Former student leader at the University of Nairobi Chairman Zack Kinuthia has weighed in on the ongoing debate on whether teachers and civil servants on vacation should apply for the scheduled August 2019 population census exercise.
The 16-day-long exercise will be conducted between August 16 to 30 by the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS).
It has in recent days ignited a bonfire after President Uhuru Kenyatta seemed to discourage civil servants more so, teachers who will by then be on holiday, from applying for the same.
According to Uhuru, Africa has to invest more in its youth for it to become a continent of 'hope and prosperity' and as such, he said he was committed to keeping up the momentum to create more jobs for the youth in Kenya.
However, many teachers whom Uhuru apparently singled out in this national exercise that comes after every 10 years have protested bitterly with some saying that they need nobody's consent on what to do "with our degrees, diplomas and certificates".
"I am appealing to all the teachers who were initially interested in these census jobs but rescinded after Uhuru's statement to reconsider their decisions. Many professional teachers in Kenya are either underpaid, in disguise employment or jobless."
"So, why should we not jump on an opportunity we are qualified for to substitute our meagre incomes," a High School teacher who works in a Thika Town school and who sought for anonymity told this writer on Monday.
Nevertheless, Kinuthia does not seem to agree with this particular teacher and others who share the same sentiments saying that this is a 'prime opportunity' for many youths especially those above 25 years.
"I want to join the cry across the country, in asking the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics to take this chance, and implement the desire of President Kenyatta in engaging and employing the thousands of stranded College and Universities students who are yet to find footing in life, and employ them as enumerators, Supervisors and Trainers of Trainers in the upcoming National Census in August," he wrote on his Facebook page Sunday.
He adds: "This is a rare chance because every person who is above 25 years, will not be a Youth when the next census will be conducted. And this makes the opportunity prime and rewarding....."
He further opines that engaging people who are already on government payroll at the expense of the 'idle, educated and broke youths' is not only 'ridiculous' but an 'insult to the future of our nation'.