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Rais Saidia! Jobless man who shouted Uhuru's name offered a job

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 Philemon Awando, a resident of Obunga slum in Kisumu county received a call from president Uhuru Kenyatta during his last visit to the lakeside city offering him an employment.   PHOTO:COLLINS ODUOR

A 20-year-old frustrated job seeker can finally afford a smile, thanks to a brief encounter he had with President Uhuru Kenyatta last week.

Philemon Awando caught the President’s eye and ear last Sunday when he shouted “Rais, Rais, Rais Rais!” at the top of his voice as presidential guards shoved him aside.

The shouting prompted President Kenyatta to turn towards him. He then ordered the guards to allow the young man to come forward and greet him. The Head State then went ahead to give Mr Awando a firm handshake and ask what his problem was.

“Habari yako kijana. Uko na shida gani (How are you young man, what is the problem)?”, asked the President, who was in Kisumu to preside over the official opening of the headquarters of the Seventh Day Adventist Church’s West Kenya chapter.

Diploma graduate

For the diploma graduate who had been looking for a job since 2012 in vain, it was the moment to sell his credentials. He begged the President to give him a job.

“It was less than two minutes that we chatted and I went straight to the point explaining to the President the challenges the youth in slums face, including unemployment, giving my case as an example. He told me to give him my contacts and he would get back to me once he got to Nairobi,” he said. At exactly 6.55pm the same day, Awando’s phone rang. His heart skipped a beat.

“A voice of a lady greeted me and inquired whether I was Philemon and if I had talked to the President, and after confirming this, she told me to hold on and that someone would talk to me shortly. It was the President himself. He told me to explain what I shared with him at Obunga,” he said.

The President then assured him of a job, and referred him to an officer from the Ministry of Public Service Youth and Gender Affairs whom he had asked to find him a job in Nairobi.

Immediately after talking to the President, Awando received a text message which read: “Good evening, Ms Sicily Kariuki, CS Public Service, Youth and Gender has asked me to SMS you my email address for you to email your CV for consideration.”

In the sprawling Obunga slum, news of Awando’s fast-changing fortunes spread like wild fire and people started flocking his humble abode to get the news from the ‘horse’s mouth’.

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