President William Ruto was on the receiving end of criticism from former Chief Justice David Maraga over the government’s labour export programme, where some jobs abroad reportedly paid Ksh200,000 per month.
In a statement released on Thursday, November 20, Maraga vowed to end the labour export programme if elected into office as President, terming it as modern-day slavery.
Maraga described Ruto's move to open up opportunities for Kenyans to work abroad as being contrary to the nature of elected leadership, instead opining that the government could have created more opportunities at home.
“Our beloved Africa still lives with the unspoken wounds of losing her children to enslavement centuries ago. Shipped across the oceans, the depletion of Africa’s best talent is a tale that seems to be repeating itself in 21st-century Kenya, only this time, through the seemingly innocuous guise of helping young people earn a living abroad,” Maraga noted.
“My government will jealously protect our people as our most treasured resource. It is against the very nature of elected governance to trade off our people as labour to foreign lands instead of expanding opportunities at home and ending the corruption that is bleeding our economy,” he added.
His sentiments came after an article by the New York Times exposed that Kenyan workers abroad, particularly those in Gulf nations, were being abused and mistreated while at their places of work.
The piece revealed that the government profited from sending workers abroad, with recruitment agencies affiliated with individuals in the government reportedly earning $1,000 (Ksh129,950) for every worker sent abroad.
However, Labour Cabinet Secretary Alfred Mutua on Wednesday dismissed claims of abuse and mistreatment, noting that Kenyan workers abroad were earning good money, highlighting those in Qatar.
He gave the example of opportunities for 100 diploma-level nurses to work in home care in Qatar. These jobs come with pay that can reach up to Ksh200,000.
Mutua further revealed that the government expected that between 100,000 and 250,000 Kenyans would secure legal and safe jobs abroad next year.
Back in October, Ruto disclosed that the government had secured 13,000 new jobs in Qatar for Kenyans, after he held talks with the Qatar Labour Minister Ali bin Saeed bin Samikh Al Marri.
The opportunities were to be complemented with a new Qatari visa centre, with Ruto asserting that the labour programme would enable Kenyan workers to acquire global experience and training that they would ultimately bring back home to support Kenya’s development.
