Two years since assuming office, President William Ruto has been seeking international jobs for the increasing number of unemployed youth being channelled out of the learning institutions in Kenya but cannot find work locally.
Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) figures on diaspora remittances could be fuelling the government’s appetite to send more Kenyans to work abroad in return for taxes imposed on the quick earned dollars being sent home.
In July, CBK recorded that Kenyans working abroad sent home Sh53.4 billion with the lion’s share valued at Sh29.4 billion flowing from North America. From Europe a total of Sh10 billion was remitted to Kenya while from the rest of the world, the country earned Sh15 billion.
Last year, Ruto said he was keen on exporting at least a million labour migrants from Kenya each year. “I want to thank the many countries that have given us the opportunity to export our labour. We want to get at least a million labour exported. As per the Kenya Kwanza manifesto, my administration hopes to increase diaspora remittance from $4 billion to $10 billion,” he said during last year’s Devolution conference in Uasin Gishu county.
Tangible policies
Yesterday, the President took his third flight, after two months hiatus after the Gen Z protests, to Germany hoping to expand job opportunities for Kenyan youth in the European country. But with the high-spirited ambitions to get greener pastures for the unemployed youth, the government has not spelt out tangible policies to cater for the welfare of Kenyan workers in the destination countries.
This gap is likely to expose desperate Kenyans looking for jobs in foreign countries to unfavourable working conditions characterised by underpayment of wages, exploitation and inhumane treatment by their employers. Such scenarios are familiar especially with Arab countries within the Gulf region where Kenyan women employed as house helps are subjected to domestic servitude, sexual abuse, physical and verbal abuse and denial of medical attention where some have eventually died.
Other mistreatments that have been reported from the region include long working hours, restriction on movement and communication and inadequate food. The abuses meted on Kenyan women flying out for domestic jobs in the Middle East are due to withstanding legislative flaws that give rise to unscrupulous businessmen running recruitment agencies.b
