Existing Opportunities For Youth In Kajiado County

As per the Kenyan Government a Youth is defined as a, young person between the ages of 18 years and 35 years.

The County Government of Kajiado in partnership with the ministry of Youths has been able to set up opportunities for the youths within the County. The Kajiado County Government is in the process of registering and pre-qualifying youth-owned enterprises so that they can access County Government tenders and contracts. Government tenders amount to millions each year; it is a great opening for the youth of Kajiado County. The tenders are well published and advertised on the County press as well as the public notice boards for the general public.

The development objective of the Youth Employment and Opportunities Project for Kajiado County Government is to increase employment and earnings opportunities for targeted youths. The project comprises of four components. The first component; improving youth employability, addresses the skills mismatch of youth by engaging training providers such as CRECO (Constitution and Reform Education Consortium) and private sector employers to know the rights for the youths and to offer training and work experience to targeted youth. This component will contain two sub-components: i) Provision of training and work experience in the formal sector and ii) Provision of training and work experience in the informal sector.

Youth in Kajiado County being taken through  a session on 'Using internet tools for wealth generation."

The second component, support for job creation responds to the need for job creation with initiatives to help launch new businesses, improve the productivity and job creation potential of existing micro enterprises and among self-employed youth, and support innovative approaches to improve job and incoming earning opportunities among the hard-to-serve youth. This component is structured into two subcomponents, jointly implemented by the Ministry of Public Service, Youth and Gender Affairs. i) Support for the self-employed and ii) Catalytic interventions for job creation; The third component, improving labor market information plans to improve access to and the quality of labor market information to help public and private actors make decisions and formulate policies; The fourth component, strengthening youth policy development and project management will support capacity building for the Directorate of Youth Affairs and the management and coordination of the overall Project. It includes three subcomponents: (a) building youth employment policy development and coordination capabilities; (b) Monitor and evaluation of youth employment policies and funds; and (c) project management and coordination.

Image, courtesy

By Ruth Kinuthia, Kajiado County 

Ruth Kinuthia is an entrepreneur with a passion for software development to tackle big social problems. She holds a bachelor's degree in Computer science from Kenyatta University, Kenya. Ruth has over three years of experience in community development, and volunteer work. She has worked with organizations such as , Youth Alive Kenya ,Constitution and Reform Education Consortium (CRECO), and Youth Agenda to develop scale-able solutions to challenges that directly affect the youth, women and people with disabilities. She is an active member of Youth Alive Kenya ; and she is one of three students picked from Kenya to undergo Right to Participate exchange program in Norway between 7th January 2018 to 17th March 2018.  Upon completion of Right to Participate exchange program in Norway, Ruth wishes to work towards the full launch of her mission, which has a focus on community work and development.

THE ROAD TO EMPOWERMENT FOR MAASAI WOMEN

I was having a chat with a Maasai woman over Lunch today. She has no education whatsoever and I was curious to know why she chose the path that she is on. Ann (not her real name) was circumcised at a very young age, her father only saw girls as wealth and nothing else. He did not take Ann or any of her other sisters to school.  When she was first taken to her husband, she was so innocent and naïve that she thought it was a normal visit to the neighbours. Little did she know that was to be her home. She was married off as the fourth wife to an old man. He was so old that some of his children were almost her age.  She is silent for some seconds as if in a deep thought. She then laughs and tells me, “I was so young, that when my husband came home and the rest of the children ran to meet and greet him, I always found myself wanting to run too. I was still a child; I didn’t understand what was going on.  I cried many times and would ask them to take me back home. When I finally did understand, I feared him so much.


”One day I was making Ugali with him in the room and I completely forgot. I was so fearful because it had stayed on the fire for so long. He told me that it was already cooked and I should serve. The whole room burst into laughter. The scenario seems funny but I can imagine the agony she underwent. The time was just right for me to ask her a burning question, “How old were you Ann?” “What do I know about age?” she asks me.  I try to push her into giving me a rough figure but she cannot. She just doesn’t know her age to date and is very genuine. She then goes on to say that she doesn’t even like to think of any other girl going through the same experience. It was unbearable at first until it became normal, but an abnormal normal. Ann is an anti-FGM advocate in Namanga division, Kajiado County.Maasai girls were not valued because they were seen as members of the family who are not permanent as they will move households and clans once they get married. In the Maasai community a girl is worth 4 to 5 cows and several sheep and goats. This simply means that girls are mostly seen as conduits to bringing bride wealth to their families. FGM and early forced marriages were common in rural areas. Education was delayed, that is if you were lucky to even go to school.  Most men were unwilling to wait years to see a return from their education investment in a girl yet she could bring returns through dowry. Only 20% of girls were admitted to school, few finished primary school and even less transitioned to secondary school and universities. Most of the girls stayed at home and helped their parents with house chores and looking after the animals as they wait for the girl to become of age, at least what they assumed was good age for marriage.

Today, there is a great improvement in the community. The enrollment of Maasai girls to school stands at 48%, this came after the introduction of free primary education in 2003. The enactment of the anti-FGM act to law has seen a decline in FGM. The community has since resolved to an alternative rite of passage, where girls are taken through a comprehensive course of life-skills and community values and later graduate to mark the initiation to womanhood. At the graduation, the community elders bless the girls to go prosper in their education unlike in the past where they would be blessed to have many children. Women empowerment in the villages is also on the rise with education penetrating to the roots of the community and it seeing its fruits. The men has allowed women to engage in different economic activities of their choice. They have formed welfare groups where they raise money and upscale their businesses hence providing for the families and can even take their children to schools. Investing in girls is a must in a community where a woman does not have a voice or a place.





By Jedidah Lemaron, Kajiado County






Jedidah Lemaron is the Founder and Executive Director of the Malkia Initiative, which works to promote and enhance quality education for girls. Our main focus is on Mentorship, Menstrual Hygiene Management and re-admission of teenage mothers to school, she is passionate about Education, Youth,  Girls, and Women. As a Maasai girl she works to change the lives of the community by exploring ways to engage  the diverse group of actors including the Maasai elders, community gate keepers, role models, youth and women into finding even better solutions to close the evident gaps. She has worked on campaigns such as ‘Girls not brides’, and ‘Do not exchange girls with cows’ and ‘End FGM Now,’ among others.