Samasource Chief Executive Officer, Wendy Gonzalez has pledged to employ 600 Kenyans this week, and 1,500 more in a fortnight to work on a new project for the company.
The company is a training and data firm headquartered in California in the United States with branches in several parts of the world, including Nairobi, Kenya and Kampala, Uganda.
According to Kuria, Sama's CEO reached out to him, expressing her interest in aiding the government to create 1 million jobs for Kenyans.
“Wendy Gonzelez, CEO at World leading BPO giant Samasource, has just informed me that following the recent government efforts to create 1 Million BPO (business process outsourcing) jobs in Kenya, they will this week hire 600 Kenyans and another 1,500 in the next two weeks to work on Computer Vision AI,” the CS stated.
“I have assured Wendy that they have made the right decision,” Kuria continued but did not divulge more on the agreements.
BPO jobs are roles in companies that require the firm to outsource services. Kenyans will thus be hired to work on Computer vision, a field of generative artificial intelligence (AI) that enables computers and systems to derive meaningful information from digital images, videos and other visual inputs — and make recommendations based on that information.
According to Sama, founded by the late activist Leila Janah, applicants can join it to work as data annotation agents, who are key in driving the world’s most ambitious AI projects.
On its website, it asks applicants to apply for a 10-day program that covers Digital Literacy, Internet Literacy, an Intro to AI, and Professional Workplace Readiness, with an incentive to offer a high-energy and rewarding work environment, practising the knowledge and skills obtained and other employment benefits.
"Lastly, your privacy is important to us. The answers you provide will be kept secure and confidential," it says, in line with Kenya laws, which advocate for Privacy and protection of data.
However, Sama is facing legal controversies in Kenya. In May 2023, the Employment and Labour Relations court ordered Sama to continue paying content moderators, pending the determination of a petition some workers filed while opposing their layoffs.
Nonetheless, Sama reportedly distanced the recent Computer Vision AI Jobs announced by CS Kuria from ongoing court cases touching on its operation.
