There are stories that after you hear them tend to remain in your mind for a long time, even though you may not fully understand their significance.
One such story was told to me by one of my friends many years ago. It was about a middle-aged man who sat at the same spot, every morning, in a surprisingly clean white shirt and threadbare grey trousers, and worn-out sandals, next to a bus stage.
Schoolchildren who walked past him on their way to school nicknamed him “Mr Office Man”. He was always very engrossed in reading a newspaper and sometimes mumbling to himself in English.
The newspapers were never current. They were always old newspapers. But he read them with full concentration anyway. He would spend the whole day just reading in this way.
The local talk was that he had been a senior manager in a government agency who opted to retire early and receive a golden handshake.
He was said to have thereafter attempted a series of businesses all of which failed and ultimately drained all his savings and borrowed capital. In the face of all this failure, he seems to have lost contact with reality, and that is how he ended up as “Mr Office Man”.
With hindsight, the condition this man seemed to have been experiencing may now be readily diagnosed as severe depression, which is a form of mental illness. It signals that the person is no longer struggling to get ahead and has basically given up on life.
And this affliction is sadly becoming widespread among the youth of Mombasa now, but with very different causes and displaying a myriad of different symptoms.
Here is the background to this increasing prevalence of severe depression:
Official statistics show that there are approximately one million adult high school leavers annually coming into the job market.
These roughly one million young adults all have the fundamental desire to be financially independent. The number of people formally employed in Kenya, however, is estimated at 3,200,000, making absorption into formal employment an unviable solution. Entrepreneurship by deduction is therefore the only possible way forward.
But many small businesses do not make it past the first few years. And this is not just a Kenyan problem.
Globally, 67 per cent of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) face a huge challenge in the struggle for survival and expansion. These businesses are the backbone of the global economy, contributing to nearly 70 per cent of jobs and GDP across the world. The pressure points for MSMEs include low margins, the challenge of scaling the business, expanding to new markets, and managing clients and consumers.
And so we find that despite the number of youth going into business ventures having risen tremendously, unfortunately so has the number of unsuccessful businesses also risen.
This is thought to be one of the reasons for the notable rise in substance abuse and mental ailments among the youth. Statistics indicate that substance abuse among the youth is estimated at 25.5 per cent, while the rate for severe depression is at 11.5 per cent of the population.
This is a cost that no country can afford.
Youth universally have more future ahead of them and strength to pursue their dreams than their competitors who are middle-aged or seniors. This advantage needs to be managed to overcome their inherent disadvantage of lack of experience. This is the purpose of mentorship through internship.
Internship brings together experience, expertise, empathetic patient listening, effective targeted communication and resilient commitment. These attributes bring the best out of the youth with a greater promise of success.
It is perhaps such insights that brought about the presidential directive that there shall be 100,000 internship opportunities offered by the government, also in the hope that the private sector, which employs twice the number employed in the civil service, would offer a reciprocal number of opportunities.
The way forward here is for institutions and corporations to develop much more holistic internship and mentorship opportunities and outreach programmes aimed at meeting the youth at their point of need. Starting with the formation of grassroots youth-based business units.