Employment cons hit desperate job seekers in fake PSC Ad

If you recently sent an application to the email address [email protected] and forwarded the same to [email protected], you have been conned.

Public Service Commission CEO Simon Rotich has said the job advertisement purported to originate from them and circulated on social media is fake.

In the too-crowded-to-be-true advert, applicants are called to ‘fake’ job openings in various Government departments, 47 Huduma centres, hospitals and parastatals.

It lists 650 offices secretaries’ posts, 1,225 clerical officer jobs and 3,204 community health officer openings among other slots.

“We wish to caution potential applicants to ignore the advert, which we suspect is motivated by ill intentions of defrauding them,” Rotich said.

The con, in an attempt to look valid, quoted the Public Service Commission Act, “…a person who gives false or misleading information to the commission is on conviction liable to a fine not exceeding Sh200,000 or imprisonment for a term not two years or both”.

Right platform

PSC boss Rotich added that the commission announces vacancies in the public service through using authentic media platforms, and their website.

The scam follows closely another that preyed on unemployed teachers in Southern Nyanza.

The teachers were asked to pay between Sh75,000 and Sh150,000 to get Teachers Service Commission (TSC) posting letters.

An investigation by The Standard revealed that the racket was run by a high school principal in one of the secondary schools in North Kamagambo, Rongo, Migori County.

The school head used his deputy and two subordinate staff as agents. They identify gullible teachers, collect money and give them fake appointment letters.

Unemployment

The employment scams often prey on the desperation of job seekers who seem to be increasing each day.

According to data from the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) released in 2018, the unemployment rate had declined steadily over the last 10 years to stand at 7.4 per cent.

The data stated that seven million Kenyans are unemployed and only 1.4 million are actively looking for work.

The survey also painted a grim picture of the growing youth unemployment, with a huge chunk of the population aged between 20 and 24 not engaged in any work or business.

Nine in every 10 unemployed Kenyans were 35 years and below.

Many economists argued the report was unbelievable as it was not a true reflection of the real situation. They held that the actual numbers were higher.

The Basic Labour Force report released in the same year showed it is estimated that there were 1.22 million unemployed Kenyans aged 15 to 34.