In a startling display of the country’s unemployment crisis, a mindboggling 33,272 Kenyans last month applied for just a handful of positions at the Office of the Director of Public Prosecution (ODPP), including 9,355 who applied for office assistant.
This information was disclosed in a public notice on Tuesday, highlighting the intense competition for these roles.
As part of its larger recruitment effort encompassing 186 positions, the ODPP had advertised 20 vacancies for office assistants, only to receive an overwhelming number of applications. Of these, a mere 155 applicants, representing just 1.7% of the total, were shortlisted.
The ODPP’s broader recruitment initiative, which was announced through a Gazette Notice and ran until December 5, 2023, saw over 33,000 applications for various positions.
The role of Clerical Officer II proved to be the most popular, drawing 11,947 applicants for only 30 vacancies, out of which 150 were shortlisted.
The range of positions advertised included high-level roles such as Senior Assistant Director of Human Resource Management, Assistant Director of Information Communication Technology, and Senior Principal Prosecution Counsel, among others.
Interestingly, the position of Assistant Director of Information Communication Technology, which had only one vacancy, received the least number of applications, at 61, with just four individuals shortlisted.
Overall, from the thousands of applications, a total of 917 were shortlisted.
This overwhelming response to the ODPP’s job openings sheds light on the deepening unemployment issue in Kenya, as many organizations downsize to stay afloat.
A similar case was witnessed at the GSU recruitment last year, where thousands of unemployed Kenyans showed up for positions they were statistically very unlikely take up. The same is also seen whenever private establishment like night clubs advertise for casual work.
How To Check if you are shortlisted by the ODPP
1. Visit either odpp.go.ke or myGov.go.ke
2. Check on the ODPP office notice boards at the Nairobi headquarters and ODPP county offices.
The notices should also contain the venue, time and date for the interview, as well as the documents to be brought by the candidates during the interview.
