The Ministry of Labour and Social Protection has revoked over 700 licenses for corrupt agents who have been swindling desperate and jobless Kenyans in the name of securing diaspora jobs for them.
While speaking in Meru during the inauguration of the Kazi Majuu job fair, Principal Secretary for the State Department of Foreign and Diaspora Affairs Roseline Njogu asked Kenyans seeking jobs abroad to work with agents who are regulated by the National Employment Authority (NEA).
“At the beginning of last year, the list had 1,200 agents, but 700 people have been struck off the register because of bad manners and criminal activities,” Njogu said.
“If you are going to look for a job abroad, please only work with agents who are licensed by the National Employment Authority. Do not work with travel agents or other people that call themselves agents and are not licensed.”
Kenyans Warned Against Agents Without Licenses
PS Njogu emphasized the issue of Kenyans working with licensed agents, stating that it helps the ministry to track their conditions in Diaspora and to hold the agents accountable.
“We as the State Department for Diaspora especially the Ministry of Labor we regulate those agents so that when we get a complaint from Saudi Arabia that there is an agent who brought us here and is not taking care of us, we revoke the license,” she emphasized.
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“Those who become criminals and crooks, those who go and leave people in diaspora and when they are in trouble the do not take care of them, all of those people we have come down hard on them.”
The PS further clarified that Kenyans interested in knowing agents who have been licensed by NEA can get the information on their website via neaims.go.ke.
Njogu further alerted the Kenyans who are looking for jobs in Cruise Ship to work with agents who are licensed by the Kenya Maritime Authority.
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Efforts to Leverage Diaspora Jobs
Earlier in March 2023, the government banned 26 recruitment agencies from sending Kenyans abroad in a bid to protect them from exploitation and violation.
The move was prompted by an investigation into the 700 agencies that were found violating the rights of Kenyan workers abroad.
Meanwhile, the government has repeatedly encouraged Kenyans to take up job opportunities in the diaspora as way of addressing the unemployment rate in Kenya.
On February 3, Labour and Social Protection Cabinet Secretary (CS) Florence Bore flagged off the first cohort of Kenyans to work in five developed countries as pledged by President William Ruto.
CS Bore flagged off over 500 migrant workers to various countries, including Saudi Arabia, Oman, Germany, Qatar, and Dubai.
Saudi Arabia is one of the key destinations for Kenya’s domestic workers. Data from the Ministry of Labour showed that by 2022, nearly 80,000 Kenyan domestic workers had secured jobs in the country.
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