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When most people leave the country to study abroad, they usually do so with the hopes that it would make finding a job once they return much easier.
And so, armed with their certificates, some of them from world's highly regarded universities, they return home, as one of them put it, eager to hit the job market hard.
Only, as Rose Odhiambo Brown who has lived in the UK for the last 15 years will tell you, it is not as easy as having degree from a world class university or the ideals of repatriating the best skill and knowledge to your home country. Not even a promise by the president that employment is guaranteed for those coming home from the diaspora is enough.
She returned September last year with the conviction that she would find work, like many others who have streaming back, she pinned her hopes on the promise of Kenya's unrivalled growth in the region. Odhiambo walked through the doors of Nation Centre last week bearing a list of her comrades, all of them returnees from London who listened to the president's plea and took action.
According to the returnees, who talked to Jobs on phone, President Uhuru Kenyatta, during a meeting with Kenyans living in the UK in May 2013, gave an aspirational speech in which he spoke to them about reverse brain-drain and asked them to return to Kenya and work here so they could better the country.
EXISTENTIAL BIAS
"He said we'd be guaranteed jobs as long as we were qualified. We came back but what's happened? We have been moving from door to door, and still nothing. We can't even access these politicians who accompanied him in persuading us to come home."
Odhiambo was confident her graduate degree in mental health acquired in 2010 was marketable enough in a country sorely in need of mental health professionals.
Now she says she has been to the nursing council where in spite of having copies of degree certificates and transcripts she has been told she will be required to present all university transcripts. She has even tried the counties but nothing.
"That ideal we had coming back that we want the best for our country and would like to grow our own, boomeranged on us when we got here and ten months down the road couldn't find work after months of searching," the nurse who has been in the hunt for a job for the last one year, says.
A mental health graduate from the Buckinghamshire New University, Odhiambo worked for Ealing Hospital a district general National Health Service hospital in West London, for five years as a psychiatric nurse, before her decision to return home. She earned half a million shillings each month she says.
"And the reasoning was that even though the pay might not be as good as abroad, Kenya needs our skills and when you are close to your family it’s better than more money elsewhere, and that is why we came back."
Now this lot say they feel there is an existential bias against them by recruiters and bosses who feel threatened by their exposure and skill level.
"We are not sure whether people are intimidated by us or what is happening," says the nurse who has been to various hospitals and the Ministry of Health in search of a job but to no avail.
"We are stereotyped, I think society already has a formed opinion of us. That because we worked abroad if we have to be assigned work in less disadvantaged communities like Kibra we won't like it, but I can do anything, this is my country. Anything I can do to make a contribution in making it better, I will do. We have a lot to give to the society but some people have refused to give us the chance to do it," she added.
At this point she says she is still holding onto her UK PIN. "Should anything not come up soon then I am thinking I'll need to go back to London for work," says the mother of two, "because you know with nursing if you don't practice you lose your skills. I studied for five years only to come back here to suffer."
IMPRESSIVE CREDENTIALS
"Being out of work over a year most of us are having to rely on friends and family for upkeep," she says and reveals that she has had her brother pay her rent thrice already and she has now resorted to looking for small tendering jobs from government to keep her going. "Sometimes I go to bed and I cry. I ask God, did I do something wrong by coming back home?" she adds.
In the meantime, she is helping whichever mentally ill people she can find get better and pondering over a decision by the cornered group to go see the President and remind him of the promise he made to them back in London. Except according to her it has been hard accessing State House.
Her message to the people back in the diaspora? "They need to know the truth about these politicians who come and tell people to come back home that there are jobs for them. Instead they should ensure they have attained the job by the time of relocating or come back prepared to join the job search tumult just as everybody else. Many of us, especially those with families are struggling to make ends meet."
Jack Bwana graduated with a distinction in Master's of Science in International Logistics in Cambridge—Anglia Ruskin University and thought with such impressive credits it would be a whizz getting a job back home.
But all he has heard since he started looking for work was that he was overqualified for the jobs he has tried for. He says most advertised positions lack transparency at the stage of hiring.
