A case in point is a Kenyan university graduate who has resorted to working as a security guard in his former high school after his efforts to secure a better job were unsuccessful.
In an interview with KTN, a dejected Ernest Maiki Abraham, who holds a Bachelor of Science in Statistics degree from the University of Eldoret, said he failed to secure a job in his profession despite making numerous applications to various corporates.
Desperate to put food on the table for himself and his siblings, Maiki decided to take any job that comes his way.
He got a job at his former secondary school, where he mans the institution’s main gate, earning a meager monthly income.
Maiki left RCEA Kuinet Secondary School in 2011 after scoring B+ in his Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) examinations.
“I never at any point in my life did I picture myself in this position, I have desperately done all I can in vain, which is when I let life take its course,” he told KTN.
He said he has never received a response to any of his multiple applications letters to technology companies, multinational corporates and even supermarkets.
“Inafika mahali unakata tamaa, kwanza nikiwa University of Eldoret vitu mingi ilifika mpaka inanikazia wakati wa graduation. Inafika mpaka unakata tamaa kwa sababu maisha imekuwa ngumu,” he added.
One of his former high school teachers said they are ashamed since Maiki was one of the most hardworking and bright students the school has produced.
“As a teacher, I feel like my efforts were wasted,” he noted.
The reality is that a critical proportion of Kenyan youth have enrolled in universities and colleges, yet cannot fit in the formal job market due to skills mismatch and irrelevance of their courses.
The 28-year-old has been doing petty jobs from 2014 when he travelled to Nairobi in order to pay his school fees. He studies during the day and works as a watchman at night. He only sleeps for two hours.
“I did odd jobs like washing cars at night, being a hawker, conductor and managed to raise the Ksh 50,000 that I paid at the Kenya School of Law,” he stated.
According to a local daily, Moturi scored a C plain on his second attempt at the Kenya Certificate of Secondary School (KCSE) Examination.
Afterwards, he joined the Kenya School of Law, where he had to defer for two semesters due to lack of school fees.
In addition, Cynthia Rotich is struggling to make ends meet despite having the necessary papers.
Rotich studied at the prestigious Moi Girls High School in Eldoret and later proceeded to Moi University where she studied Anthropology but jobs have been hard to come by.
She has been forced to live from hand to mouth and to add to the misery, the Higher Education Loans Board (HELB) has been fining her Sh5000 per month for defaulting her payment.
