Slavery has always been perpetuated by Africans on Africans
Kenya has been having over-supply of key personnel in the health docket such as doctors and nurses for some time now, according to the government. The weird reason given was the fact that the government can’t employ them! Or it just couldn’t be bothered? As a result, they ended up being exported to other countries. There is now a glut of teachers too and the government plans to export them as well.
Billions of shillings have been spent training some of the key personnel. One would have thought the sensible thing to do is train personnel to match the demand in the country first. Important economic principles based on demand and supply negates the government’s argument that there are too many doctors, nurses and teachers given the fact that public schools and hospitals in Kenya are still struggling to deliver quality education and healthcare because of a lack of personnel. Some parts of Kenya have no schools.
My home county of Marsabit depends on a single teacher to help support nomadic children’s access to education. For instance, Boru Sake Galgalo, who’s part of a mobile teaching programme, covers a huge area alone to teach nomadic children under a makeshift hut.
How does the government talk of having a glut in teaching personnel when there is still need in some parts of Kenya such as Marsabit and the larger North-Eastern areas? How was the final data arrived at to determine oversupply when some parts are still not supplied with enough teachers, nurses and doctors? Or is the data only based in the imagination of a CS or governor?
Modern-day slavery
The focus on exporting Kenyans for work when there is need in the country brings to question the government’s motive. They are in fact perpetuating modern-day slavery. Making it a government policy does not take away the fact that Kenyans have been turned into commodities to be sold to the highest bidder. Just look at the countries interested in human export from Kenya. It is the same countries that have been known to rely on slaves since time immemorial such as the Middle East, Europe and the US.
Slaves no longer need to be bound in chains and stuffed in overcrowded ships to be sold but are exchanged after striking deals with governments in developing countries for their human commodity. Kenya agreed to such a deal when the government accepted money for Kenya Police to serve in Haiti. Who benefits from the money is the million-dollar question.
The determination by the government to export Kenyans to other countries for work does not appear altruistic. Sending skilled workers abroad to perform manual tasks and become domestic servants is not far off from trading in slavery. It would be interesting to know if the government had the same zeal to export workers abroad if there were no monetary benefits involved for some officials.
A huge amount of public funds seems to be used to train Kenyans for the private market. It is an utter waste of resources and something quite detrimental to the economic growth of the country. Many Kenyans sent abroad to work as domestic servants make little contribution skills-wise on their return. What is worse and something that the government has failed to address is the human rights violation of Kenyan workers abroad, especially those sent to the Arab countries. Cases of Kenyan domestic workers returning home in coffins from Arab countries or beaten and left disabled are on the rise. Another characteristic of slavery is brutality and violation of human rights.
Slave markets
Slavery has always been perpetuated by Africans on Africans. While previously force was used by the African merchants when capturing their fellow Africans before taking them to the slave markets, it is now masked as ‘bilateral trade’. Another form of slavery is when African countries let their citizens board the dangerous dinghies to Europe and into the hands of the criminal underworld that turns them into modern-day slaves. Many African countries, and even the African Union, have never seen the need to address and stop illegal migration that is endangering the lives of many Africans and putting them in the hands of modern-day slave owners.
Kenya needs to build the economy through investments at home. It should address issues such as insecurity, corruption and poor infrastructure that put investors off. It is the government’s role to create job opportunities at home. It doesn’t make sense to export key workers when there is still an acute need for doctors, nurses and teachers locally.
Exporting graduates for domestic and manual work is banal. Such graduates have more to offer Kenya if jobs tailored to their training are created domestically, rather than kill their dreams by selling them off to work as maids and cleaners. The tourism industry alone could absorb millions of workers if it is marketed well abroad and expanded to include, say, Disney World, global music and sports venues. Stop slavery!
Ms Guyo is a legal researcher ([email protected], @kdiguyo).
