Only 6.2 per cent of Central Bank of Kenya employees are aged between 21 and 30, new parliamentary findings show, highlighting a striking generational imbalance at some of Kenya’s most prominent public institutions.
Just 81 of CBK’s 1,311 employees fall within the 21–30 bracket, according to findings reported from the National Assembly Committee on National Cohesion and Equal Opportunity.
The pattern is not limited to the Central Bank.
The Agriculture and Food Authority, National Land Commission and Public Service Commission also showed relatively low representation of younger workers.
Why does this matter?
Kenya has one of Africa’s youngest populations.
Every year, hundreds of thousands of young people enter a labour market that has struggled to generate enough formal jobs.
The imbalance therefore raises questions about whether recruitment into public institutions is keeping pace with the country’s demographics.
But the numbers require careful interpretation.
A low proportion of workers under 30 does not by itself prove discriminatory recruitment.
Public institutions employ people for long periods, and many specialised positions require qualifications and professional experience that naturally produce an older workforce.
The more useful questions are how many entry-level employees institutions recruit each year, how many staff are approaching retirement and whether recruitment freezes have created an ageing workforce.
A looming retirement opportunity?
An older workforce can eventually create openings.
As employees retire, institutions must replace institutional knowledge while bringing in younger professionals.
That presents the government with a workforce-planning challenge.
Recruit too slowly and public agencies can lose critical skills as experienced staff retire.
Recruit without proper succession planning and younger employees may enter institutions without sufficient mentoring.
The parliamentary findings therefore expose something larger than a youth-employment statistic.
They show why Kenya’s unemployment debate must increasingly examine who gets the country’s relatively secure formal jobs and how frequently those opportunities become available.
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