INTERNATIONAL JOURNALS OF ACADEMICS & RESEARCH - IJARKE ISSN: 2617-703X IJARKE Humanities & Social Sciences Journal DOI: 10.32898/ihssj.02/3.1article04 www.ijarke.com 36 IJARKE PEER REVIEWED JOURNAL Vol. 3, Issue 1 Aug. – Oct. 2020 An Assessment of how Youth Empowerment Programmes have Influenced Availability of Jobs to the Youth in Nairobi County – Kenya Otieno Paul Martin Otiende, Kisii University, Kenya Dr. George N. Mose, Kisii University, Kenya Dr. Richard Otieno Juma, Murang‟a University of Technology, Kenya 1. Introduction The youth empowerment Programmes (YEPs) activities are founded on the fundamental evidence that if young people have adequate earnings and resources to maintain productive lives, they can produce an economic opportunity, contribute to the wider good, and care for others. Further, to enhance the capacity of young individuals to become drivers of change, it is critical to promote them to use their potentials as citizens and as economic subjects by ensuring that they transit well into adulthood with the skills and capacities to take care of their children (World Vision Armenia, 2015-2016). Youths, as defined in other African countries like Sierra Leone, are people between 15 to 35 years and accounts for approximately a third of the national populous. However, in accordance with the United Nations UNESCO (2011), youth is defined as a transition period from the dependence of childhood to adulthood's independence and awareness of our interdependence as members of a community. It is a stage when an individual is becoming independent, fully responsible for his/her actions. He/she is no longer a child. However, age is the easiest way to define this group, particularly about education and employment. Therefore, United Nations defines a youth as a person between the age where he/she may leave compulsory education, and the age at which he/she finds his/her first employment (UNESCO, 2011). UNESCO comprehends that young people are a heterogeneous group in constant evolution and that the experience of „being‟ young varies enormously across regi ons and within countries (UNESCO, 2011). The Government of Kenya (Gok), like other African governments, has recognized that young people face a daunting hurdle in securing decent employment in an economic context characterized by a lack of job opportunities. Unemployment has been aggravated by factors such as limited work experience and educational levels. A country like Sierra Leone has thus prioritized youth employment as a critical element to its national development agenda in both the Agenda for change (2008-2012) and the agenda for prosperity (2013-2017). In Kenya, through support from the World Bank, the Kenya Government has launched several youth empowerment Programmes to alleviate the problem of youth unemployment. INTERNATIONAL JOURNALS OF ACADEMICS & RESEARCH (IJARKE Humanities & Social Sciences Journal) Abstract The Kenyan Youth today face a myriad of socio-economic hurdles. The introduction of Youth Empowerment Programmes (YEP) by the Government of Kenya was a move to satisfy the urgency of endowing youth to join in and nurture their development approaches. Empowerment of youths through provision of financial resources and involvement in productive business ventures following skills acquisition was the intention of YEP in an attempt to involve young people in nation- building and enhancement of their living standards. The study sought to assess how Youth Empowerment Programmes have influenced availability of jobs to the youth in Nairobi County, Kenya. Youths between the ages of 18-35 were targeted since they were beneficiaries from the fund. The study applied the Entrepreneurship innovation theory, the theory of youth empowerment, and the youth livelihood and employment theory of change. Contingent information was captured via evaluation of suitable literature on the challenges to the effectiveness of YEDF. Primary collection of information was done using questionnaires, interviews, and observations. The sample population was 120 respondents. Quantitative and qualitative methods were utilized in analysis of collected information. The study established that young people in Nairobi County have obtained loans from the Youth Enterprise Development Fund and embarked on starting their own business. They have been empowered economically and their businesses have grown hence the creation of self-employment and a reduction in unemployment. The study recommends youth training to enable them to acquire appropriate skills, data, and expertise in various and different domains. Key words: Youth Empowerment Programmes, National Youth Service (NYS), Uwezo Funds, Kazi Kwa Vijana (KKV), And Youth Employment Development Programme