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Get up and look for jobs, Nyambane tells Kenya’s ‘entitled’ millennials


Kenyan millennials have a false sense of entitlement when it comes to work opportunities in the country, according to the director of youth programmes in the Office of the President.

Speaking during the ‘Youth Economic Dialogue’ in Nairobi, former Communication Director in Nairobi county, Walter Mong’are blamed young people for feeling that they should automatically get job opportunities available, simply because they are there.

When responding to a question on why Kenya has to get foreigners to build roads and other structures while Kenyan youth are left jobless, Mr Mong’are said that young people are not willing or ready to do these jobs, hence other countries take over.

“You cannot just sit at home and expect jobs to come to you. You must get up and look for the opportunities,” he said during the event.

He also said that people between the ages of 23 and 40 years are ‘know it alls’ who do not ask for guidance when they need it. It is when they get older that they realise that they missed out on a lot of opportunities simply because they did not ask for help.

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“When someone is 40 years old and working for the government that is when they see what they missed. They then steal the money that was meant for the youths, because they are not coming to get the loans,” the former comedian said.

Most people within the age bracket that he singled out are the ones that grew up watching the Redykyulass comedy show in which Mong’are was popularly known as Nyambane.

Panelists during the event also pointed out that the youth in Kenya want to get rich quickly and will engage in immoral and unethical activities to get that goal.

“One thing that Mark Zuckerberg, Jack Ma, Bill Gates and Steve Jobs have in common is that they became rich quickly and young. However, they had not set out to make money in the first place. If you only set out to make money, then you will be tempted to take shortcuts,” former chairman of the Kenya Editor’s Guild Macharia Gaitho said.

Young people have been encouraged to start their businesses on a small scale first as they learn how the industry is run before looking for the large jobs.

Mugo Kibati, founder of the Vision 2030 urged young people to stop depending on affirmative action and focus on being independent financially.