By IP reporter.
NAIROBI, Kenya — Kenya has cracked the code for youth empowerment: keep 3.5 million of them idle, broke and desperate, then charge them a fortune to get a job that pays peanuts.
By 2022, millions of young Kenyans were neither in school nor in training nor employed ; but apparently well prepared for the country’s fastest growing industry: paying bribes.
The Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) reports that job-seekers are now asked for “facilitation fees” up to eight times higher than four years ago.
In some cases, the bribe is more than the first year’s salary.
Nothing says “welcome to public service” like starting your career in debt.
“We are dealing with a predatory system that feeds on desperation,” governance expert Peter Kariuki said.
Translation: if you’re young and jobless, the system sees you as lunch.
Even entry-level clerical posts now require unofficial “application fees.” And by “fees,” we mean cash slipped to someone’s cousin’s brother’s neighbor who “knows a guy.”
Economists warn that an entire educated, frustrated generation is a ticking time bomb.
Judging from the lack of urgency, the government seems happy to keep playing hot potato with it until it explodes.
Politicians of course promise jobs preferably right before elections.
Until then youth can find solace in entrepreneurship.
You know, like selling the family cow to bribe your way into a three-month contract.
“We have an entire generation being conditioned to see corruption as the price of entry into the job market,” Kariuki added Which is basically like telling a drowning person the lifeboat seats are reserved for paying customers.
As 2027 approaches leaders have two options: fix this mess or keep delivering the same speeches about “unlocking potential” while the youth unlock the door to the nearest embassy.
Ends.
