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A row surrounding a job recruitment firm which saw more than 2,000 youth   lose millions of shillings through promises of jobs in Qatar has intensified as the victims now seek the government’s intervention for them to recover their money.

Eldoret based First Choice Recruitment and Consultancy Limited has come under fire after collecting millions of monies from the youth drawn from various parts of Rift Valley promising to place them World Cup-related jobs in Qatar.

The youth who matched to Uasin Gishu County Assembly claim they paid thousands of shillings to the agency to secure the coveted jobs but majority of them did not secure the visas and were never refunded.

 One of the victims, Lameck Kogo, said he paid over Sh40,000 to the recruitment agency on the promise of a job in Qatar which has since remained a pipe dream.

“To date, I have never received my visa and other travel documents. What I just want is to be refunded the money which my parents struggled a lot to raise,” said a teary Kogo.

Closed offices

Agnes Korir, a parent to one of the victims complained that the agency has closed its offices in Eldoret which has made it difficult to access the recruitment firm officials.

“The government should sort out this recruitment agency’s mess once and for all as many innocent Kenyans are losing a lot of money. I struggled a lot to raise the money and we are only begging for it to be refunded,” said Agnes.

It emerged that some of the youth and their parents had obtained loans while others sold property to raise the money with the hope of securing the jobs in Qatar.

Human rights organisations in the North Rift led by Kimutai Kirui of the Centre Against Torture has called on the government to tighten laws on recruitment agencies purporting to connect Kenyans with jobs abroad.

 “This recruitment scam is becoming a huge con game that must be dealt a big blow. We urge anyone who paid money to any recruitment agency across Kenya to kindly walk into the nearest police station and make a formal complaint,” said Kirui.

Uasin Gishu County Assembly has since constituted an Ad-hoc committee to probe the matter following a petition filled by the victims with the support of Centre Against Torture.

First Choice Recruitment and Consultancy Agency Managing Director Judith Jepchirchir recently appeared before the assembly accompanied by her lawyer but failed to give satisfactory answers, therefore prompting the committee to accord her more time to avail all relevant documents supporting her responses.

The director however did not turn up as scheduled to furnish the committee with the requested relevant details.

Huruma ward Member of County Assembly (MCA) Kimani Wanjohi who is a member of the committee promised the victims that the law will take its course.

“We are probing this petition and all the individuals involved and we will not rest until we ensure that the victims get justice and all those culpable be punished according to the law. We will release our report and findings soon,” said Wanjohi.

In a statement recently, First Choice Recruitment and Consultancy Agency said 2,011 applications were made for short-term employment during the just concluded FIFA World Cup in Qatar.

“Due to unforeseen circumstances, these individuals were unable to attend. As a company, we value our clients and continue to sympathise with those who were affected,” the firm’s statement read in part.

Various mediums

Jepchirchir said that to remedy the situation, 177 individuals have since been reimbursed their money while another 449 have been transferred for a two-year employment contract in Poland, Qatar, Canada, United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the United Kingdom.

“We have used various mediums to disseminate this information. We are giving a period of 90 days and we are urging those affected to reach out,” the company’s statement read further.

According to Jepchirchir, some of the youths were barred from traveling to the gulf country as they failed medical tests while others were not qualified for the positions they were seeking.

People Daily has established that most of the affected youth parted with a lump sum of between Sh40,000 to Sh200,000.

She said that her organisation has managed to airlift more than 6,000 youth to Qatar since its inception three years ago, adding that this information can be obtained from the National Employment Authority (NEA) which they forward their annual returns as per the law.