By Mohammed Omar
Shayma Swaleh jokes that she loves her small-scale baking business that helps pay her bills albeit in drips and drabs.
“My love for cooking led me to baking’ ’she told The Plu “I will never give up baking”
Shayma’s dreams, like any other graduate is to secure a job with a six figure salary that can turn her life around for good.
Ever since she completed her university studies, the 26 year old bubbly lady has been chasing job after job but in vain.
She is among thousands of graduates who come out of universities only to find themselves in the streets listless and jobless.
Shayma has particularly find it harder to secure a job despite being a graduate of Business Information Technology (BIT) from Jomo Kenyatta University.
She has lost count of how many times she dropped her curriculum vitae at some firms in Mombasa, now she has lost hope for good.
And Shayma waits for no more miracles anymore because she knows most miracles do not happen.
“I will not wait for a call from any company” She told the Plu
Born and brought up in the port city of Mombasa where getting employment is a hard nut to crack, Shayma racked her brain against all odds by putting up her own baking business.
Her passion for baking started while still in university when she decided to start her journey of a thousand miles with one crucial step of teaching herself the art of baking from the internet.
All throughout her years in the university, Shayma spared some precious time for her baking lessons.
“Schooling did not interfere with my passion for baking as I would work on placed orders immediately after classes” she said
At dawn of almost every school day, after her Fajr prayers, Shayma was down with her tools when then she would cook, decorate and deliver orders before going to class.
From her humble beginning she started out with a Juakali jiko and a sufuria to bake cakes and cookies that were simple but sometimes slack.
Her insatiable desire to become self-employed and help pay the bills of her family is the driving force behind her achievement.
“I will never give up baking despite the poor results which were so discouraging,” she notes
Over the years she has mastered the art of baking having started from a modest beginning with seething frustration of her business’s poor performance.
She keeps on putting her best foot forward to earn a living through her small scale baking that she finds both enjoyable and helpful. Back home she helps feed seven mouths: her parents and those of her five siblings.
With the small money she earned, she diversified her baking and bought better equipment to advance her business.
Shayma’s determination to help secure an economic lifeline for herself and her family is a powerful indication of the struggle of many youths like her.
Now Shayma informs her friends and the rest of the youth not to wait for formal jobs but instead, make a living using their talents. The reason for this she said is the ever shrinking job market in Kenya and elsewhere in the world.
“I believe everyone in this world has a passion on something that he or she can do to generate income.” She said
According to a recent statistics seven out of ten unemployed Kenyans are youths. What this means is that the skills and knowledge of the overwhelming majority of graduates are wasted.
Approximately 800,000 young Kenyans enter the labour market every year and youth unemployment is estimated to be as high as 35%.
The struggle for self-employment from people like Shayma is real and justified if the level of hopelessness and frustration among Kenyan youths is anything to go by.
