Posted on Tuesday, May 15, 2012 11:06 AM
I recently came across an advert in our dailies for some tenders. There was one for supplying potatoes to one of the major hotels in the city.The pre-qualifications were way out of my reach! I mean how and where am I supposed to raise a collateral fee of Kshs 1M. This guys were insane. Let alone this , securing a Kshs 3,000 fee for collecting the tender document was unattainable. You can see I have great visions for my life. Potatoes supplier. But isn't this a long process that involves going to inefficient government offices for business registration and other stuff before I land my dream job?
I spend most of my day looking for a job. My friend Johny is a newspaper vendor. It is because of our friendship that I get to peruse all the newspapers. The first thing I do when I get a hold of them is to flip through the job sections. The employers seems not to be interested in mathematicians. The only positions are for sales representatives. Everyone, I mean all of them are looking for guys with marketing,sales,communication.......degrees. By now you have figured it out, holders of any business or arts related degree courses seems to be on demand.
Johny graduated with a First class in Actuarial Science from the University of Nairobi two years ago. He still looks for a job he was trained for. Does it mean that mathematicians and other scientist will continue languishing in poverty and joblessness? No. Are we going to achieve vision 2030 with a country full of BA holders in strategic positions that require thinkers while scientist are reduced to writing articles like this. I was trained to think big, design complex mathematical structures and solve humanity problems through science. However, here I am doing this.
Whom do you think have perfected the art of forgery? By the way is forgery an art or a science? Don't answer, just think about it. The famous River Road in the Nairobi CBD is full of who? You guessed it correct; degree holders. I mean this a place you can walk and literally come out with a Masters degree within an hour! I really do not know how they do it, but I can assure you that they are good. I once saw a forged bank statement for one of the leading banks, it was a perfect replica of the original one. What is funny or saddening is that the recipient of this fake bank statement document was 100% convinced. Many youths have resorted to criminal activities due to poor education system, lack of parental guidance and uncultured entrepreneurial skills. We all have business ideas but what happens to them? Yes you guessed it correct. They remain to be just ideas.
How many people have papers but barely look like they went through a school. A recent audit by PWC on the City Hall employees revealed that over 60% employees are incompetent. Cool. How? How did they pass their interviews? I presume that this result was majorly based on qualifications followed by skills. In this case, they did not have credible papers. So where did there papers go? Because they must have had them, of course during their interviews.
The always vocal and prominent Nairobi lawyer who is also a member of the Judicial Service Commission understands me a little bit. If the allegations are anything to go by, he managed to be where he is because of the so called fake papers from River Road. Waaah! This is awesome. This is just one of them. How many of them are out there? It is ironical because this guy has been in the public limelight for so long yet we didn't see that side of him. A River Road product. Waaah.
Is there any system in place that can be used to confirm the authenticity of these papers? These certificates are nothing but papers.Our leaders have also resorted to getting these papers either from River Road or from well established institutions through blackmail or underhand deals. Enough on fake certificates.
Many employers complain about their new hires on how they don’t have necessary skills. Did they bother to check whether their papers presented to them were genuine? Or is utterly on institutions of higher learning inability to equip them with those skills? Or are these employers only hiring marketers to be in charge of operations! Don't curse me, this is just an example. There are guys who have studied operations as an art and others as a science. Who is more suitable here? Again it is an example for gods sake. You don't expect to use a spade instead of a spoon in eating, or do you?
Our universities should be tracking their graduates and do a study to determine market viability of their products. Through this study they will be able to refine their degree courses.
I have an old bicycle at home. If I could sell it I would start a small business of selling potatoes. Let me look for a buyer. Ooops! My phone is ringing, it could be a possible employer calling. We will continue with this later.