A graduate from Egerton University gained nationwide attention after she was captured holding a placard along Thika Road on Thursday.
In photos circulating online, Mary Muiru advertised her credentials to prospective employers. The placard contained her qualifications, academic credentials and phone number.
Speaking to Kenyans.co.ke, the graduate explained her journey from attaining the highest grade in the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) in 2013 to begging on the streets.
She also did several certificates to upgrade her skills including Google Data Analytics, Data Analytics and Visualisation, Advanced SQL, Excel, and Microsoft Power BI.
"I got an A in the 2013 KCSE exams and enrolled at Egerton University the following year, pursuing Actuarial Science," she explained.
"I graduated with a Second-Class Upper in 2019."
Muiru detailed that she got a temporary job doing promotions at a local supermarket. Three months later, she ventured into sales as well as business development positions, opportunities that were based on short-term contracts.
She, however, argued that the businesses lacked growth, indicating that: "The highest I was ever paid was Ksh20,000 monthly."
After the period lapsed, Muiru acknowledged that job opportunities were scarce and confessed that she constantly applied for multiple jobs in a day, amounting to over 2,000 unsuccessful applications.
Constant rejections and lack of responses led her to resort to begging on the streets in public.
"I come from a humble background so my family is not in a position to help. I thought about it (begging on the streets) for quite some time and decided to just do it," she added.
Muiru, whose dream job is a Data Analyst specialist, has received several calls from potential employers seeking her expertise.
The graduate stated that she would review her options before settling on a final offer.
Muiru's incident highlights the unemployment situation facing many youths who are grappling with a tough economy.
According to the latest data from the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS), the number of jobless youth grew from 2.89 million in September 2023 to 2.97 million in December 2023. Over 80,000 Kenyans lost their jobs during the same period.
From the data, youth aged between 20 and 29 years were the most affected, accounting for 1.54 million people.
