The number of Kenyans looking to move abroad has risen recently, with passport and Visa applications going through the roof.
Quick question. Have you been to Nairobi CBD recently and more specifically, around Nyayo House right next to the General Post Office? If you have, then you must have borne witness to the unending queues at the place, since it is where the main offices for the Directorate of Immigration are located. What is the cause of all this queuing, you might ask. I mean, the slow customer service in Kenyan Government offices has been a widely known and accepted fact of our society. That has been necessitated by the push towards the digitization of government services in recent years.
Most if not all of the people in these queues are there to have biometric details taken as part of their passport application process. In addition to the many people waiting in line to have their biometric information taken, many more wait in anticipation at home for their passports to be ready.
Nonetheless, this wait has continually proved to be a long one, ranging from about 5 months to even a full year in some cases, all for a document that should take no more than a week to be ready. When confronted about the issue, those responsible in government point to ‘broken down printing machines’ that have ‘slowed down the process of producing passports’. The only way to get a passport in good time is to have ‘someone on the inside’ to fasten the process for you after parting with a nice chunk of your cash, of course.
Looking closer at many of these passport applicants reveals that many of them happen to be young. Most of these applicants are either fresh graduates from local universities or young professionals looking to move to greener pastures elsewhere. Many young people in the country feel hard done by the lack of opportunities in the country. Finding employment in the country is becoming increasingly complex, even for graduates with the requisite skills. Gone are the days when ‘a job would be waiting for you’ to graduate which, surprisingly, was not that long ago.
Many of us have grown up in an environment in which we have been conditioned to strive to get good grades so that we may move into good universities and get degrees that would guarantee us stable employment. It therefore comes as a shuddering disappointment to learn that even after going down this path and achieving these academic accolades, employment has become even less of a guarantee.
Kenya’s Deputy President, Mr. Rigathi Gachagua even openly revealed to University graduates at Kenyatta University that he ‘had no jobs for them’ despite their graduation. Just imagine being hit with remarks such as these at your graduation ceremony, by such a high-ranking government official no less.
Much of the developed world is struggling with the availability of cheap and affordable labor for their economies. Most of the countries, particularly in North America and Europe have an increasingly ageing population which is hindering the productivity levels of their economies.
Many more people are reaching their retirement age without having their productive roles in their economies replaced with a younger generation from the working class. Consequently, these countries are continually looking for ways to expand their labor pool with young and productive workers.
The Middle East has also become an alternative destination for many Africans in recent years as well, given its growing economy and the demand for cheap labor within its borders. Africa has been a lucrative labor source for many countries in these regions, given its primarily young population and its limited access to work opportunities. For many young people in the African continent, nothing beats finding a work opportunity abroad, regardless of how menial it may be. Many of the jobs abroad have way better pay than some corporate jobs do back home.
Kenya has for many years been considered one of the fastest-growing countries in Africa, and this premonition was by no means unfounded. The country’s annual GDP growth has been above the continental average for years. Even amid the pandemic, the country rose to global acclaim due to its supposed well-coordinated response towards containing the spread of the COVID-19 virus.
It is thus no surprise that the country has been attracting a lot of global attention, with its capital, Nairobi being the economic hub for the East and Central African region. From the outside looking in, everything seemed okay. In a real sense, however, the country was slowly chipping away at itself.
In recent years, economic growth and development have been painfully slow. One may argue that it should be viewed as a consequence of the post-pandemic recovery being witnessed globally but even so, there is more than meets the eye for the Kenyan situation. Kenya’s main economic sectors; tourism and agriculture have been on a decline.
Tourism is seemingly yet to recover from the pandemic, with tourist numbers remaining much lower than the pre-pandemic days. Insecurity and instability particularly because of the ever-present threat of attacks from Al Shabaab on the coastal destinations may be a viable explanation for the same. Furthermore, a lack of investment in the tourism sector and increased competition from alternative tourist destinations in the region has also led to the shrinking of the industry.
As for the agricultural sector, a prolonged drought in the country affected food production, for the last three years at least, causing the country to rely heavily on imported produce. Commercial agriculture has, nonetheless, been diminishing for decades as the country has become less reliant on exporting its major cash crops. First was the collapse of the cotton industry in the 1970s-80s which brought the local textile industry down along with it. In recent years, the local production of crops such as coffee, sugar, rice, and pyrethrum for export has been declining as well.
Tea remains the only viable cash crop left and its production has been delegated more to machinery, leaving many in the hinterlands where it is grown jobless. In fact, for all the aforementioned crops, the dip in production within the agricultural sector has been forcing many youths to move to cities like Nairobi to seek better employment opportunities only to be bombarded by the harsh reality that joblessness is worse in these urban areas. Therefore, moving abroad becomes the only option left as the grass seems greener.
The long waiting lines of people looking to get their hands on passports to facilitate their way out of the country should be indicative of a deeper, more concerning situation. The Nairobi Senator, Mr. Edwin Sifuna put it best recently, ‘No one wants to be here.’ Kenya is becoming a less conducive environment for young people, especially those yet to lay their hands on any form of viable employment.
Education was seen as the only solution to escape this mess for years, but today, getting a college qualification is less than enough to secure one’s future. Even when one manages to secure some form of employment or a way to monetize their income, the government’s tax man waits at the door, looking to squeeze every last cent possible from one’s pay slip.
Recent polls show that many young Kenyans feel that the country is headed in the wrong direction and hence, it should be no surprise that they do not wish to be part of the calamity that is seemingly looming ahead. The necessity to move abroad has become more of a desperation to do so, exposing more people to being taken advantage of by gullible ‘agents’ and ‘facilitators’ who promise to smoothen the process for them.
The country is currently grappling with one of its biggest such scams over the years, where politicians in Uasin Gishu used their political standings to disguise their motives of siphoning money from innocent young Kenyans looking to move abroad and find better opportunities there.
Recently, a major scandal has dominated local headlines where prominent government officials managed to extort close to 1 Billion shillings from innocent citizens in one county alone, and its wake has left many victims more distraught with the status quo than ever before. To add insult to injury, one of the perpetrators from a scammy abroad recruitment agency, Judy Jepchirchir was appointed to head the President’s Kazi Majuu initiative. It seemingly appears that even the government has given up on creating local employment for the youth and is instead encouraging them to seek greener pastures elsewhere.
Moving abroad makes a ton of sense since they at least have a shot at making good of themselves there. The thought of doing so resonates with so many young people, who feel dissatisfied with finding their foothold within their homeland as their own country provides them with little foundation to do so. Honestly speaking, if I too were presented with a sensible opportunity to do so, I would do so without much thought.
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