By Christopher Omondi
In recent times the government of Kenya has been trying to find ways to reduce unemployment rates at the grassroots and community level and Kazi Mtaani initiative was found to be the best though short term but effective as it provided a win-win situation to the youth in terms of employment but also helped with environmental conservation as it mainly involves cleaning the environment and planting of trees.
The Kazi mtaani initiative is a project of the government of Kenya through the state department for youth in collaboration with other state agencies involved with roads, highways and forests, while partnering with all 47 counties all over the country. The project is operating under the ClimateWorX framework. However, the biased selection and failed administration of duties have made a lot of young people from Kosawo victims of unemployment with cry out for help to the government to help them get the jobs they deserve.
The government recently announced the return of Kazi mtaani Job opportunities, promising fairness in selection, as this was the main complaint raised over the years as to the criteria used to ensure fair selection. Announcements were made to inform people that this time, applications will be done online to prevent bias. This brought a sense of belief to youths in my community and thus a lot of young people in my community of Kondele ward in Kisumu County applied in numbers. After successful applications which involved clicking on a link on the climateworx website, creating an account with the portal and posting both our email and phone contacts with the promise of receiving a notification in the form of messages once they were done with reviewing. These applications were open for two weeks and started by the end of May this year.
As of mid-June, communication from the chief’s office Madam Agnes, as she is known around here, through the village elder, Mr. Owuu that a list of names of all the applicants had been posted at Kosawo Hall and that you should check your name and then proceed with verification at the chief’s office. “I applied for this job using the link on the platform provided at the chief’s office, then created an account on my phone to enable me to get all information they send directly to my phone, then I again have to come at the chief’s office to verify my details, why then did they need those details’’. Asked a curious Scovia Owino on the account creation.
“Secondly, after verification in the chief’s office again, which involved writing your full name, phone contacts, and verifying your physical address. No communications, only to be told that a few individuals had already been selected”. She added. For now the issue has gone under the radar with no communication on when the jobs will be starting, who were selected and how the jobs will be done
Weeks later with some still facing the brutal reality of joblessness, some have raised concerns over receiving messages and calls from different contacts promising the kazi mtaani job but asking for a hundred shillings for verifications, again raising concerns about the safety of the data we gave during application and verification.
Kazi Mtaani project, if used effectively, can really impact lives as it’s an opportunity to earn income but there is still a long way to go, especially with the selection process. The use of the internet for applications was supposed to be a game-changer to avoid bias but there are still issues with the verification because it’s the chief who can confirm our physical addresses. The government has to go digital with the selection to enable proper selection of laborers and improved standards of living.
