Why labour must move with changing times

AS the government continues to make big investments in transport, water, infrastructure, energy and education sectors, greater focus must now move towards reforming the labour sector. We are alive to the urgent need to transform the labour sector to align it with the national economic goals and to realize the Jubilee government’s target of creating 1.3 million jobs annually over the next five years.

In order to achieve this, we understand we must modernise our human resource planning, development and utilization decisions. This can only be done by acquiring and exploiting quality and reliable labour data to address the gap of understanding our labour supply and demand information.

In the past, the country has lacked adequate and up-to-date crucial employment statistics because there was no system for monitoring and matching skills development against our economic needs. This invariably led to the mismatch between manpower supply and manpower demand. Another problem is that currently, Kenya’s education and training system is driven by social demand as opposed to labour market demand, causing an oversupply in certain skills amidst critical shortages in other skills.

Action

To address this, we are putting in place the necessary tools for matching training and skills to the needs of the ever evolving labour market. Even more importantly, we are ensuring that those skills and available labour is well suited for manufacturing, industrialization and the service sector, transport, financial and other anchors for rapid economic growth. We have developed the first ever Kenya Labour Market Information System (KLMIS), the human resource database to facilitate better planning for human resource requirements in the country.

KLMIS will also act as a meeting place for employers and jobseekers through its National Employment Agency. Job seekers will be able to upload their CVs free of charge. The system then links the prospective employee to private sector and public sector employers for internship or full time employment opportunities.

The platform will also allow the ministry of labour to sufficiently analyze, synthesize, and disseminate labour market information to all users and stakeholders. It will act as Kenya Labour market repository providing timely, relevant and reliable information to the public.This information will be useful in strengthening linkages between industry and training institutions, development and centralization of the national human resource database, and strategic workforce investment strategies.

KLMIS will benefit policymakers who will now have better knowledge of the labour market, link job seekers and employers, help researchers with accurate and up to date data and also help investors have a better and more informed view of our labour market. We have also come up with policies and interventions to address the plight of Kenyans working abroad, sometimes under very horrible conditions. These interventions include legal and policy frameworks such as Labour Institutions (Private Employment Agencies) Regulations, which was enacted in 2016. Also enacted is the Attestation of contracts Regulations.

Regulations

The Security Laws (Amendments) Act , 2014 which amended the Labour Institutions Act Sec 54 to provide for the establishment of an Inter-Ministerial Vetting Committee to vet employment agencies before their registration. A Code of conduct governing Private Employment Agencies has also been developed.

At the same time, the ministry also established the Inter- Ministerial Vetting Committee to vet the registration of the Private Recruitment agencies. So far, the committee has already vetted and registered 25 Private Recruitment Agencies which have complied with the new regulatory framework.

The Government has also signed a Bilateral labour Agreement with the State of Qatar and Saudi Arabia, the major market for low skilled Migrant Workers from Kenya. A draft MOU on labour with United Arab Emirates has also been initialed. Other Labour agreements have been initiated with the Oman, Lebanon and Jordan.

Labour Attaches have also been posted to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and the State of Qatar to deal with relevant issues.The KLMIS platform is also set to be linked with the labour market information system for migrant workers and diaspora.

Mrs Kandie is the Cabinet Secretary, Ministry of East African Community, Labour and Social protection