Why Are Most Degree Holders In Kenya Poor?

Compiled by Lilian Wamaitha

Why are educated people in Kenya poor and not just poor but very poor? 80% of educated Kenyans today earn less than Ksh50,000 gross salary. Make the necessary deductions and you are left with Ksh35,000.

The little salary left still has to suffer from numerous loan deductions from HELB to other loans you have taken leaving you with Ks.25000. Ksh10,000 then goes to pay for rent and the monthly shopping accounts to Ksh5,000 of what remains.

Well, since you don’t live at work, the matatu people expect Ksh4,000 from you every month, then there are those relatives who won’t allow you to rest because you are now a working class fellow, give them 2,000 and you are left with around Ksh5,000.

If you have a family that amount is not even enough to sustain a baby let alone take one to school. So what is the educated person in Kenya left with? Nothing but to live on loans every now and then.

Poverty and prosperity are defined in terms of property.

Wealthy people have property to their names and poor people do not, which is where educated people come in. Most of them are living in poverty but hide it in class and white collar jobs that do not pay well enough.

The wallow in poverty but their pride will never allow them to take up measures to correct the situation. And the cycle continues. More degree holders graduate and enter into this cycle of poverty.

The reason why most degree holder will work for someone else 30 days in a month and for 30 years being paid peanuts is because they lack the will to generate income for themselves.

The degree itself is seen as something so precious that separates them from the masses – the “uneducated people” who never got to go to campus for four years and graduate with a first class or second class honors.

This is why the so called “uneducated people” are the biggest employers who end up employing these degree holders.

A degree holder does not know how to make their own money unless that money is made for them. They do not want to get their hands dirty doing menial jobs that are for the common mwanachi who does not have a degree.

A degree holder is so depended on getting a job and earning a good salary that they think less about starting their own business.

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Don’t get me wrong, I am also a degree holder and I know some degree holders who have gone on, gotten out of their comfort zones, started their own businesses and are now doing great things and excelling in so many ways.

But you must admit that most of us live this kind of life. Most of us want to be employed for life.

We want to get jobs at big companies, work from 8-5 for seven days a week rather than invest in something.

1. We are not willing to do “dirty jobs” like selling fries on the streets but are very happy to be employed at Java, KFC, Chicken In and the likes forgetting that it’s the same job, it’s just that the nature of it has changed.

2. A degree holder is not ready to buy a popcorn machine and start selling popcorns on the streets but is willing to be employed outside Safaricom, Telkom or Airtel outlets convincing people to buy sim cards from 8-6 in the evening and take home Ksh10,000 or if lucky 25,000 at the end of the month.

3. Most degree holders in Kenya are not prepared to hawk mitumba clothes but are willing to be employed by an Indian in a shop selling similar things.

4. A Kenyan degree holder will not think to start his/her own business and earn Ksh100,000 a month but will be more than happy to work as a cashier at a bank taking home Ksh50-70,000 a month with about half of this going to taxes and loans.

5. A degree holder will not be willing to start a company and watch it grown for 3 years but will be comfortable tarmacking for 3 years.

6. A degree holder will be so happy to get a passport and go work in another country for someone else than stay at home and help develop their own country.

7. A degree holder will always blame the government for lack of jobs while the same government gave them loans in terms of bursaries and HELB to see them through school and make something of their lives.

8. A degree holder will be so much willing to get out of the country and go sweep the streets of London or New York and do all manner of jobs in Middle Eastern countries than remain home and start their own business.

9. A degree holder will spend their entire day and the little money they get to enrich betting companies instead of thinking of ways to improve their life and own their own betting companies in future.

10. And finally most degree holders are not willing to start down and move up. They want to get out of school and get a well paying job that is worthy of their degree. They will reject jobs at small companies where they are destined to grow career wise and will wait for jobs at big companies and multinationals. 

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This rests my case.

Most degree holders but not all don’t want to get their hands dirty. They don’t want to work on something and see it flourish. They would rather wake up every day and go to that white collar job. They say that life is all about the choices you make.

I don’t mean that getting a good job and working hard is a bad thing. Sure you will excel but in the midst of that, think about where you want to be in future. Do you want to forever remain an employee or do you want to join the employer club one day.

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Source: KenBiz