A national disaster in the making? George, a Kenyan in his early - TopicsExpress

A national disaster in the making? George, a Kenyan in his early twenties , has graduated from university in December 2012 with a diploma in electrical engineering but so far he has been unable to find work. The chance I m going to be chosen today is limited, he says . I m just gambling . You can stand here for as long as half a day, because you never know the time that you can be picked . It is a story that is all too common . Joblessness among all people of working age is a serious problem in Kenya, but among young people , it is a catastrophe . The country has one of the largest youth populations in Africa, but roughly 70 percent of its working age youth - almost 10 million people - are unemployed, although a surprising number are very well educated and possess the kinds of skills a healthy economy really should be able to put to use . In a country where almost 80 percent of the population is under the age of 35 some have labelled it a national disaster in the making, that may have serious social consequences and lead to civil unrest. For a country that is still recovering from the scars of the widespread community violence that followed the 2007 election and which is still reeling from the aftermath of the al- Shabab Westgate mall terrorist attack in September 2013 , it is a hint worth taking seriously . Dr Alex Ezeh of the African Population and Health Research Centre in Nairobi put the significance of this youth population bulge in context . It is a demographic event, he says . It s something that many countries go through at different stages as they move from very high fertility and mortality to very low mortality, it creates this reservoir of people . But this, as he explained , can have positive and negative consequences . Generally , what makes it a good thing is our ability to harness the economic potential of such a large proportion of young people going into the labour market … There is a side of it , the more negative part of it , which is , if there are no jobs and no opportunities to engage, then you have a lot of young people understanding what is going on but they re disenfranchised politically , economically , and in many other ways , and this creates a lot of political instability . The stark reality for the young people from the huge slums at Kibera and Mathare and elsewhere around Kenya s capital is that life without a job is extremely difficult . With no regular income many of them have to turn to crime to make a living . And even if they do not , they are often suspected of involvement in crime , which in turn leads to deadly entanglements with Kenya s notoriously trigger -happy police.