Senators have launched a new push for government crackdown on private employment agencies operating in the country, amid reports that several of the agencies are operating with expired licence.
The new move follows fresh revelations by the National Employment Authority (NEA) that 401 employment agencies are operating in Kenya without valid licences.
According to data contained in the regulator’s integrated management system, there are 932 registered employment agencies in the country but only 531 have valid licences with the remaining operating illegally.
Consequently, Nandi Senator Samson Cherargei wants the Senate committee on Labour to have the Ministry of Labour come clean regarding the status of private employment agencies in Kenya.
He said the ministry should outline requirements a private employment agency must fulfill before it is officially registered and granted approval to operate in Kenya as well as provide a list of private employment agencies currently operating in the country, stating the registration status of each company.
The senator also wants the ministry to shed light on measures taken by the NEA to combat the rising cases of Kenyans being exploited by private employment agencies in securing jobs overseas.
“The government should shed light that a number of private employment agencies are operating with expired licenses,” said Mr Cherargei. “They should also disclose the total number of Kenyans who have secured employment abroad through private employment agencies, indicating the agencies involved in these placements.”
In 2020, Kenyan recruiting agencies raised a red flag over an insurgence of foreign firms operating in the country without proper documentation with the majority of the companies run by individuals from the Arab States mainly from Saudi Arabia, Oman, United Arab Emirates and Qatar.
According to Association of Skilled Migrant Agencies of Kenya(ASMAK), of the 320 recruitment agencies accredited by NEA, only about 100 are members of the two recognised associations – ASMAK and the Kenya Association of Private Employment Agencies.
In April, Labour Cabinet Secretary Florence Bore announced that the government would crack down on rogue employment agencies exploiting vulnerable Kenyans seeking employment abroad, especially in the Gulf nations.
She said the ministry is vetting the agencies and those that are not doing what they are supposed to do will be deregistered.
However, senators accused the government of only doing lip service yet many Kenyans continue to die in Gulf countries.
Nominated Senator Catherine Mumma said the Labour ministry must now put in place effective measures of monitoring those who are licensed to carry out such jobs as recruiting privately.
She said the ministry should scrutinise the recruitment space while also ensuring the National Industrial Training Authority (Nita) has what it takes to train all those who are going to work outside the country.
The lawmaker accused Nita of sleeping on its job by allowing unprepared Kenyans to be sent out leading to them coming back in coffins because they were not prepared for life in those countries.
“If you remove a young girl from Kiambu without giving her any cultural training around the Islamic way of life, take them to Saudi Arabia and expect that she should gel in because it is a job, we are actually setting them up for failure,” she said.
Her counterpart, Tabitha Mutinda accused Nita of allowing recruitment agencies with expired licences to continue operating in the country, accusing the body of not being keen to weed out cartels who continue to endanger the lives of Kenyans.
“We either have cartels in the name of agents, whose licenses have expired yet the body meant to oversee them that is NITA has decided to assume that,” said the nominated senator.
She said she is working on an Immigrants Bill, which is at the drafting level, to sort out the issue of the plight of domestic workers.
Elgeyo Marakwet Senator William Kisang said there is need to vet the recruiting agencies in addition to having them register with both the Ministry of Labour and that of Foreign Affairs.
He said Kenya’s embassies and missions abroad need to have a database of Kenyans sent abroad and carry out regular monitoring.
“Our missions abroad should be having contacts of our people and even celebrating with them so that we know they are in good health and position,” he said.
With unemployment in the country at about 7.4 percent, and about 85 percent below 35 years, Kenyans have been seeking opportunities abroad in both skilled and unskilled labour, where a number have ended up stranded in foreign countries, mainly in the Gulf.
Nominated Senator George Mbugua said Kenya has a huge potential to make money from exporting labour but needs to regularise the domestic workers sector to put to an end perennial problems that arise when Kenyans go abroad.
“It is worth noting that a country like the Philippines gets remittances of about US$13.4 billion. Kenya can do better,” he said.
