Trapped abroad, silenced at home: the agony of job-seeking Kenyans

As Kenyans mark Labour Day, there is little cause for celebration for the country's working population, particularly those who have pinned their hopes on jobs abroad.

For thousands of Kenyans, both at home and overseas, Labour Day is not a moment of recognition but a grim reminder of unfulfilled promises, systemic abuse, and state failure.

In recent weeks, there has been an outcry over the rising number of Kenyans who have been scammed by unscrupulous recruitment agencies.

The crisis is worsened by the government's entry into the clamor for abroad jobs.

A section of overseas job seekers who were successful in the government's Kazi Majuu initiative recruitment drive are now blaming the Ministry of Labour led by Cabinet Secretary Alfred Mutua saying that they were swindled.

The distraught job seekers told the Senate Labour Committee that six months after the government promised them jobs in the Gulf countries, they are still in the country waiting to travel despite paying money and being handed provisional job offer letters.

They are now seeking the government to refund their money in total or give them the jobs as promised. Some had paid as high as Sh55,000 each to the recruitment agencies.

CS Mutua is expected to appear before the Senate Labour Committee after he was summoned to provide answers on the issues raised by the victims.

The much-publicized overseas job recruitment by President William Ruto launched last year was fashioned as a silver bullet to end fake overseas job scandals and deal with the unemployment menace in the country.

If job-seeking Kenyans are not scammed by recruitment agencies in Kenya, they are being abused by employers abroad with some returning home in caskets having died under unclear circumstances.

Jedida Mutiso, a trained nurse is among Kenyans who were selected for jobs abroad that never materialized.

"Being a nurse with experience, this was an opportunity that had opened itself and brought near to me. I was among the first group to arrive at the recruitment centre," she said.

She was given an appointment letter by a recruitment agency confirming that there were job openings in Saudi Arabia and Qatar although the government had given her an offer letter to work as a nurse in Germany.

She was also asked to pay a Sh120,000 processing fee before any other detail about the job or the employer could be disclosed.

She told The Standard that at one point, she, along with other applicants, asked if they could be linked to the employers to talk to them but they were informed that they would need to visit the agencies to pay processing fees before further negotiations.

"CS Mutua said plans to have air tickets paid for and accommodation on arrival were completed and we were only required to cooperate for seamless movement abroad," said Mutiso.

She added, "However, for us nurses even after getting job offer letters, we were ordered to report to our various recruitment agency offices with a mandatory Sh120,000 each as processing fee."

The opaque nature of the recruitment process raised concerns about the safety of Kenyans and the risk of paying exorbitant fees for non-existent jobs. Some fear they could be abandoned in foreign countries or forced into roles they never applied for.

But it is the lucrative nature of the jobs that is appealing to Kenyans, despite the controversies surrounding the entire exercise.

According to Mutiso, she was to earn Sh200,000 per month in Qatar and Sh240,000 in Saudi Arabia but the agents couldn't reveal they expected salaries for other countries.

But this has been a trend whereby recruitment agencies collect large sums in "processing fees," sometimes upward of Sh200,000, promising jobs in in the Gulf, Europe.

For many desperate young people, it's money borrowed or raised from the sale of family land or assets.

In some cases, the promised jobs never materialize while some workers arrive at their destinations only to find non-existent employers, forced detention in agency-run hostels, or different working conditions than promised, often with no pay, no documents, and no way home.

In most cases, attempts to seek answers from the agencies are met with silence.

Weeks ago, Diaspora Affairs Principal Secretary Roseline Njogu sounded the alarm over the rising number of foreign job scams targeting unsuspecting Kenyans.

Njogu cautioned that many Kenyans are falling victim to fraudulent schemes disguised as legitimate overseas employment opportunities.

The PS made the remarks at a time when unsuspecting jobseekers were trapped in human trafficking syndicates.

The PS highlighted the growing involvement of human trafficking syndicates, revealing that unscrupulous agents are exploiting job-seekers by charging them hefty sums for non-existent opportunities abroad

"Despite our consistent advisories indicating that there are no job opportunities in Thailand, Kenyans are still being duped into believing they're headed there for work, only to find themselves trapped in scam compounds in Myanmar," Njogu said.

"Victims are ending up in scam operations, coerced into commercial sex work or subjected to forced labour and slavery-like conditions," she added.

Statistics from Kenya National Bureau of Statistics shows that the unemployment rate in Kenya stands at five million mark with the youth between 18-35 years constituting 75 per cent of the population.

This employment gap creates an avenue for rogue agencies to exploit desperate Kenyans.