Dear Mr President.


I’m optimistic that this plea will in one way or the other get to you.

I’m a Kenyan citizen born in a poor family some 30 years ago in Emuhaya, Vihiga County.

I sat for my KCPE in 2000 scoring 457 out of 700 marks.

Due to school fees challenge, I moved from one school to another, eventually sitting for my KCSE in 2006 and scoring a B - (minus).

After Form 4, I enrolled for a diploma in Disaster Management at Masinde Muliro University.

I graduated in 2010.

Seven years later, I’m still jobless.

Mr President, I feel discriminated [against].

When you tell us to move on, I ask: To where?

Do you really know what it means to go on an empty stomach— when your appetite is high but there is nothing?

What if they were your children going without a meal because you can't provide for them?

My family has been discriminated [against] in Kenyan employment.

Imagine this: Five of us in my father's family are unemployed though we hold diploma qualification and above.

Look at this:

1. Simeon Okang'a, Diploma (disaster management), graduated 2010, unemployed.

2. Bath Mwenesi Okang'a, diploma 2011, degree 2015 (Medical Lab Tech), unemployed.

3. Joseph Okang'a, degree, (Education), 2015, unemployed.

4. Jane Nyangai Okang'a, diploma, (ECD), 2011, unemployed.

5. Faith Mihava Okang'a, P1, graduated 2012, unemployed.

Mr President, how can you tell a family like mine to move on?

To where?

I believed in Nasa, I voted for them on 8th August and boycotted on 26th October.

I was ready to be tear-gassed for them until December 9 when they postponed the swearing-in of Raila.

I discovered that following them is like going after a beautiful butterfly: When about to catch it, it flies to the next flower!

Let me ask this: If the Okang'as were from your family, the deputy president's, Raila’s, Kalonzo's, Musalia's, Wetang’ula's, Orengo's, Matiang’i's, Muigai's, Kiunjuri's, Esipisu's, Mailu's, could all of us still be unemployed?

That is why I feel we have been discriminated.

It pains me more when I have to wake up daily to do boda boda (in company of Standard Four, Five and Six dropouts).

Often, I’m the laughing stock and the point of reference of cases where education has no value.

Mr President, the Okang'a's are also Kenyans.

We are requesting for employment.

Not demanding for those high-end jobs but what is equivalent to our level of education— something I can use to put a roof over my children, something to cover their nakedness and a meal for their hungry stomachs.

Only that, Mr President.

I know you have done it in the past. And you can do it again.

Yours truly,

Simeon Okang'a

Kenyan.