By NERIMA WAKO-OJIWA

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We had travelled to Machakos with colleagues for a meeting, one of whom volunteered to drive us.

The meeting ended quite late, and close to midnight we headed back to Nairobi, thrilled at the success of the collaboration, but extremely tired. Our driver, who had volunteered, was wide awake, and he seemed to be used to driving in the wee hours of the morning.

GETTING A JOB

And sure enough, we found out the reason: He used to be a truck driver. He told us how he finished school and got a degree:

"When I was in school, I worked so hard, even my uncles would encourage me and say, just finish school, I will give you a job. So I did just that, made sure I finished. I was so ready to work after graduation. I wanted to get a job. After a few months of trying, reality began to set in. It's not that easy to find work. I called the uncles who said they would assist me, then asked for my CV.

“Then things went quiet, they began to avoid me. That's when a job opened up to drive a truck. I would drive long distances, Nairobi to Mombasa, and it was mainly in the night. That job really helped me. I have a friend, top of our class, he studied actuarial science and now if you see him, you won't believe it. He started taking drugs, he couldn't understand his failure. He shakes so much, he can't hold a cup steady, and he always asks me for 20 shillings. It makes me cry when I see him.

“I have another friend who rides a boda boda, he decided to throw his degree under his bed. It is useless in this country. As for the girls in my class, they found someone who wasn't doing too badly in life, and they settled down with them. Now they have two children and regular meals."

REALITY OF UNEMPLOYMENT

The Africa Business Education Initiative has been launched to offer education to young African students and give them a chance to study in Japan, to have internship opportunities in Japanese companies for about six months. Over a thousand youth have already been selected in five years.

There are initiatives in Japan to support women, but what if we put frameworks for young people to absorb them into the workforce? The reality of unemployment among educated youth is so high, systemic ways of channelling their energies have to be formulated.

In 2016, a law in Japan to support women in the work environment was enacted. There are three major points in this policy. First, to encourage each of the private companies to make an action plan for empowerment of women. If a company has more than 300 employees, it should submit an action plan. It has to fulfil certain criteria designed to encourage more women to enter the workforce.

This includes set targets, such as at the end of the year, having a certain quota of women as staff. And they have to have realistic examples to demonstrate how to reach those targets within a period between two years and five years.

For example, they have to disclose the number of women who are engaged in managerial positions. That kind of information must be open to the public.

So most women who graduate from university use this database to search for information. They can see which organisations are providing more opportunities for women.

CHANGE

Some 99.3 per cent of all the companies have already submitted an action plan. That is some 16,425 out of 16,536 companies in the programme. The Women’s Empowerment Act drafted in 2016 is to remain for a limited time period of 10 years. After three years of enactment it is to be reviewed.

There may be even better ways and systems to channel youth energies and minds so that they are not wasted in hopelessness and despair.

Also, how we view opportunity has to change, we all can't work in offices. The current administration talked about an internship policy during their campaign, and jobs online, but we are already hearing rumours of youth paying to be placed and not many organisations involved.

The government will have to partner with companies and encourage those that support youth. Many youth are open to learning new skills that will be helpful for their future.

Nerima Wako-Ojiwa is executive director of Siasa Place. Twitter: @NerimaW