That Kenya has good and well-thought out policies and laws to deal with trafficking in labour in the country is a fact that keen watchers of this sector can attest to. Without a doubt, the State has a responsibility to protect citizens from all manner of exploitation, including by foreigners abroad.
That is why the steps Kenya has taken to discourage criminals and traffickers in the labour industry are laudable.
Notable is the work that has been put into ensuring safe migration of Kenyans in search of “greener” pastures in domestic work — principally to Middle East countries such as Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates (UAE), Qatar and Lebanon. The majority in this migrant sector women, compelled by their heavy responsibility of taking care of family.
However, despite these laws, policies good intentions and much talk, some Kenyans — mainly women, who are the most vulnerable group here — still get trafficked. The victims end up suffering in the hands of their “employers”, working in horrible slave-like conditions, with no help in sight, leaving their families heartbroken and helpless.
Worse, most of these women are from poor and disadvantaged backgrounds and travel with the belief that they would make enough money to help their families and also invest. Mostly single mothers and the families’ bread-winners, they leave their children with their parents, with the hope of earning enough to educate the children and take care of the nucleus and even extended family.
However, their hopes are usually dashed, specifically in situations of human trafficking. They are confronted by non-existent terms of employment and dehumanising working conditions. Given the circumstances of their travel, landing illegally in the hands of a ‘slave driver’, it becomes difficult to rescue such women from the dreadful situation.
This situation, sadly, tells a negative story about us — collectively as Kenyans. That a section of the citizenry — mainly struggling mothers — have to risk their lives for a salary of around Sh20,000 in slave-like conditions abroad should get us thinking as a nation.
There should be a serious effort and commitment to streamline and clean up the local domestic work sector, which employs hundreds of women and men, to ensure their pay is decent and the work environment friendly.
Due to the tough economic times and scarcity of white-collar jobs, desperate young and not-so-young educated men and women are driven into domestic work. The least the government should do is put in place structures, and enforce them, to bring to an end the exploitation and abuse.
Individuals and criminal networks somehow penetrate the system and send Kenyan women into slavery abroad. In most cases, the local and international traffickers and their cartels are so well organised and deeply entrenched that arresting them can get tricky.
Some of the local traffickers and brokers in cahoots with their foreign peers operate within illegal recruitment agencies. Through this, the unsuspecting workers are cheated and misled on the terms of their employment. On getting to their destination, they find themselves enslaved with colossal debts.
Instructively, although Kenya has signed bilateral agreements with the countries that employ its domestic workers, ours are still among the lowest-paid lot. It is critical that the government returns to the negotiation table to ask for better terms for them.
The progress that the government has made so far in monitoring, preventing and combating labour trafficking is, in all aspects, noteworthy. But the fact that the network of criminals still circumvents the law to perpetrate the crime of selling Kenyans into slavery calls for more actions and new strategies. It is important to firmly shrug off the tag that the country is unprepared to export labour.
One way of closing the door to local and international traffickers of labourers and ensure safe migration is regular reviews and updating of related laws and policies.
Among these are the Counter-Trafficking in Persons Act and The National Plan of Action for Combating Human Trafficking, as well as the National Referral Mechanism (NRM) for Assisting Victims of Human Trafficking in Kenya.
Ms Rugene, a consulting editor, is founder The Woman’s Newsroom Foundation. nrugene@
