required a suit and a tie.

A banker was hailed. Bankers were used as good examples while farmers were used as bad examples. Many times was when I had gotten a C grade and was told I would end up like Thomas the farmer instead of Larry the banker.

This is a fact that was dearly nuzzled into our brains and galvanized into our souls that education was only important to seek employment and that it was the sole purpose of attending school. Petrified, we indulged.

That is what excelling was taught to me. That was what academic success was taught to all those pauperized students who today are still lining up in front of a bank trying to – you know – excel. Most ended in farming and now they walk sheepish because they think they have failed.

Employment a hoax to many

New trained teachers are unfortunately still begging the government to hire more teachers. Actually, everybody is begging the government to find employment for every Kenyan. The already employed teachers, nurses and doctors are on perpetual strikes.

Unemployment rate is astronomical. And most of us who completed a degree, do not even work anywhere close to what we studied in college.

A marketer is a clerk, an economist is a driver distributing liquor, a supplier is selling insurance door to door, a lawyer is farming, and a teacher is doing nothing! And the country is doing, well, nothing!

It is a fatuous optimism. The promise of a job after graduation is a farce. And even when we get the job, it is inefficacious. Salary never commensurate the workload.

What now?

I am calling for a different call to action. A motto of independence. Self-reliance. The people you work for are job creators. They are giving you an opportunity to afford food and rent and other basics as you figure out your independence.

They do not really care about your financial future as long as their is invulnerable. Their responsibility is to feed you so you are able to report the following day. They have got their future figured out by having you work for them.

So, I can go on and on. But I do not want to say what has already been said and what you already know. I want to remind you that education is not really meant for employment. Education is meant for, yeah, just that – education and knowledge! To empower. A tool to use on the roadway to independence not to become a forever employee. This is a truth that is not well riveted into many students minds or is marred with ostensible assurances of employment.

Part of the reason we have a shortage of jobs is because the older generation are still at work and have refused to create their self reliant sources of income and leave employment to the younger generation so they too can create theirs.

So, what to allude? Can students learn better skills of self-reliance? Can students shift their mentality to courses that kit them to financial independence? Can we have an educational system that its main mission is to manufacture independent and innovative citizens? How can we resolve this issue of unemployment now and change the course for the future generations?

Sadly, we already have too many educated folks with no employment and we continue to manufacture more and more to join the quagmire. That cannot be smart. Can it? But we keep doing it. And what degrees are our students taking that even when they graduate with honors, they still dawdle? How does a student, graduate from college after four years of hard work, I assume, only to sit twiddling thumbs waiting for employment? How do we explain that as a society?

George Couros in his book, The Innovator’s Mindset, features a 17-year-old Kate Simonds speaking at TEDx Talks. Kate says, “ Look at our education system; as students, we have no say on what we learn or how we learn it, yet we’re expected to absorb it all, take it all in, and be able to run the world some day. We’re expected to raise our hands to use the toilet, then [some time later] be ready to go to college or have a full-time job, support ourselves, and live on our own. It's not logical.”

Time is now to look over these issues and think like we are meant to do.

Schools of trade

After learning basic math, English and science and basic college classes, a student should be willing and inspired to focus on trade. Trade is defined by google dictionary as, ‘the action of buying and selling goods and services. That is all the definition we need. Goods and services.

We should also be keen to note that, a nation that is only dependent on employees’ taxes makes a fragile economy. And a fragile economy is then bound, by logic, to create more employment in order to collect more taxes. That is the case of the United States even though theirs is not a case of fragility. Theirs is a case of creating employment and they have done it since that country’s inception.

They focus on employing 80% of their citizens so they can spend more. This is why American economy is a consumer based economy. Citizens have tremendous buying power also enabled by credit cards. Without employment, no bank would offer a credit card as in the case of Kenya. No employment, equals to no source of income. No bank credit, results to no citizens buying power. Dwarfed economy. Poverty.

So we need to create employment for the masses that are crying for it. We need a working nation. We are fragile because most of our folks are not at work and have never been. Their work however, is looking for work! So, this country needs to create employment as if there is nothing else to do. And by ‘country’, I am not only referring to the government. My regard mostly is to the citizens. All citizens.

To create employment, we need a strong base of innovators. Creators of employment not beggars of it. Kenya needs people with enthusiasm and inspiration to solve issues instead of adding to the issues. In the words of John F Kennedy, the 35th President of the United States, “Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.”

The culture of seeking employment harbors the attitude of entitlement. Placing futile demands to the government that is not willing, or not prioritizing, or simply incapable of meeting such demands. It is a self-defeating ordeal.


Self-defeating in the sense that the government does not budge, and society becomes desperate and ends up begrudging the government. A vicious circle which makes the entire country become toxic politically. It is like one hundred grown men in front of their father’s grass thatched house asking for a portion of the only one acre of land. It's not logical.

Even the most progressive government will not do everything for its citizens. No government has done that, and no government ever will. Even the governments that resulted in socialism such as China and communism such as Russia, in the pursuit of providing everything to their people, flattered their vanity by promising more than they could offer. It does not work. It never did.

All what citizens need is a conducive environment to become creative, to conduct trade. But no one ever talks resolutely about the citizen’s responsibility towards building the economy by creating employment. This particular citizens responsibility is implied but never exhorted. They are bequeathed to every utilizable citizen. What we have heard though, are numerous, boundless, continuous attempts to make governments do everything.

