Two devel­op­ments caught my atten­tion this past week. The first was the job-seek­ing fren­zy at the Keny­at­ta Inter­na­tion­al Con­ven­tion Cen­tre, where thou­sands of young Kenyans scram­bled for oppor­tu­ni­ties abroad, expos­ing the deep-seat­ed anx­i­ety felt by many in the face of run­away unem­ploy­ment. The sec­ond one was an expe­ri­ence I had in the Far East, where I was served food by a robot at a restau­rant, high­light­ing how quick­ly tra­di­tion­al job will become obso­lete. These two devel­op­ments sum­ma­rize both the threat and oppor­tu­ni­ty fac­ing Kenya at this piv­otal moment in the world – the threat posed by the grow­ing scarci­ty of con­ven­tion­al jobs and the unlim­it­ed oppor­tu­ni­ty pre­sent­ed by Arti­fi­cial Intel­li­gence (AI) and a grow­ing nature-based economy.

The real­i­ty is that many Kenyans, par­tic­u­lar­ly the youth, feel trapped in a pre­car­i­ous eco­nom­ic envi­ron­ment. They are increas­ing­ly wor­ried about job loss­es, and the pres­sure is mount­ing on pol­i­cy­mak­ers to come up with cre­ative, sus­tain­able solu­tions. We can no longer rely on export­ing labor or short-term job cre­ation schemes. Instead, Kenya needs a vision­ary approach that embraces the future, equips work­ers with rel­e­vant skills, and fos­ters innovation.

First, Kenya must tap into the dig­i­tal space whose job cre­ation poten­tial is enor­mous. With inter­net pen­e­tra­tion at 40.8% of the pop­u­la­tion, expand­ing access, espe­cial­ly in rur­al areas, can unlock oppor­tu­ni­ties in entre­pre­neur­ship, remote work, and tech-dri­ven indus­tries. Com­pa­nies like Jumia and Sendy have already demon­strat­ed the pow­er of e‑commerce and logis­tics in cre­at­ing jobs. Kenya must now focus on devel­op­ing dig­i­tal skills nation­wide, prepar­ing the next gen­er­a­tion to seize oppor­tu­ni­ties in the glob­al dig­i­tal economy.

Sec­ond, Kenya must upskill its work­force for the AI and automa­tion era. While automa­tion may replace repet­i­tive jobs, it will also cre­ate new roles that require man­ag­ing and pro­gram­ming advanced tech­nolo­gies. As I believe, “It’s not AI that will replace us — it’s those who har­ness AI that will shape the future.” As such, the gov­ern­ment should col­lab­o­rate with tech com­pa­nies to offer afford­able upskilling pro­grams in AI, cod­ing, and data sci­ence, ensur­ing Kenyans thrive in emerg­ing indus­tries. By doing so, Kenya can posi­tion itself as a region­al tech hub, ben­e­fit­ing sec­tors like man­u­fac­tur­ing and agri­cul­ture through automation.

Third, there is an urgent need to for­mal­ize and empow­er flex­i­ble work plat­forms like Airbnb and free­lance mar­ket­places. These plat­forms already pro­vide employ­ment oppor­tu­ni­ties but often lack reg­u­la­tion and secu­ri­ty. By ensur­ing fair wages, social secu­ri­ty, and access to finan­cial ser­vices, the gov­ern­ment can turn these infor­mal jobs into sta­ble income sources. The broad­er infor­mal sec­tor, which employs over 80% of Kenya’s work­force, should also be sup­port­ed with dig­i­tal tools and micro­fi­nanc­ing to increase pro­duc­tiv­i­ty and income stability.

Fourth, Kenya can turn the grow­ing cri­sis of cli­mate change into a sus­tain­able eco­nom­ic oppor­tu­ni­ty. Inno­v­a­tive ideas such as the Plant Your Age ini­tia­tive, which aims to plant bil­lions of trees across Africa, can be scaled to cre­ate thou­sands of green jobs in agro­forestry, con­ser­va­tion, and eco-tourism. Fur­ther­more, such ini­tia­tives can expand to include hous­ing projects and rivers reha­bil­i­ta­tion, inte­grat­ing sus­tain­able liv­ing with envi­ron­men­tal restora­tion. By involv­ing com­mu­ni­ties in both tree grow­ing, eco-friend­ly hous­ing devel­op­ment, and encour­ag­ing cor­po­rate and indi­vid­ual spon­sor­ship, these ini­tia­tives can flour­ish with­out rely­ing on gov­ern­ment funds. This step would not only pro­mote green indus­tries but also aligns with glob­al financ­ing trends, tap­ping into inter­na­tion­al mar­kets for car­bon cred­its and turn­ing envi­ron­men­tal stew­ard­ship into eco­nom­ic gain.

Final­ly, we must put in place the right infra­struc­ture to tur­bo-charge the green and dig­i­tal eco­nom­ic sec­tors. Suc­ces­sive gov­ern­ments have made sig­nif­i­cant progress in build­ing road net­works and ener­gy projects, but the chang­ing glob­al dynam­ics calls for an aggres­sive focus on broad­band expan­sion, renew­able ener­gy projects, and smart city devel­op­ments. These projects would not only pro­vide jobs but also cre­ate a frame­work for future indus­tries that are sus­tain­able and innovative.

Clear­ly, we can turn our present crises into lim­it­less oppor­tu­ni­ties for sus­tain­able growth. Let’s just do it! The time for real and trans­for­ma­tive action is now. Think green, Act green!