Stories of suffering jobless graduates could be planted by corporates for malicious reasons, education activist Dr Wandia Njoya has hinted.
According to Njoya, the narratives are advanced in a bid to manipulate the graduates to “shut up and accept any crap thrown at them”.
“If you believe the story that there are not enough plumbers, masons etc, and yet they earn alot of money, don’t focus on the part of “there are not enough…” Focus on “they earn alot of money.” Because what pains companies is having to pay good wages,” she says.
Njoya, in a tweet thread, argues that the government is in bed with the corporates in order to cage graduates through debts and listing them with Credit Reference Bureaus (CRBs), so that they take any offer from rogue companies.
Read: “Just Shut Up” Dr Wandia Njoya Answers Waiguru On Her Persistent Defence
“So companies want the market to flood with TVET grads and then pay slave wages. And if TVET grads are imprisoned by Muigai’s prison company, nobody has to pay them at all. Same with HELB and CRB. By imprisoning young people in debt, employers can pay, or not, whatever they want,” she adds.
“The bottom line of capitalism is that you must not have control over your work or your earnings. So these business people will bribe the state to create conditions where it is always businesses that can dictate the working terms. They want TVET and CBC to flood the market with skills. If we really wanted technical workers, Atwoli and friends at Cotu would be strengthening the unions to demand better wages, which would encourage people to join those skills. But what is Atwoli doing?” she posed.
Wandia also faulted the media for being roped in the conspiracy to drive the narrative of joblessness in the country to profit certain corporates.
Read: Wandia Njoya: An Open Letter to Rev Canon Peter Karanja Mwangi, NCCK
“And I hope you’re noticing that the media is part of this game. Now millions of young people will be taking a GAMBLE (yes, gambling isn’t just about money) and sending their stories to the media, in the hope that their story might get told and they get a job. Unemployment makes business for media. That’s why they have career pullouts,” she added.
“When you hear businesses worrying about unemployment, they are not empathizing with the young unemployed people. They are sending a coded message to the state to “do something” with young people who might uproot this exploitation when they finally wise up.”
Dr Njoya’s sentiments cme hours after a story run by Citizen TV of a jobless graduate who has been sleeping in the streets, despite scoring As in his KCSE and a first class honours degree in his undergraduates.
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