Abstract:
ABSTRACT
In Kenya, the economic growth rate has not been sufficient to create enough employment
opportunities to absorb the ever increasing labour force of about five hundred thousand
(500,000) people annually. About seventy five percent (75%) of youth are unemployed. The
Human Capital theory asserts that more education brings more earnings or better
employment. Yet youth unemployment has been growing despite the government spending
more than three hundred billion shillings annually on employment creation initiatives.
Empirical studies of government employment initiatives with a focus on youth groups’ selfemployment in Naivasha Sub-County have not been done. This study intended to assess
selected Kenyan government strategies towards youth self employment in Naivasha SubCounty. The objectives of this study included; to examine the influence of school curriculum
on self employment initiatives among the youth in Naivasha Sub-County, determine the
influence of vocational training on self employment initiatives among the youth and
determine the influence of youth funds availability on self employment initiatives among the
youth . The study used a descriptive research involving survey method. The study used both
primary data and secondary. The study population consisted of all the one hundred licensed
youth groups with businesses in Naivasha Sub-County, Nakuru County. Stratified sampling
technique was used to determine the sample size while simple random sampling was used to
select the sample from the stratified data. Based on the population size, a sample size of
eighty groups was selected by using the Sample size table. Data was collected using
questionnaires. A pilot study was done to ensure reliability and validity of research
instruments. The data was analysed using regression. The results were presented in graphs,
charts, tables and figures. The P value for school curriculum variable was 0.065, the P value
for vocational training variable was 0.055, the P value for youth enterprise funds variable was
0.054, therefore the selected variable have significant influence on self employment
initiatives. The study concluded that selected government strategies to enhance selfemployment have to a large extent contributed towards self employment initiatives. This
study will assist the government to come with new strategies to alleviate youth
unemployment problem and form a basis of future research on other government strategies to
alleviate youth unemployment.