We need to harness the power of self-empowerment. Citizens ready with a brick and mortar to build their country not a pan and a coin to beg.

Think of what millionaires and billionaires within the borders of Kenya, would accomplish if they all adopt a resolute mission to create employment. But before I get to that, indulge me for a moment. Let’s say the government puts up a policy whereby, all government employees only sign up a ten-year contract after which, the person is required to have attained their own self-employment. This would mean that after every ten years, we would have other unemployed folks joining the workforce for the next ten years. And it goes on and on. If this were a book, I would explain it in depth. But pause and think about it.

That the available scarce employments are only meant for creating initial capital for citizens to invest in trade and business as one wishes. For instance, someone who has been working for the government or a corporate for forty years, has occupied a job for three other people who would have already completed their tenure and created other employments. You say that this is a bad idea and that it would create a serious bureaucratic issue and that there is no enough jobs to go around to benefit all. But isn’t the current situation much worse already? Let's look at other fronts that could bring change in this country.

The wealthy front

We could use the wealthy who have a heart for a nation with no political motivations. Wealthy philanthropic. Not to chuck freebies but to become progressivists. Groundbreakers. Creators. That instead of being utilizers and manipulators of an already failed system, we can put an effort to repair and create frontiers. People with substantial financial capabilities should create innovative sources of employment. Because all the beggars of employment are claiming capital to be their biggest challenge, wealthy folks should have no trouble with this idea.

Adopt great schemes of eliminating poverty such as Mohammad, Yunus''* idea of creating Grameen banks in Bangladesh, a dare-dream-project that brought him to the World's pinnacle. He once said, "People should wake up in the morning and say I am not a job seeker, I am a job creator." I invite you to read Yunus incredible contribution to his society and the world at large. I ask the wealthy to solicit innovative ideas from our University graduates. They are reeling with great ideas but they lack the capital. Invest in their ideas. Mentor them and create future employers. “Every accomplishment starts with the decision to try.” J.F.Kennedy.

The Two-Rivers Mall, Garden City and Thika Malls, for instance, created jobs for many. So, who said we do not need twenty more Malls? Who says we do not need a billionaire to build a state-of-the-art stadium that can even host an English premier league? Who says we cannot use a film industry? The government does not have to build these stuff for us. The willing and wealthy citizens should undertake this mission as an oath. To institute their legacy. We sure have forgotten many millionaires and billionaires who passed on for the sole reason of their indolence and passive citizenship.

Corporate front

Ninety percent of sports complexes, tech industries, manufacturing Industries etc. in the United States and England were built by major corporations, not government. Even most of the lucrative and luxurious skyscrapers of New York, London, Hongkong, Dubai, Singapore etc. have almost zero government contribution.

So, I challenge our major corporations; for the sake of a country, create more jobs that focus on putting the larger masses to work. Those corporate meetings should include agendas that focus not just on quadrupling profits for shareholders, but for building a working nation. Or what benefits a corporation if the country has a dwarfed economy? Citizens with no buying power are no good for a corporate's economy. Are they?

Stop the mediocre strategies of purloining the little cash from the suffering citizens by creating predatory schemes to extract more money from them. What is, “dial 2234 and enter a draw to win…” … versus building a sports complex or an apartment skyscraper that can appeal and harbor tourists safely in the middle of Nairobi City? That would create more jobs, more wealth for shareholders and in consequence add a few hundred citizens to the working force. Corporate should create more employment because they are at a position to do so, not to mention that a corporation is considered a “legal entity or citizen”.

I have laid my verdict out in the open. Or so I think. That citizens should embrace the act of helping the country, not trying to wring a country that has no capacity to employ every person who holds a degree. Let’s face it! It is untenable.

The government is obligated to provide security within the borders of a country. To create a peaceful environment for people to thrive in commerce and culture. This is the reason as to why citizens should never allow politicians to divide them in ethnic cacophonies because that would only disrupt their most valuable government contribution to their own progress – peace.

So, students should wake up. Study to help the country. The already educated and the current job seekers need to form a league of, Peoples With Degrees Association and think together on how they can make history. Think on what they can do for their country.

Read more books about all the trailblazers. They started ground up even when faced with lack of materials and support. The problem with today’s generation is a searing appetite for quick wealth. At a snap of fingers! Too selfish to do something for the country but too swift to criticize the government and to hate the country in general. Can’t give anything, but ready to take everything. We can’t build a nation like that and we can't all run to the first world countries seeking to banish our poverty.

Start something that can help this country. Stop begging. The government has already provided a serene environment for education and for free trade.

Now help the country in any capacity.

I hereby rest my case. Hoping it will marinate into the minds of those idealistic people who needed to hear it from someone else. We all are dreamers. The United States was made by dreamers, innovators, creators, and self-driven individuals. Now they can enjoy a lot more than most of us can.

What will our children’s children say about us? That we were educated but did not know what to do with the knowledge? That we could have done better if we had gotten an employment?

I think it would be better if they would say that against all odds those folks made this country what it looks now. They laid the groundwork. They changed the perception of education. They changed the narrative of seeking employment and became creators of employment and masters of self-reliance.

Thinkers are not just dependents and utilizers of the system. Remember, we are only entitled to a century and then we quit and leave the gauntlet to the next generation. They will need to build on not to start from scratch since we decided to laze.

The future generations will be glad to have their streets named after us and our last names emblazoned on their institutions and parks. But what have we got now? Beggars of jobs, desultory students, perfidious business elite and rudderless politicians! Kaput.