Kenyan Youth Not Ready to Give Up ‘Fun’ for a Better Life
A new report dubbed ‘#SexMoneyFun: Kenya’s young people don’t make sense without it’ discusses the most holistic views of 15-24 year old Kenyanunder the hashtag ‘#Shujaaz360’ on social media platforms.
The report, done by Well Told Story, a multi-media communications channel engaging youth in Kenya and Tanzania, was launched in Nairobi on Wednesday.
The survey was conducted between December 2015 and February 2016. It involved face to face survey, qualitative study and SMS survey.
The report findings showed that young Kenyans tend to focus on three key topics in their conversations – relationships, money and entertainment.
Interestingly, the report states that the three are integrated to bring out the youthful lifestyle.
“While the #SexMoneyFun approach to life seems rather simple, it is not. Young Kenyans have to be very strategic about how they spend their time and money so they can maintain the lifestyle and gain the social capital that sustains their self-image and self-narrative.”
“Any campaign addressing young people needs to pinpoint very clearly how the new product or new behavior will result in more sex, more fun and more money and how quickly,” it adds.
With an increasing population growth rate of 2.7 per annually with an increasing unemployment rate that was at 6.7 per cent in 1978 and currently at 40 per cent justifies that in relation to the growth rate of the economy standing at 5.6 per cent in 2015 which was a slight improvement compared to a 5.3 per cent growth in 2014 is far below the Kenya Vision 2030 blueprint that targets an average of 10 per cent.
Kenya Unemployment Rate is projected to trend around 24.00 percent in 2020, according to Trading Economics global macro models.
Read: Youth and Unemployment in Kenya
The Kenya National Bureau of Statistics economic survey reported that the economy generated a total of 841.6 thousand jobs of which 128.0 thousand jobs were in the modern sector while 713.6 thousand were in the informal sector.
In contrast, the #SexMoneyFun report on Money and Employment, “Youths’ current financial situation is challenging – half regularly struggle to get enough money for food and transport.”
49% don’t have enough money for daily needs, 3% have more than enough and can do whatever they please, and 47% have just enough to cover their expenses for the day.
Further, it reveals that, opportunities for formal employment are limited even for those who are officially in the job market. 15% are formally employed and 85% are not formally employed.
Their quest for money according to the report means a lot to them. It means, survival, freedom, independence, sense of accomplishment and social capital. To earn that money, youth have to be employ creativity. Key among them, upkeep allowances from family members and family savings, hustling, with the informal sector playing a critical role – 1-4 hustles, including 15% among full-time students and 57% among those formally employed and through sponsors – 33% of young Kenyans either have a sponsor or know someone who has a sponsor; 65% say it’s ok to have a sponsor even when you are in a relationships.
