Abstract:
Youth in Kenya are face by various socio-economic problems such as poor housing facilities, lack of good medical services, poor sanitation, poverty, hunger, social exclusion, poor social networking, high crime rates, drug and substance abuse and unemployment. By addressing the youth unemployment challenge these socio-economic problems can be solved. On realizing these, the Government of Kenya introduced the Youth Enterprise Development Fund (YEDF), with an aim of supporting youth-owned enterprises as well as enabling youth to start new enterprises thus creating employment. Despite the introduction of YEDF, youth in Naivasha District are still faced with high unemployment rate leading to poverty, hunger and health related problems. The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of YEDF on socio-economic conditions of youth in the larger Naivasha District. The ex post facto research design was used. The study population was 1172 youth from the 51 YEDF funded groups. A sample of 182 youths was selected from the study population using stratified and proportionate simple random sampling procedures. An interview guide was used for data collection. Content validity of the instrument was determined through expert on youth development issues who included three lecturers and two Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports personnel, while reliability of the data collection instrument was established from pretested data through split half technique, where the reliability coefficient of the two halves was calculated and found to be 0.79. Data was analyzed through the use of descriptive statistics such as percentages, frequencies and chi-square test for goodness-of-fit, at 95% level of confidence. The results indicated that YEDF had enabled youth to start and/or expand their micro and small enterprises, at total of 27 enterprises had been expanded, while four enterprises were started. Consequently small enterprises increased by 31.5%, while micro enterprises decreased by 28.5%. Chi-square test computed (x2(2,N=182)=9.8, p< 0.01.) indicated that YEDF had significantly changed youth income. The amount of monthly income committed to education and the number of youth who sought medical services when sick changed significantly. Further, the enterprises started or expanded through YEDF had employed some youth in Naivasha District and the youth standards of living had improved. Lack of information about YEDF was, however, a big challenge facing the youth. To improve the performance of the YEDF, the study suggests a need for the Youth Enterprise Development Fund Board to launch a campaign to educate Kenyan youth about the fund, intensify youth involvement, train youth on how to start and manage enterprises and to make the fund more easily accessible to the youth.
