The Covid-19 pandemic has rendered many graduates jobless with the few still in employment narrating working under inhumane conditions.
An engineering graduate from the University of Nairobi who identifies himself as Wyregi narrated his harrowing ordeal of working 14 hours a day while still being short-changed of his salary.
After spending six years pursuing his degree, Wyregi finally graduated in September 2019 and landed an internship immediately as job offers from reputable companies followed at the turn of the year. He however settled on interning at an oil refinery.
"The offer was a six-month internship, no pay, had to pay for my own lunch in the vegan canteen, I took it. After two days there, I got a real job offer in a bakery till Corona hit and I lost the job after 6 months, had to start tarmacking again," he explained.
Wyregi stumbled upon a job advert on his University's WhatsApp group and applied after checking all the boxes under the job description. He later secured an interview at a bottle top packing company on his last day interning at the oil refinery.
"I had to show them my previous job's contract. This was a big red flag but I told them they have to match the terms of my previous contract and they said ok. They said they will call back after a few days so I went home.
"After about two weeks a lady called and said she was from a company a consultancy company adding that HR gave them my number. I was supposed to go with my certificates to Corner House in town and sign some papers," he noted.
After negotiations with the consultancy firm, he reluctantly agreed to give up his first full salary with the job requiring him to work 12-hour day shifts and 13-hour night shifts with up to 18 hours when switching in between shifts.
He added that running late by 30 minutes resulted in penalties where the company sent you home without the day's pay. Wyregi added that he was spending up to four hours commuting in addition to his long working hours.
Wyregi checked-in at 6 pm and ended up checking out at 7:08 am the following day with the hard labour putting him under for two days, noting that he was still recuperating from the job to date.
He noted that the high rate of unemployment had handed companies leverage in negotiating for contracts but urged youths to hang in there as better days were yet to come.
A number of graduates also shared similar experiences of working under deplorable conditions for some of the 'big companies' in the country.
"I worked in Industrial area for one month four days. It was a cotton field! Imagine loading a 100-litre barrel on a pallet all by yourself! Each pallet takes 4 barrels and that was warm-up, not the actual job. Overtime was 72 bob/hr before tax! Salary15k before tax," explained Steven Muchiri.
"After graduating in 2018, I worked in a certain horticultural park house, my salary was 15,000. I had to quit after 3 months. I would rather be jobless (am still jobless)," noted Enos Chetambe.
Fred Nzomo noted that in 2016 October he got a job in a cleaning company at The Hub, Karen, by lunchtime he could barely feel his legs due to standing for long hours with some rude supervisor telling him he would get fired no matter who brought him there. He added that he quite the job the following day.
"This is the reason why with an engineering degree I've never bothered to seek employment. I'm not speaking from a point of privilege, I just had to find a way of generating income. It wasn't easy at first but not as inhumane as what corporations put engineering graduates through," replied Mark to Wyergi's story.
