If you ask most of the Kenyan youth who are employed about their journey in getting a job, the story is almost the same; either they tarmacked for jobs for months or years without hope or they had connections in high places thanks to their family members. The fact is, getting a decent paying job in Kenya is not easy.
With the state of the economy growing gloomier by the day, many recent graduates find it harder and harder to beat unemployment and this group is not limited to those looking for fresh job opportunities from their recent places of work.
However, with the rising state of digital disruption, some are turning to the internet for help and many have witnessed the power that social media has. One particular lady, Rose Munuhe, saw the struggle that many go through in the city and decided to start a revolution on Twitter using the hashtag, #IkoKaziKe. Today, hundreds of job seekers and employers find solace and hope in the visibility that has come with the hashtag, with many swearing on its effectiveness.
Here’s Rose’s story on how #IkoKaziKe started, why she started it and what she would like to see change in the Kenyan job market:
“#IkoKaziKe is a hash tag on Twitter that enables people to tag job postings they come across as well as helps recruiters source for staff or labor. Job hunting is tiring, draining and even depressing and nobody should ever feel alone because you are not the problem, the system probably is. #IkoKaziKE has different people interacting in real time on a daily basis.
Why #IkoKaziKE was started is because we have a gap in recruitment. We have so many jobs people just do not see floating around. Whether I see them on my personal accounts via WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram, twitter, I still see them alone. Which means I share to close friends and family who come to mind or simply ignore? But, what if I could share all those jobs I come across somewhere EVERYONE, regardless of them knowing me personally can see them? What if I can advertise a job there and get real time results? Did I see the job on my personal account? Was it a referral? Did I read it on a newspaper? Was I walking in an organization and I saw it on the notice board? Was it on a job website? Was it on LinkedIn? Was it an internal job application sent to staff of a particular organization? #IkoKaziKE does not filter out.
I mean, one in every five Kenyans is unemployed and we have companies retrenching even on a monthly basis which is scary. We need long term solutions. Because otherwise we will have a society of individuals with low morale, increased immorality and an increase in crime rates so as to escape poverty.
We have an unemployment problem in Kenya. And a rampant retrenching going around this hash tag helps us help each other get our next meal
We have people from everywhere across Kenya even abroad sharing jobs on there to help each other. We have results; People are posting testimonials or getting interview call backs and even jobs. Individuals are posting jobs and getting hundreds of candidates interested. So YES it is working. It is a hash tag that has thousands of views since December 2016.
The feedback I get and see from the timeline reminds me that despite the murkiness of being able to get a job, people are out there trying to make sure others prosper. The most amazing thing is most of these people don’t even know each other, but they’ll go out of their way to help each other out and that’s a really beautiful thing if I must say.
So what does the government need to do to curb this unemployment menace?
A combination of very many things. One would be for them to stop promising job creation every time the election draws near then they do nothing about it afterwards; this gimmick is no longer funny, we have people out there in dire need of these jobs.
Fight corruption – we have a sluggish growth of the formal sector with companies shutting down and retrenching and misappropriation of funds by those in charge (especially when we are the ones suffering not them).
Young people also need to be more encouraged not to ONLY rely on 8-5 but to have access to more skills and it starts by these skills being taught to them so that they become more self-reliant and then can we get them easy accessibility to funds.
We need transparency in all these projects and accountability. A project I keenly want to see being fruitful is Ajira.
Any future plans for #IkoKaziKe?
Rose hopes that the hashtag grows to become more interactive and that more and more people will be able to get on their job success stories from the platform. She says that she does hope the movement will grow to enable her to work with HR firms to give job applicants advice and tips of what to do.
But what she wants most is just to ensure that enough people know about #IkoKaziKE so more jobs can be tagged on a daily basis by both corporate and individuals.
She adds on to say that if you’re able to get someone an opportunity, don’t hesitate. At the end of the day, you can always find time to help others and helping someone get a job doesn’t rid you of yours; if you can, help out.
