State to deploy labour emissaries in the Gulf to safeguard Kenyans

Labour Principal Secretary Shadrack Mwadime. [iStockphoto]

Labour attaches would be deployed to Saudi Arabia and other Gulf nations to safeguard the welfare of thousands of Kenyan migrant workers.

Labour Principal Secretary Shadrack Mwadime said the decision was arrived at following increasing cases of unresolved deaths of Kenyan domestic workers in the Gulf.

Mr Mwadime blamed fake recruitment agencies for the suffering of Kenyans in the hands of rogue employers abroad, saying they failed to do due diligence before posting the workers.

"It is true that some Kenyans are suffering in the Gulf nations because some conmen purporting to be licensed recruitment agencies have been demanding thousands of shillings from jobless youth. These people do not care about Kenyans," said the PS.

Last August, Labour Cabinet Secretary Florence Bore told Parliament that 283 Kenyan workers died in the Gulf in three years.

The CS told the lawmakers that 185 deaths occurred in the Saudi Arabian Kingdom between January 2020 and November 2022.

In 2023, Kenyan migrant workers filed 175 deaths in three Gulf countries alone.

Kenyan workers in the Gulf are mainly employed in education, banking, hotel and catering, transport, and agriculture sectors, while most are domestic workers.

On Sunday, Mwadime urged Kenyans to search for jobs aboard through authorised agencies listed on the National Employment Authority Information Management System website.

"We will never again allow Kenyans to suffer under the hands of rogue unregistered recruitment agencies and ruthless employers abroad, and that is why we are not only deploying labour attache but also providing genuine recruitment agencies," said the PS.

Addressing youths from Voi, Mwatate, Wundanyi, and Taveta sub-counties, Mwadime urged them to take advantage of 250,000 jobs available in the USA, Australia, and China.

The PS was accompanied by National Employment Authority Director General Edith Koki and her counterpart in the National Industrial and Training Authority Tereza Wasike, Taita Senior Assistant County Commissioner Tom Otieno, and officials from registered recruitment agencies.

"In Kenya, jobs are few, and we are looking for jobs abroad, but the youth should be wary of conmen who are only interested in minting money from unsuspecting youths," he said.

The body of Mercy Mlonya, which has been lying in a morgue in Abha-Area District in Saudi Arabia for the past year, arrived in the country on Sunday.

The family spokesman, Damarice Mzae, said the 40-year-old mother of four was a domestic worker.