On Friday, July 5, Cabinet Secretary for the Ministry of Information, Communication and the Digital Economy Eliud Owalo revealed that Kenyans were earning a fortune through digital jobs.
The CS in a shared video noted that Jitume Lab, a digital jobs program started by President William Ruto had trained over 490,000 young Kenyans and connected 139,000 of them to digital jobs.
Of note was a young girl from Siaya Insitute of Technology who was able to make Ksh120,000 in just one month after joining the Jitume Lab.
Speaking of the girl, Siaya Institute of Technology Principal Daniel Randa remarked that she had joined the program in a bid to clear outstanding fees.
“There was a student who was having fee arrears of Ksh46,000 but now when we advertised this and told them to register with Jitume Lab so that they might get earnings she earned around Ksh120,000 within a month,” Randa stated.
He explained that once the student received the money, she went ahead and cleared her fee balance.
The Principal did not specify what nature of the online job the young girl was doing which brought in such a hefty sum.
To put this into perspective, according to the Kenya Bureau of Statistics (KNBS), only 371,894 Kenyans earned Ksh100,000 by December 2022.
Randa’s success story was echoed by tens of students across the country where the government has launched the Jitume Lab.
One girl from Meru National Polytechnic endorsing Ruto’s digital jobs program stated, “I am in first year and by the time I reach fourth year I will be a millionaire.”
Another student from Eldoret National Polytechnic stated that he was able to pay his fees and have money left for rent and basic items.
The nature of the jobs remained unclear as the Ministry of ICT blurred the sites which the students were earning their dollars from.
One student noted that she was filling out surveys for companies and remunerated for the tasks completed.
