Leaders from Garissa county have told
youths to stop advancing the narrative
that there are no jobs, as an excuse for
engaging in criminal activities.
Unemployment among the youths in the area has been a thorn in the flesh of the local leadership, something that has been blamed for the increased cases of insecurity.
So serious is the issue that last week the local leadership organised a leadership conference at Garissa University under the theme ‘Our Youth: Our Future’.
The conference sought to come up with solutions to societal vices affecting the youth. Speaking in Garissa town on Friday, Governor Nathif Jama said time had come for the youth to be told the truth.
He refuted claims that insecurity and drug abuse in the country, especially in Garissa county, was being fuelled by lack of jobs, noting that there are many job opportunities but young people were uninterested in working in the informal sector.
A visibly angry Jama called out a section of the youth, whom he said have made a tendency of desiring easy things in life saying that will not help them.
“I do not believe that the insecurity in this town is being caused by joblessness. Thousands of workers every morning come to this town from Madogo in our neighbouring county and make thousands of shillings from this county,” Jama said.
“Insecurity cannot be the course for people who don’t want to work, people who don’t want to get the necessary skills, people who only want to lazily dilly-dally around and want to cause havoc in the county, that we will not accept,” added.
He said that on numerous occasions he together with other local leaders have urged the young people in the county to go for technical courses and acquire skills from the Technical, Vocational Education and Training colleges and create their own employment.
“We have sat down as governors and said that these youth need to be told the truth. you cannot just decide to be druggists and cause mayhem in town. White collar jobs are diminishing in the job market especially due to the increasing wage bill at both the county and national governments,”.
“We have to tell our youth the reality. There are no more job opportunities at the county government. Currently, 52 per cent of the equitable share I get goes to salaries. If we increase our employees, where will we get the money for drugs or equip our hospitals and do other development projects?” he added.
Garissa County Commissioner Mohamed Mwabudzo described unemployment as the biggest challenge among the youth, saying that their lack of interest to join technical institutions to acquire skills that would be beneficial to them has not helped matters.
“We continue to appeal to the youth and residents at large to prioritizing acquiring skills. We have colleges here to train them on electrical engineering, on welding, and other courses for free,” he said.
The county commissioner said that
the national and county government
continue to work closely in equipping
the institutions saying that there are
many opportunities to those who have
acquired the skills.
