State House continues to insist that in the year 2018, the government of Kenya created more than 800,000 jobs.
When taken to task to show evidence of the jobs created, the government becomes defensive and asks us to find out from the private sector.
Unemployment in Kenya just got worse. We should forget the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) that almost a million jobs were created in 2018.
What the government is not telling Kenyans is that the unemployment rate just hit 43.5 percent, the highest in East Africa with 1 in every 40 Kenyans being without a job.
The employment absorption rate in the so called white-collar sector is less than 3 percent with the government insisting on increasing the retirement age of those already nearing the retirement age.
The government said it is not planning to hire anyone this financial year. In fact, they are considering laying off some and having those who will remain on a 3-year renewable contract.
The SME sector in Kenya is the only sector that can take credit for creating employment opportunities. The sector employs 86 percent of Kenyans and contributes around 45 percent to the GDP.
The SME sector, however, is ailing. Businesses are closing down en masse. Stats show that in the last 5 years, more than 2.2 million SMEs closed shop. That is more than 400,000 SMEs dying annually.
The government is doing almost nothing to support the SME. The business environment is so unbearable for them.
When president Uhuru Kenyatta was asked, his response was that the “success or the failure of a business should not depend on the government that is in power.” That statement was out of ignorance.
The government has a role to play in the success or failure of a business, especially the SME. The numerous taxes that have been imposed by the government of the day are killing the sector at the rate that has never been witnessed before.