"Advertisement of jobs in Kenya seems to be a mere formality. It seems they have already filled the position prior to the hiring exercise and only advertise because there’s a requirement to do so. People I know are tired of applying for the jobs and have now resorted to doing business or starting their own consultancies," said the man who is now gone into consultancy.
Isaa Jelimo, a Masters graduate of Coventry University, has ended up helping with the family's small business after her seven-month-long hunt for the elusive marketing job with a Multinational Corporation she was hoping to nail once back.
Esther Mwende Masika who went to the same university to study for a Masters in Strategic Marketing has had to go back to ground zero working as an intern after applying and learning that most of the jobs were just fraudulent job advertisements.
"It's a bit scary. I had wanted to further my studies to an even higher level but I am wondering if I’d done that then what would have happened?" she marvels.
Peris Muriithi has an MBA from Conventry University too, and has been looking for marketing, economics and trade kind of jobs, but she says wherever she has been if she is not knocked off the list because she is over qualified, then she suspects it is because organizations are afraid of the amounts of money she might ask in salary.
The returnees agree on one thing. That the recruiters in the country need to be more courteous to job seekers by sending feedback upon disqualification for a position, so they understand why they are not getting through. Apparently it is discouraging and frustrating when they do not hear back from the organisations they have applied to.
- Nation.co.ke
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This kind of employers are insecure,that you are more qualified, knowledgeable than them and think outside the box,and feel that you will sweep their job away from them.
What you are having is “”makasiriko”” it’s either you were denied a visa or you gat your own issues, CBK said that people in diaspora sent money to the tune of 215 billion Kenya shillings, did you transmit that huge amount with your m-pesa? Those doing those jobs that you highlighted contributed more to the economy than you did and than you will ever do. with such type of archaic reasoning you’ll just do more harm than good to the economy. Don’t ever think that getting those degrees is a walk in the park those kids with whom you are busy criticizing that they do shoddy jobs , most of them end up becoming people of integrity and getting good jobs in their respective countries in the long run, That’s why they will send money back home help their families and invest a lot ,otherwise numbers don’t lie.so rise up think and get a life.
Just a quick question to you with all due respect. Have you ever worked, lived or attended any college abroad? I ask because this is the attitude of most Kenyans I have interacted with and they are damn wrong. There is something so crutial to any developing country in any part of the world and Kenya is no exception and is SKILLS and Diversity. Skills are aquired, mostly by doing after training. That is Kenya and Africa so desperately needs. These two are the reason why US offers 50,000 green cards every year to foreign nationals to become their citizens to bring those skills that they, despite being a developed country acknowledge that they need to remain competitive. It is this same reason that we, a poor third country, go for engineers in China to construct our roads despite our own Universities producing engineers every year. Africa needs those critical international standards skills almost as they oxygen and definitely more than loans. Because we are competing in the world market place against the best out their.
But we have a problem and the problem is stupid patriotism and that is the garbage our politicians has fed us for years. We think patriotism alone will build a country. Cuba is one of the most patriotic country on earth and one of the poorest and they will tell you their county is the greatest that has ever existed. That's the power of believing
I dont believe one bit that Kenya is producing talented kenyans, thats why the rich dont even educate their kids in Kenya, then to make it worse there is barely any jobs, people living in diaspora commonly hear how so many "learned" kenyans can barely find a job, so how do you compare a diasporan who is slightly experienced to a new grad?? Secondly with that fast paced education system Kenya has going on in universities such as Nairobi Uni I have heard of students leaving University undercooked and not ready for the market. So yes, most definately diaspora graduates do have a competitive edge against majority of the locals.
Let's just start with the assumption that you are NOT an employer as you claim to be, because anyone with half a pea brain doesn't reason like you. You need to do more research on what Kenyans do abroad. Your cliched claims are tiring. Obviously you suffer from lack of exposure.
I am one of those PhD’s who , in your words been moving “between a class and an exam room and has no working experience at all but a relevant field!!!”
