Kenya is attempting to enact a crucial piece of legislation, that could make it easier to protect workers sent abroad by agents.
The proposed Labour Migration Management Law, which was first tabled in September 2024, seeks to address the existing regulatory gaps in the private employment agencies and recruitment of workers within and outside the country.
Yet the Bill, currently in the third reading in Senate, has stayed in the legislative stage for so long as Kenyans are exposed to illegal agents and remain vulnerable to exploitation. The Senate won’t discuss it until it returns from its current recess.
The proposed law seeks to safeguard rights and welfare of job seekers and migrant workers, as well as consolidate laws relating to labour migration.
It seeks to cure challenges and gaps bedeviling the repatriation of migrant workers back to Kenya, according to the National Employment Authority (NEA), by ensuring every employee has a bond for rescue should they run into distress. The costs are to be borne by the agent who sends them abroad.
It says the repatriation of a migrant worker and their personal belongings shall be the primary responsibility of the private employment agency which deployed the worker and all costs attendant to repatriation shall be borne by or charged to the agency if— (a) the migrant worker is found on medical examination to be unfit for employment; (b) the migrant worker fails to secure the employment signed for under the contract of employment; or (c) the Authority finds that the migrant worker has been employed by “misrepresentation or mistake.”
“Repatriation of the remains and personal belongings of a deceased migrant worker shall be facilitated by the private employment agency in collaboration with the employer within one month of the death of a migrant worker.”
However, where the termination of employment is due solely to the fault of the migrant worker, the private employment agency shall not be responsible for the repatriation of the migrant worker.
Originally, Kenya proposed a Sh1.5 million security bond required from private employment agencies and new recruitment firms to cushion Kenyan diaspora workers in distress or repatriate their remains in the event of death.
And the existing law provides for the registration, regulation of employment bureaus and agents by an Inter-Ministerial Committee consisting of officers from ministries of immigration, labour, security, foreign affairs as well as the attorney-general. However, lack of regulations on how bonds are to be deposited or spent left a loophole for agencies to dodge it.
The proposed bill bars private employment agencies from advertising for opportunities abroad unless approved by NEA.
In March, NEA, appealed to legislators fast-track the Labour Migration Management Bill which also anchors the Migrant Workers Welfare Fund.” The Fund will be a repository for bonds placed by agents, seeking to assure workers of immediate repatriation when in distress, for a certain period of time of their contracts.
Cabinet Secretary for Labour and Social Protection Alfred Mutua and National Employment Authority (NEA) Director General Edith Okoki appear before the National Assembly Diaspora Affairs and Migrant Workers Committee at Bunge Tower, Nairobi, on Tuesday, August 5, 2025.
Photo credit: File | Nation Media Group
The law followed a decade long legal lacuna that experts say had left thousands of vulnerable Kenyans seeking greener pastures abroad at the mercy of unruly private agents and host countries, without security in the event of distress, ill health, or death.
It is the latest effort to stem abuse of Kenyans abroad. In 2014, Kenya had temporarily banned unskilled labour exports. The ban was, however, lifted in 2016.
Now it is government policy under the Kazi Majuu programme, seeking opportunities for work in other countries, albeit with continual reports of mistreatment especially in the Gulf.
As it is, the Employment Act provides for the foreign contracts of service and mandates that every foreign contract of service shall be in the prescribed form, signed by the parties thereto, and shall be attested by a labour officer. In other countries, Kenya lacks jurisdiction, and cannot protect employees where the language is not English.
Kenya also doesn’t keep up-to-date and reliable data and information on labour migration and migrant workers, especially since it has weak cooperation with other countries to share the data. Under the new law, private employment agencies shall be required to keep adequate accessible records of who they sent abroad.
Individuals who contravene the law shall be liable to a fine not exceeding Ksh10 million or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding ten years, or to both.
