World Bank plan to hire 11,000 youths

A Sh4.6 billion youth employment initiative was on Wednesday launched in Nairobi, confirming the realisation among policy makers of the danger that mass joblessness poses to Kenya’s economy.

The World Bank-financed project, to be jointly managed by the government and the private sector under the Kenya Youth Empowerment Project (KYEP), promises to immediately offer salaried internships to 11,000 youths who will earn Sh6,000 a month besides being equipped with skills to help them gain formal employment.

At 11,000, the number of internships is thrice the number of recruits into the police force every year while the Sh6,000 stipend is equivalent to what the government planned to pay contracted teachers under a scheme that stalled under a cloud of opposition from the Kenya National Union of Teachers.

World Bank support to the programme is hinged on a finding last year that youth unemployment tops the list of risks to Kenya’s stability and economic progress.

Prime Minister Raila Odinga said an additional $1.5 million from the Rapid Social Response Grant (RSR) window will be provided for the project.

Recruiting the interns at the constituency level should help the government improve household incomes and lay the foundations for enterprise and job creation in all corners of the country.

The constituency-based youth empowerment programme is also being seen as a test case of how the government plans to deal with rural poverty and tackle social disparities in the population.

The Kenya Private Sector Alliance that has been picked to manage the internship programme said beneficiaries will be chosen from every constituency and will be attached to local enterprises in the manufacturing, tourism, energy, financial services sectors, and ICT centres for up to six months.

These sectors are aligned with government priorities for growth as outlined in the economic blue print--Vision 2030.

The Sh6,000 stipend will be paid to them through mobile money transfers at the end of every month, according to Carol Kariuki, the CEO of the Kenya Private Sector Alliance.

“The youth will also receive additional payment via their mobile phones for a period following completion of the internship to assist with the monitoring and evaluation process,” she said.

Only those aged between 15 and 29 years with at least eight years of formal education can take part in the internship programme, signalling that primary and secondary school graduates are the target group.

Those aged between 15 and 17 will take their internships in the informal sector in line with the labour laws that prohibit the engagement of underage people in formal employment.

“We are in talks with employers in the various sectors in readiness for deployments,” said Ms Kariuki.

The programme aims to put 50 per cent of Kenya’s estimated six million unemployed youth in formal sector jobs or self-employment within six months after the internship.