Wow. Yours is quite a statement when it comes to PhDs. I have not met one, and I mean one PhD candidate who is bursting their butt burning the midnight in some of the leading university labs in the world. I know this for a fact because a program like the one I graduated fro attracts the best brains from around the world - even from other first world countries - because they are second to none. And yes, some Nobel laureates work in some of these buildings!! I challenge you to apply to get into a PhD program anywhere in the US because it is a breeze (as compared to getting one in Kenya). I challenge you to show me a PhD who graduates from a US university without being published scholar as a requisite for graduation!!
As an aside, as a graduate student working to earn an MSc and then PhD, I did extensive stint doing odd jobs to earn my keep: furniture delivery, crew at Tim Hortons, and yes, manning the counter at McDonalds!!! And tell you what, at one time I had a hard working coworker who happened to be the son of the provost ( like academic registrar). Good for you that you can look down at some of these jobs!! Here, that is a positive in your vita.
Anyway. Enough said.
KENYAN GOING BACK HOME FOR JOBS.
I would thank all of you who have gone back home to look for Jobs. The most chaleging in our life is just to ask ouself did we go to school & get the highest level of education to be hired ??? If we think a little bit we should hire ourselves than to be hired. This way we can create jobs for those who did not get to be educated in uk or America or any ather foreign countries. I believe even if we open a kiosk we can put it at a better orgernised way than that of a non-educated person. What we need is a small capital to start a small kiosk as we look for the job we want. This way we will stop fingerpointing the president & his fellow politicians who are never tired of talking false promises. Let us build our country by starting small jobs to keep us busy. These small jobs will grow to big industries, nothing started big. Keep up brothers & sisters we come home, fail come back but are we going to stay like this ? let us hope we get courage to start in Kenya.
Hata ndio mimi nauliza. Why they believe in a system that has failed them year after year. Forget them! Do your thing, achana nao. Siasa ndio Mingi na kupiga mdomo. Sijue Wanafaidisha Wananchi kivipi.
Are you serious asking where all that money went? Do you think she was just earning that money and squandering it? Life in UK is very expensive and there is no short cut to bribe anything. Bills have to be paid.... don't be so naive.
I am not a spokesman of Kenya's useless president but were kina Odhiambo deported then waanze kuwadanganya/kuwahadhaa waKenya wanjinga of jobs reserved for them by Uhuru?Are they just ODM agents with their usual pesa nane politics?
All good arguments
Kenya has enough unemployed graduates already, and that's why the government is going the technical courses way.
If you have any transferable skills you need not worry,just apply them here and help ease the unemployment
crisis leading our youth to depression and suicides.
Otherwise, it's never too late to learn, unlearn and relearn.
Sincerely,
A fellow diaspora graduate.
I assume all these people commenting here are educated. Where is empathy? Before you criticize show a little empathy to your " brethren/ sisteren"
I wonder who still listens to Uhuru. It is good to go back home, but you must have a back up plan should you fail to secure employment.
Looking for a farm manager with international agronomy experience.
First of all she is lying to us atibwe listened to Uhuru na tukarudi? If she actually listened to Uhuru then she is not qualified to be hired anywhere in Kenya. Ati we got paid 500k a month..with those qualifications and atleast 10yrs of experience?? Then she came home with no plan A or B? Kenya is where Doctors can be grounded for months...what makes her think she is special? Nobody cares about your awesome papers or experience- nobody in Kenya. Ok ok life in UK is expensive and taking a huge pay cut is understandable but this is Kenya!! Go back be4 you loose your license.
We are all proud to be Kenyans, regardless of whether we are in diaspora or not. Our country with all its beauty and resources has not provided all the up and coming with opportunities to grow, thrive or develop a career. Why? Let's start with nepotism, corruption, tribal politics. That's why people leave in searc of better opportunities. That's why people are sacred to come back. We want to come back and bring unique skill sets, outlook and resources. But Kenya systems makes it challenging against its own best interests. When we do come back, sadly it's with fear and angst , as many have noted - how much sense does it make for a university graduate to tarmac for years on the streets of Nairobi? Kenyans on average are highly educated , a good place to start is root out the corruption especially in the corridors of power