Finally, a Reprieve for Youth Unemployment and a Boost for the Economy

The unemployment rate in Kenya stood at 40 percent according to the statistics of four years ago, with today’s number expected to be much higher. 70 percent of Kenya’s population is made up of the youth and 80 percent of these youth wallow in abject poverty mostly due to unemployment.

Kenyan politicians have taken advantage of the frustrated unemployed youth as a stepping stone to gaining political mileage. Every election year, each leader who wishes to ascend to power uses a common phrase; ‘giving jobs to the thousands of the jobless youths’. The moment they get what they want, all the promises are buried waiting to be resurrected after five years.

The Kenyan youth are in dire need of employment but jobs have become hard to come by. Getting a job nowadays depends less on qualification and more on who is who and who one knows in the ‘big’ offices. Most young people, therefore, have been left desperate, mourning from within with a good number of them resolving to crime to get by.

The above mentioned shortcomings are getting dealt a huge blow with the emergence of FiveSok, an innovative, entrepreneurial and one of its own kind online marketplace that connects buyers to experts of small scale services such as graphic design, tutoring, artwork and any other services needed and required on the market. Any ethical skill can be posted and sold as a service to whoever needs them on FiveSok, with a special distinction from other platforms because it only lists services whose pricing ranges from 500 shillings to 5,000 shillings.

In its initial stages, the platform had been designed for experts to post their services or expertise for hire at a certain amount, and for buyers to comfortably and conveniently find the experts. Through the program, people can now request particular services that they are seeking for, their requests open for any qualified expert to apply, just like with the tendering process.  This is very ideal for individuals that are looking for part-time work.

Behind FiveSok’s emergence, is a robust development team that believed in the mission right from its inception. Clifford Owino, who heads the development team, along with his partner MaryPrisca, quickly found themselves in the depths of a project that is now shaping the service marketplace in Kenya.

Clifford is a versatile software developer who has already made significant strides in the Kenyan software industry, with footprints in health, insurance and banking sectors; and a series of mobile and web applications that are being consumed locally and internationally. MaryPrisca on the other hand is a fourth year student at Strathmore University with a great interest in Software development. She already has under her belt a variety of complex technical proficiencies that have aided her in the development of various web applications. FiveSok is a masterpiece that Clifford and MaryPrisca have worked on for several months with the hopes that even more Kenyans will see the value and get on board.