30,000 unemployed graduates in cohesion drive

Kenya: The Government will recruit over 30,000 unemployed university graduates to take part in a volunteer programme that will serve as a platform for building national cohesion.

The volunteer programme will be launched by President Uhuru Kenyatta tomorrow in Garissa County.  The graduates will be posted to 15,000 primary schools in the 47 counties over a four-year period.

The volunteers will be required to serve in different counties so as to expose them to diverse cultural settings as a way of encouraging them to be champions of ethnic and national cohesion.

They will also be trained to serve as community education ambassadors whose role will be to help improve primary school enrollment in the country. The programme is also meant to encourage the youth, especially university graduates, to embrace a culture of serving the community and country.

Only university graduates who have never been employed or are currently not in any formal employment will be enlisted in the programme being implemented by the Ministry of Education.

Ethnic stereotypes have been partly attributed to the fact that many Kenyans lack exposure to different cultures. The volunteer programme is one of the interventions by the Government to address this problem especially among the youth while actively engaging them in community service.

Elsewhere, the Kenya Administration Police Service has mobilised over 100 youths drawn from over 23 institutions of higher learning in five African countries to stage a four-day, 125km long peace walk.

RARE CAMPAIGN

The youths from Kenya, Ghana, Nigeria, Rwanda and Ethiopia will lead a rare peace campaign together with law enforcers by crisscrossing the country to spread peace messages.

The climax of the police-student initiative will coincide with the International Day of Peace scheduled for Saturday and will offer an opportunity for participants to integrate with different cultures.

“The walk commences on Wednesday starting from Sotik to Migori via Nyamira and Kisii counties. This is a purposeful walk in which we want to knit this country together by moving around and talking to our people,” said Samuel Guthua, the programme’s coordinator.

Peace Ambassadors Kenya (PAK), an umbrella of university students in Kenya will offer patronage to the initiative in collaboration with the law enforcers in a campaign that also targets major shopping centres.

The participants who have already started arriving in the country are calling on the President and governors to be committed to bringing political wrangles and squabbles to an end.

“The walk will be an opportunity to engage with our leadership. All political leaders must take the front line led by the President and governors,” observed Guthua.

Local institutions that will take part in the walk include Kenyatta University and the University of Nairobi, Masinde Muliro, Maseno, Mt Kenya, Moi and Egerton universities and the Kenya Medical Training College among others.