Employment and employment creation in rural Kenya

Abstract

This paper outlines a study being carried out into un/under employment in Kenya. The aims of the study are to throw light on some of the problems of employment creation in rural areas, and to indicate how some of the main employment generation policies in operation can be made more effective. The paper discusses the methodology being used and the limitations of the data.

a) The major part of the study will make use of Farm Enterprise Cost Survey Data collected by the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning, to build linear programming models of farms selected from Nyeri and Embu. The programmes will be designed to measure the effects of changes in the input: output coefficients and constraints including credit availability, and wages, on the level of incomes and employment on the farms being studied and to indicate the different types of policies that could remove these constraints and increase incomes and employment.

b) A small survey of Primary - School leavers. The objective is to gauge how agriculture has, and can be made to absorb these leavers at a level of remuneration consistent with wages elsewhere.

c) An economic assessment of two settlement schemes with the object of establishing the effect on project selection of the use of different economic and financial criteria.

The field work for the study commenced in April 1972 end the authors will be returning to the agrarian Development Unit at Wye College; London University to carry out the programming phase of the study, so no results appear in this paper. These will be available by January, 1974.