A PLEA NOT TO DIE
I am not speaking of funerals. I am speaking of the majority of Gen Zs who will graduate and, years later, have no home of their own, no way to carry an aging parent's hospital bill, no business started, no impactful project launched in their society; nothing to show. Those people have lost their lives, because there is no life without dignity, and economic injustice has taken theirs. Mine is a lamentation to this injustice.
I cross Ronald Ngala Road. It is a busy afternoon. The usual bustle and hustle of downtown Nairobi. At RNG Plaza, I had picked phone accessories that I was to sell to my fellow comrades at Kenyatta University. This was my second errand. The first was to start off a website project for my accessories supplier. Citing high cost of importation customs, he had terminated our project. That wasn't all. I had to pay more for the accessories due to the same effect. Once I was on the other side of Ronald Ngala Road, I was met with more disgruntling news: there was a bus fare hike following more government taxes on fuel. All this ate into my Ksh. 200 margin on the sale and I could not dare raise the price as the comrade's HELB funds had better things to do. That is a tale of how government policy made casually in parliament affects Wanjiku at downtown.
Being a renowned writer, I get quick gigs often. This should be good news, no? Well, in this case it isn't. This is because I am writing essays to dozens of graduated or degree pursuing students who want to fly out of the country citing low to no prospects of career success. Some of them are the best software developers I am yet to see. They do not have a market that pays proportionally for their skillset. This makes me wary of even completing the degree itself, an achievement that has become an iPhone; an elite affair! A good number of my classmates have made the call to drop out of school, and the streets of Nairobi have picked up. They now operate as "sharp boys and girls". This is how the policies around education, business environment and industrialization have successfully convinced the youths that pursuing books doesn't matter and that it is greener across the ocean!
Not to say that nothing works in the republic. It is the goodwill I question, then conclude is in deficiency. There have been great economic policies and initiatives formulated, often by the nation serving technocrats, before falling into the hands of the political players. Last year, in 2025, the youths received grants through the NYOTA PROJECT programme. A World Bank funded initiative. There surrounds conspiracy over the 1 billion shillings spent on "consultancies". At campus, majority of people learnt of the project once the funds were being disbursed. This is a populace addicted to and glued to the screens. No way they could have missed the information had it been shared and targeted to the right audience. Seems some "consultancies" need to refund our money! Even in the disbursement of the fund, I'd come across campus politicians that boasted to have their fingers in the honeypot concerning the same. The mentors assigned to oversee the projects of youths would ask them to "Send Prove of Work" to be cleared. Only that the proof was sent via M-Pesa!
My friends and I frequent "Kwa Mathe" at lunch time to be served "githeri" before resuming studies. If you are keen, you will see the kitchen and learn that for the beans and maize to boil, the water must boil first. This is common sense. Then following the same train of thought, it should be common sense that for the youths to excel economically, the government should create an environment suitable for that. Transparent handling of funds, not higher taxes, sustains governments! High taxes only make it difficult for businesses to stay alive, and the effects trickle down as it happened in my RNG Plaza business errands. Foreign investors are discouraged from investing in Kenya due to a lack of respect for the rule of law and many backs to scratch, for them to go back home, only for our youths to struggle going to foreign countries for opportunities that were denied entry! Economic initiatives shouldn't be treated as tick-a-box activities for a regime to ride on but as opportunities for youths to set themselves up economically.
Goodwill in the drafting, planning and implementation of economic policies will give the youths an opportunity to stabilize economically. An opportunity to save their dignity. All we ask for is an opportunity not to die.
~Mworia Koome