Institute for Development Studies, University of Nairobi

In this paper the employment opportunities available to Kenyan secondary school leavers are discussed in the light of national statistics and data from the Tracer Project which has followed up the employment history of 1965 - 1969 school leavers. It is pointed out that most secondary school leavers are attracted to Nairobi and the other major towns not merely because of an alleged white-collar mentality, but because that is where most of the opportunities for wage employment exist. In addition, urban life styles and disproportionately high urban salaries exercise a much more powerful influence on secondary school students than the exhortations of school teachers and politicians. School leavers who are working in rural areas either have the same kinds of jobs they would have in towns, largely in the public sector, or have been forced to fall back on their families' resources in farming and other types of self-employment.