This archive report was first published on 30 October 2019.
On October 30, 2019, a hotel in Nyeri town, Bantu Hotel and Resort, announced 600 job vacancies, sparking a massive turnout of jobless youths.
However, the hotel owner, Thuo Mathenge, a former Nyeri gubernatorial aspirant, was left in shock as over 4,000 unemployed youths showed up for interviews.
Mathenge called on local entrepreneurs to invest in the county to create more jobs for the many youths.
"We have more than 4,000 young people and Kenyans of other ages who have come for interview today. We only have about 600 vacancies for 4,000 people," Mathenge said.
He urged local businesspeople to invest in Nyeri, saying, "I am asking kindly, the 'Nyerians', mostly the people who are able and capable, who go to invest in Mombasa, Nairobi and Nakuru, let them come to Nyeri to fill the vacancy that will be left when I take the 600 people as employees of Bantu Africa,"
The incident came amid rising cases of unemployment in the county, with some companies shutting down and others firing their employees.
