At least one in two young people in the country would rather start their own business than be employed.
Surprisingly, only a paltry 13 per cent of this particular demographic want to be employed, while the remaining 38 per cent prefer to have their own business and be employed at the same time.
This is according to a recent study conducted by the Partnership for African Social and Governance Research (PASGR) and the Mastercard Foundation, called the Africa Youth Aspirations and Resilience (AYAR) research and uptake project, which sought to explore the aspirations of young people and their perspectives on dignified and fulfilling work.
The study collected data from 1,522 respondents from 17 districts in the countries, of whom 798 were male and 753 were female. It analysed data from 10 male focus group discussions, eight female focus group discussions and a further ten mixed-gender focus group discussions.
When asked to choose between employment and entrepreneurship, 49 per cent of young people said they wanted to start and run their own business, compared to 13 per cent who wanted the former.
However, a majority, 64 per cent of both male and female respondents, said they needed access to credit to properly run and expand their businesses. Another 13 and 17 per cent of female and male respondents respectively said they needed equipment to run their businesses.
Other enabling factors cited by youth include the ability to migrate, the availability of space to operate, and business training.
Beauty, fashion and cosmetics is the most preferred future business for the youth, should they be given everything they need to run a business. This is followed by the automotive and transport sector, and then agribusiness.
However, the majority (30.8 per cent) of young people who run their own businesses are involved in small trade, followed by agriculture (19 per cent) and beauty, fashion and cosmetics (16.4).
Interestingly, young men and women define success differently. The top three definitions of success for young women are supporting their families, creating a good business and having a good job. For young men, success is defined as being financially stable, having a good education and having a good job.
More than anything else, Kenyan youth want economic freedom, which relates to how they can secure decent work.
For them, success means finishing school, getting a degree, graduating, getting a good job or running a thriving business that enables them to support themselves, their family and their relatives.
At least a quarter of young people (25 per cent) define success as being financially stable, with a further 20.8 per cent defining success as having a good job. For 13.9 per cent of this demographic, success means being able to support a family. A further 13.7 per cent see success as creating a good business.
Key among the aspirations of the country's youth is the intention to migrate, with young people expressing their willingness to move out of the country to take advantage of an opportunity and then return to the country to pursue what they have chosen to do in the distant land.
The youth also no longer see marriage as a desirable concept and are willing to forgo it until a certain point when they feel they have achieved their career goals.
Although they actively participate in election campaigns, the general feeling among the youth is that political and leadership positions are for the financially stable and well-connected and not for them.
The study found that 36 per cent of young women would choose formal education if given the chance to pursue education in the future, compared to 34 per cent of their male counterparts. This is followed by 33 per cent of women, compared to 32 per cent of men, who would choose technical and vocational education and training as their future educational venture.
Only 12 per cent and seven per cent of young males and females respectively chose technology and information training to enhance their skills in the labour market.
In their quest to achieve their dreams and aspirations, young people face several barriers to achieving their goals. These include lack of adaptive entrepreneurship and innovation skills, lack of opportunity recognition skills, restrictive family expectations, lack of political and social connections.
"The youth also identified corruption as a major barrier that denies them access to opportunities they deserve, with youth living with disabilities reporting that they face negative attitudes about their ability to perform," said Elizabeth Onyango, a research associate at Pasgr-Kenya, while presenting the findings.
In their search for jobs, young people want dignified jobs, which they define as jobs where they are adequately paid, treated with respect by their employers, a secure job, and a job that respects their ethnicity and religion. The young women also identified having a job that protects them from harm as a key pillar of a dignified job.
The study showed that young people can easily leave a well-paid job and settle for a lower-paying one if they feel more passionate and useful in their new job.
