While the unemployment rate sits at 30% in the county, a number of factors have fueled the numbers. The population is growing much faster than the employment opportunities available, lack of skill sets among graduates who are looking to hope into employment after graduation and the inception of technology, making Kenyans exit the markets without replacements.
Ministry of Labour and Social protection, has officially launched the National Employment Authority, established by the National Employment Act of 2016. The main mandate of the authority will be to provide a comprehensive institutional framework for employment, management and increasing access to employment by the youths, minority and the marginalised.
To uphold its mandate in wiping away unemployment, the authority has established a number of intervention and solutions. Getting access to jobs, graduates can now walk into their offices about twenty of them in the country, register themselves and get hooked up with employers in their relevant fields in their database., The authority has given jobs to over 420,000 Kenyans both locally and internationally. By vetting foreign agencies they have been able to ensure that Kenyans are linked with legit employment sources.
“Our goals as the National Employment Authority is working on some policies and programs, that will reduce the rate of unemployment in Kenya. We have developed the national internship policy, to enable employers to take on graduates for a year or so to give them skills into the system. We are working on a database for Kenyans, skills they have and what they are lacking to advise the government and employers on how to go about with them. The authority is working on national policy and strategy on the employment, in a few months we will be debating on it, inviting players in the industry,” said Winnie Pertet, National Employment Authority chairperson during an interview at KTN.
Highlighting her opinion on whether employers should pay interns, she said: “An employer should give a graduate intern a stipend. It is only fair to facilitate this intern to come to work. They might not really know how to do the job but they giving some input.”