BWIRE: Youth and work: Rethink crime prevention this International Labour Day

As Kenya joins the rest of the world in marking International Labour Day today, the national conversation that often centres on wages, working conditions and job creation can extend a little more to youth unemployment, idleness and rising crime, which continue to be pressing realities.

For us to build safer communities, we must rethink labour not just as an economic activity, but as a powerful tool for social stability.

Crime rarely exists in isolation, and this is a fact. Crime often festers where opportunity is limited and where young people, in particular, feel excluded from meaningful participation in the economy.

In many urban and peri-urban areas across Kenya, the lack of sustainable livelihoods has created fertile ground for petty crime, drug abuse and organised criminal activity, which is a visible reality every day if you look at the daily gathering of young idle people in many town centres.

Addressing this challenge is not easy, in a country where education and home income levels vary, thus it may require more immediate investment in people, rather than drafting policies that may take a long time to be actualised.

Promoting self-sustenance through labour definitely offers a practical pathway forward for many youth. Kenya’s informal sector, often referred to as the hustle economy, already provides evidence of what is possible.

Many youth are creating digital content without formal education on digital matters, making edible and non-food items to sell in small hustle markets as well as online, many are embracing farming and carpentry, among others.

With Kenya, and other development partners providing access to vocational training, small business support and affordable credit, many young people have successfully carved out dignified livelihoods in areas such as carpentry, mechanics, urban farming and digital services. Those who have embraced such businesses are naturally avoiding crime.

While there are a good number of youth in formal employment, and those who have started businesses, there is another good number of youth who are still seeking jobs, with university degrees, and others who are jobless due to lack of fees to pursue tertiary education, or simply truant youth who are into drugs and alcohol and who have refused to engage in meaningful employment. Those are the youth who are vulnerable to influence and sliding into petty or major criminal activities.

These are the same youth who are misused by politicians and crooked business people to engage in mob political activities, robberies and fraud. This group is the one that needs immediate help to get into the formal or informal labour market, by different stakeholders, especially this and next year, as we approach the election period, to avoid them being misused.

National and county governments, alongside the private sector and development partners, must therefore scale up labour-intensive initiatives. Public works programmes, green economy jobs and digital innovation hubs, that can absorb thousands into productive work.

Equally important is shifting youth and general society attitudes to value all forms of honest labour, moving beyond the narrow prestige attached to white-collar jobs. Immediate ‘small’ jobs such as cleaning, delivery services, restaurant waiting, cashier, nanny jobs, among others, can be jobs for the youth to start on to make a living.

Government and parents should be at the forefront to support them in getting immediate opportunity, even as they pursue their future ambitions, just so they can avoid being idle and being lured and trapped into crime.

Reducing crime, therefore, is not solely a matter of enforcement. It is all about expanding immediate opportunity, changing societal attitudes on meaningful employment, restoring dignity and enabling every Kenyan youth to work, use their capabilities, earn and thrive. Happy Labour Day!

Vera Bwire writes on African Youth, Democracy, Higher Education and Development | [email protected]