inHUMAN RESOURCE MANAGERS. THE STORY OF MUENI.
InHumanity, at the center of Human Resource in Kenya, is drowning Kenyan youths to depression and self-rejection. One, late Sunday evening strolling down Wabera street in Kenya's Capital CBD, I bump into an old-time girlfriend, Mueni. To catch up, we walk into one of Nairobi's best chilling spots, The Charlie's Bistro Restaurant, as I chat her up while she updates on her welfare. A beautiful young' lady whom I knew for many years back in my High School times full of ambitions, life, and happiness had slowly drowned to a caricature of human Being. She may not have lost beauty as much, thanks to her God, but the lass had lost life, hope, and could recall her last best day. The society had now rejected her, but she felt she had failed them; most importantly, her thoughts and her conscience had betrayed her a lot. She lamented that high school teachers had abandoned her after getting an active A in her Last papers. They had made her feel confident enough and knew that top was her position in the society, and to her, lion has never been any brave. However, her introduction to Kenyan Campus life to do her undergrad degree started showing the other side of life. Painfully, she narrates how she had found herself to the wrong side of the world, attaining an age that the society has considered Kriminol, being a youth in Kenya. Mueni says she regretted being a youth and wished to have gotten from teens to Njonjo’s age; she may have saved herself several heartbreaks. For moments she felt there were hopes still whenever she would attend university organized talks, with speakers who came to give them pep talks. At the same time, they reap university money, high profiling themselves as keynotes and guest speakers. All the confidence she had received from her few years education sojourn and society's high expectations had started becoming her enemy, rejected by her self and her age of being a youth in Kenya, always a suspect.
From one interview to the other two years down the line, she has never been called but still remembers the HRs' smiley faces as they promised with assurance, "Thanks for coming, we will call you." No phone call, never, or could she be giving wrong contacts out? Why has she never been called? She has stayed several weeks by her phone, looking towards every beep and probably vibration mode with the loudest ringtone, she had set her phone. She goes back to the advert and reads a short line, "Only Successful Candidates will be called." She had only one conclusion, that she wasn't good enough, and she has probably never been good enough, even with her first class and several short professional certificates, which speakers had recommended to them so that they would be at the industry's edge. Then who messed her? 'her teachers could have lied to her' she thought, but she trusted them, they had made her pass exams, or were the guest speakers wrong? No. They had given successful stories and real-life examples. Perhaps, her God may have failed her, but her mother was a firm believer, and she was a CU treasurer all her school-life. She considered herself a failure; she had wasted all her parent’s resources and turned out as useless. With a degree, even their cowboy back at home was a somebody. As I lean over to pass her a cup of coffee, which the waiter had nicely served at the center of our table to avoid removing her-one-old bag which had all her certificates, however tired from daily submissions and photocopying. I saw an old lady in Mueni, and she was not ready to leave her just yet. The HRs decisions which had nothing to do with her character had made her settle for rejection. But Why?
The fact was the positions she was applying to had been filled already, but the companies need formality. HRs had already given unqualified people with "Connections" - those strong enough to go by one name, the jobs. They knew that no one in the long queue outside waiting for interviews in borrowed old suits and official attires, most who had borrowed money, thank God for "FULIZA" and "TALA" to photocopy their documents and some fare to get them there had no chance. They have been so inhuman in the humanity department promising these youths jobs they are not going to offer, killing them with depression and rejection. Who cursed Us?
By Stephen Calvince.
