Immigration saga not about jobs but corruption

By Njoki Ndung’u

A question put to the Minister Otieno Kajwang' this week, ensued in heated debate around issuance of work permits for Indian and Chinese workers. Immigration and migrant labour is a legal minefield not just in Kenya, but also in the economically advanced nations both West and East.

Immigration policy often reflects the tug of war between rights and opportunities of citizens of the host country and foreign visitors seeking either political refuge or economic advancement. At best, citizens already enjoy full benefits and welcome emigrants into their home turf and workspace. The US and Nordic countries are good examples of this. At the very worst these job seekers are seen as competition for scarce public resources or job opportunities and are violently dealt with by tyre-burning mobs as we witnessed in xenophobic South Africa, not so long ago.

In Kenya we have a long history of foreign emigration including workers, soldiers, and even pseudo aristocrats of Happy Valley fame. Asians, Europeans, Nubians, Boers and other Africans from neighbouring or far off countries were all welcomed to the melting pot of Kenyan country.

My great grandfather, a Xhosa, hailed from North of Limpopo and arrived in Kenya with the Germans during World War I. He eventually settled down grooming horses of Chief Njuthia Mugane wa Njonjo who organised for him to marry a local girl.

My grandfather on my mother’s side, a Sinhalese came to Kenya as a soldier for the Italian Army in World War II he also married a local girl and two generations down the line, belonging to the nusu nusu, Obamanite, or mkosa kabila tribe, here I am! The rich heritage of our multi-racial, multi-ethnic, multi-religious, and multi-coloured nation frequently informs our branding to tourists and other visitors, of Kenya as a country of hospitable and friendly people. We are also one of the most refugee friendly countries in the world having hosted hundreds of thousands of refugees from Ethiopia, Eritrea, Uganda, Southern Sudan, Somalia, Rwanda, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

So what explains our concern over the work permit saga? I believe it has little to do with formal immigration policy, but more to with corrupt and improper practices within the immigration sector that can and will eventually hurt tax paying citizens and foreigners whose permits are above board.

Allow me to illustrate this. In 1999, at a cocktail party in New York, I met two UN employees who introduced themselves as Kenyans, a fact that I very quickly ascertained was false. They had no recollection of living in Kenya, could not speak a word of Kiswahili and left immediately I pressed for more information. Challenged, I investigated and discovered they were holders of Kenyan passports issued in 1983 and 1988, while they were in a three-week transit between Bangladesh and the US.

The passports assured them of getting UN jobs under the Kenya quota, as the Bangladeshi one was already full.

This meant that, in collusion with Kenyan Government officials, they were fraudulently taking jobs reserved for Kenyans. During my time as a legislator, I asked the following questions of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs: - How many Kenyans work in international positions within the UN and the AU?

What are their names and respective positions? What is the quota in of international positions allocated to Kenya? What is the Government doing to ensure that Kenyans are employed internationally and use its quotas to the fullest extent? To date, these questions have not been answered. Therein lies the problem. Enough said.

—The writer is an advocate of the High Court.