The government is working on plans to encourage unemployed Kenyans to seek jobs abroad.
Labor Cabinet Secretary Ukur Yatani says his ministry is in the process of reviewing policies to prepare Kenyan job seekers for opportunities overseas.
Under the new plan, the Labor Ministry seeks to have job seekers taken through an elaborate pre-departure training on language, culture, and rights.
Yatani also says the government is seeking to sign agreements with host nations on the welfare of Kenyan workers.
“We will sign a bilateral agreement framework for Kenyans to work abroad, which will extensively address their welfare, housing, transport, and home visits when they want to reunite with their families back home,’’ notes Yatani.
The move is part of the government’s plan to address the high levels of unemployment in the country.
CS Yatani says Kenya is mainly targeting countries with a deficit of skilled workers. Such countries include the UAE, Jordan, and Canada.
According to reports, the Labor Ministry under the newly operationalized National Employment Authority (NEA) plans to export one million jobs in the next three years.
The Kenyan diaspora workforce is currently estimated at four million with 500,000 of the total working in the Middle East.
Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have the highest number of Kenyan workers, a majority of them employed as domestic workers.
Kenya had plans to lift a ban on its citizens working in the Gulf — introduced in 2014 because of abuses — with new safeguards, such as requiring recruitment agencies to pay a security bond so they can repatriate any distressed migrants.
But experts fear that the new rules will not protect them amid corruption, greed and desperation for a better life.
Lured by the promise of well-paid work and a chance to escape joblessness at home, hundreds of thousands of Kenyans are thought to be employed in the Middle East, sending much-needed remittances to their families every year.
Domestic workers are often kept under lock and key by their employer, forced to work more than 18 hours a day, deprived of food and wages and physically and sexually abused, activists say.
“I have stayed for four days without food, I have no strength. I am in the toilet as I record this video, if I am found, they might kill me. Please, please my fellow Kenyans help me,” said Njeri Mwaura who was pleading to be rescued from Saudia Arabia.