The effect of the Youth Enterprise Development Fund Mechanism to Youth empowerment in Lurambi Constituency Kakamega County in Kenya

Abstract

Kenya is among the countries with the highest number of youth. It is approximated that over 60% of her population is between the age of 18 and 35 years. Science suggests that this stage of life is very sensitive and challenging. It requires support and guidance from family, mentors and the society at large. Youths everywhere in the world have high hopes and ambitions to be successful and live a good life in adulthood. However, the huge population of young people, poor macroeconomic performance, a lack of labor market opportunities and an education system that suffers from access and relevancy mean that many ambitious young people are unable to translate their aspirations into productive and successful future. This situation of high expectation in life verses existing unemployment rates can fuel frustrations and desperation among the youth. When youths feel abandoned and not protected by the existing systems of government and society some turn to criminal habits, violence, commercial sex agents. Such vices bring negative effects on the young people and also the community as a whole. That is why the researcher maintains that the challenges’ facing the youth is everyone's problem. The Kenyan government, in realizing these negative consequences came up with programs sought to cushion this population from the state of desperation. Youth Enterprise Development Fund (YEDF) is one of the programs initiated by the government to engage the youth in profitable work. The purpose of this study is to assess the effect of the YEDF mechanism towards youth’s empowerment in Lurambi constituency as it seems to be a gap between the Fund and the youth that is hindering its effectiveness. A descriptive research design was carried out in Lurambi constituency to find out the general effect of the Fund mechanism to the benefactors. The researcher achieved this through carrying out focus group discussions with selected groups and interviews with key informants who were purposely selected depending on their familiarity on the subject matter. The data was collected through focus group discussion guide, interview guide and observation. All these have been presented in narratives, pie charts, and percentages. This information has been analyzed according to themes as discussed from the focused group discussions and interviews. There were a total of 80 youths who participated in this study. Each of them was a member of the selected groups that had utilized the YEDF. The procedure followed to access the loan was also discouraging for many of the youth, it took between one month (29%) and six months (71%) which the respondent said was too long. Despite this situation the Fund has brought several benefits such as: bringing youths together in groups to share their common problems, providing funds to them to start businesses, and the promotion of self-employment mentality among the young people. The result of this study is useful for planning, monitoring and supervision of the YEDF in order to improve its effectiveness and relevance in Kakamega County and also in other Counties.