Seven year old Otieno dreams of owning a multi-national company for exporting fish from the lake side.
Murugi on the other hand believes that twenty years form now, she'll be a member of parliament...the future of her people is in her hands.
Years on, dreams turn into nightmares, a live to a survival tactic, and, a future into a regret for envisioning the ability of the unachievable.
Thousands of children don't access a primary school with tens of thousands dropping out yearly. Traditions and customs are the first to deny education to ambitious children-early marriages, female genital mutilation, looking after the livestock...have highly contributed to illiteracy despite the education being free in the country.
Poverty, likewise, denies the ones spared from traditions and customs from realizing their dreams. Simple human needs like food, good clothing and shelter are limited in a majority of school goers. A good education in this country=money; and a good education also=better job opportunities.
So many students also miss admissions in secondary schools not just because of poor academic performance, but insufficiency of leaning institutions.
Whether literate or illiterate, the job market stands the same. Its no longer about the papers, credentials or the certificates. Today's job market is like a favor bank- do this; I do that... a political game- I know you; do you recall me... or a monarchy- I've heard of that name; he is my father...
Being employed has hence resulted into a social class of the highest caste... only the elite get employed.
I've witnessed computer science, medical lab, communication, education, IT and other university graduates remain jobless for years. Surprisingly, every other organisation is greatly suffering due to a deficiency of a work force. It's just like planting and to never reap, or irrigating an orchard that will never bear fruits.
Youth unemployment though rarely spoken about, it's been here for years and its here to stay. And, if the government is doing nothing to fulfill its duty to its loyal citizens, we don't have to continue tethering around a field that has no more green grass to feed on.
We have the strength to move to greener pastures through our own very sweat. And since we the youth make the majority of the population, whatever we want we can get, as long as we partnership with each other to make it through the rough storms.
