By If you take a walk around the streets of Nairobi today, and you will encounter a young person up to something daring. They can be selling secondhand clothes on Instagram, operating a small boda boda delivery shop, editing Tik Tok videos to clients overseas, or cultivating and selling vegetables on their parents farm. It is one thing to know that they are not sitting back hoping that a job will come along. The Kenyan job market is a hard place to be playing field nowadays, however, amidst all that challenge, it is churning out something formidable, a fearless generation.
Born To Hustle
The times when university degree ensured good employment are long gone. Nowadays, you can find those graduates working as taxi drivers, operating barber shops or working online as freelancers. On the surface it may appear to be desperation. However, scratch the surface a bit, and you will find something additional, resilience, creativity, and sheer determination.
The youths have accepted the hustle. They have been taught to rise up early, go after clients, run their own shows and recover after losses. They have been forced to educate themselves on things they did not learn in school; how to do their taxes, how to create a brand, how to negotiate and even how to create logos. They have had to initiate risk taking and adaptability out of necessity. Such an experience creates confidence which cannot be imparted in a classroom.
Technology: The Game Changer
The Kenyan youth have been exposed to a new world by smart phones and mobile data. A person in Kakamega can now freelance to a client in Germany, or sell earrings on Tik Tok to a customer in Nairobi. Creative youths are recording skits, creating music, blogging and commercializing their works. They are creating their own audiences and revenues with only a phone and a little consistency.
Even the ones who do not have fancy gadgets are coming up with means to exploit opportunities. Cybercafes, laptop lending schemes and cheap training facilities are providing the youth with access to digital technologies and expertise. The technology in a way is the new passport- it is assisting the young generation to ignore the old gatekeepers and make their own ways.
No Job? No Problem–Begin Something
As the formal jobs become scarcer particularly in the government and large companies, young Kenyans are not waiting to be employed. They are generating employment. Others are beginning on a small scale, selling mandazi, printing T-shirts, opening salons, but the change of mindset is enormous. They are no longer mere job seekers. They are constructors and possessors.
Young people are trying out agribusiness, digital marketing to local clients, and cooperative savings groups to expand their operations even in rural locations. They have witnessed how years could be wasted by delaying. Therefore, they are opting to make attempts, fail and make attempts again- until something succumbs.
Bravery to go Against the Rules
Not only are this generation working in different ways–they are thinking in different ways. The definition of success (suit, office, big title) is no longer the same to many. They are voting passion before prestige. They are getting into fashion designing, tattoo art, photographers, vloggers, and digital marketers. And they are showing that success can be a lot of different things.
Women are also starting to take control- they are opening online stores, entering industries that have mostly been male dominated and they are also speaking up against unfair treatment. Young people belonging to marginalized communities are not hiding anymore. They are saying, “We are here. We matter. We shall work. We shall flourish.”
Young people are more vocal than ever even in political aspects. They are protesting online, naming leaders, and requiring transparency. It is not a secret to many of them that they are not fighting a lonely battle, that they are engaged in a bigger effort to transform the country.
Brave, Not Reckless
Not that being fearless is being reckless. It is an attempt despite not knowing. It is the readiness to fail in front of everyone, to begin, to continue learning. It is having the faith that your past or place of origin does not determine your destiny.
The youths in Kenya are not only coping with the difficult employment market, they are defining it. They are masters, innovators, laborers and pioneers in domains that did not exist a decade ago. They are taught to place their bets on themselves- and that is powerful.
Social political awakening
Not only has unemployment driven the Kenyan youth into hustling to make ends meet but also it has brought forth a great sense of political and social awareness. Fed up with lack of opportunities and promises that were never kept, the youth is no longer a silent spectator of the problems of the nation. Rather, they have been organizing, speaking, and holding leaders accountable through social media applications such as X (previously Twitter), Tik Tok, and Facebook. The campaigns like, #OccupyParliament, #Rutomustgo and recently the internet-based protest against police brutality like the murder of albert and corruption have demonstrated exactly how strong and unified this generation can be. They are challenging policies, revealing injustice and they are not going to be silent. Activism to many is not entirely political but a way of ensuring that the future generations will not squander their efforts and talents.
The Grand Scheme of Things
The problems indeed exist: there is a high level of unemployment among youth, and lots of dreams are on hold due to the absence of capitals, connections, or training. Yet it is also true that a silent revolution is taking place. Whenever a young person begins a hustle, acquires a new skill, or finds the voice to be heard, it makes a difference.
This is not a generation preparing the future, rather it is a fearless generation creating the future.
