By Anderson Ojwang
Former Cabinet Minister Raphael Tuju could be raising the bar and setting a precedent to his former colleagues in the Cabinet and Parliament over seeking government employment.
While former legislators, ministers and top government officials could be struggling to gain access to the President to get political appointments, Tuju, in his demeanour, has declared he is not interested in government jobs.
When he was asked during a TV interview whether he could accept an appointment from President William Ruto to work in his government, Tuju responded “Not really. I am very happy where I am at the moment. I am enjoying a private life and I am enjoying doing things I do like coming to TV station. I am able to talk without worry about the position of the government or what is the position of the opposition.
Right now, I don’t need a job. Let me tell you, I have over 100 employees in my companies and it is very difficult to pay somebody like me.
I create jobs and I only do things that I want to do. I am not looking for a job so that I get a salary. I am not looking for a job so I can get position to make deals,”
Tuju said he supports peaceful and constitutional change of government and not coups or military takeover as this would make Kenya a failed state.
‘I don’t need to be called on board but I need to be part of any solution that emerges. I am not anybody’s child that I can be called.’ he said.
Tuju said it was disheartening that 75 percent of the current youth population will not be able to access a payslip in their entire life due to lack of employment opportunities in the country.
He said the youth population bulge and stagnant economic growth have created an employment bomb in the country leading to unemployment.
Tuju said lack of economic planning by successive regimes was to blame for the current unemployment among youths witnessed in the country.
He said warnings by economists and other players on the need to put strict measures in place to avoid the youth bomb were ignored and it is now a challenge the country has to wrestle with and find a solution.
Tuju said with reference to an interview he conducted in 1986 with the then Minister for Economic Development, the late Dr Robert Ouko, that the “Genz” phenomenon had been boiling for the last 40 years.
He said Dr Ouko had warned that Kenya would run into problems if the emerging population bulge against economic growth was not addressed.
He said in the 1980s and 1990s Kenya had the highest population increase in the whole world at 4.2 per cent but the subsequent leaderships were not addressing how to tackle the economic growth to keep pace with increasing population.
Currently secondary schools churn out nearly 1 million students every year and in the last five years, the figure is in the region of 5 million while the government can only employ between 50,000‑100,000 annually.
The mismatch between job opportunities and the high number of students graduating is what has created the unemployment bomb in the country.
‘For example, in Kisii, Kiambu and Vihiga the population growth stood at 6 per cent then, which was unprecedented in the world’s history in terms of demographics. That was attributed to births and not migration.
‘Ouko told me that we are going to be in a very hot soup with the youth population bulge in subsequent decades but we never addressed the problems and that is why we are in the situation today.
Those countries that were able to address the problem have been able to get out of them.
In 1973, when President Kenyatta was launching KICC, the 28‑storey KICC building was the tallest in Africa and in the whole of China, their tallest building was 26 storeys tall.
They were marvelling at that time just how a young African country had actually surpassed them in some of the important indices. China’s GDP per capita was below Kenya until 1978.
We got it wrong at some point. Kenya, Singapore and Korea were at the same economic level of development at independence. Kenya got it wrong when anybody who had a mind was shot dead. They shot dead Tom Mboya, who was then Economic Planning—the very visionary leader.
Dr Ouko was killed and the only lucky person who survived during that generation of thinkers was Mwai Kibaki,” he said.
Tuju credited President Kibaki for trying to address the mismatch and gave credit that for the first time in 2007, Kenya reached its economic growth rate of over 7 per cent, which was the essential minimum they needed to address the “Genz” problem currently witnessed in the country.
Tuju recently resigned from Jubilee Party, saying he was no longer adding value to the party, and thanked former President Uhuru Kenyatta for the opportunity.
Tuju, in his usual mien, has kept everyone guessing about his next political move with others wanting him to be the heir‑apparent to Raila and be rewarded with a senior position in the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) party.
Sources have revealed that Raila is comfortable with Tuju and in him he believes the community is in safe hands and that the Luo stand to gain on all fronts.
“So much is happening behind the scene and Tuju is the man to watch. He may just end up as the heir‑apparent. He is very unpredictable and that is what makes him the best candidate to lead the community forward. His honesty, truthfulness, simplicity are some of the virtues that have made Jakom to develop a soft spot for him. Watch the space. It is just a matter of when and not how.” said our sources.
