The Kenyan Government through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Saturday announced a shift in how the government will be employing diplomats working in various missions abroad.
Speaking in Sydney, Australia, where he met Kenyans in the diaspora, Foreign Affairs Cabinet Secretary Alfred Mutua said that the government is planning to end the tradition of exporting staff from Nairobi to work in foreign embassies to reduce the cost of running missions.
Going forward, the Cabinet Secretary announced that his ministry and relevant employment authorities would seek to tap Kenyans already working in countries where Kenya has missions.
Explaining the radical shift, Mutua explained that the new strategy is part of the new austerity measures introduced by President William Ruto to cut off wastage and optimise resource allocation.
“As part of my strategy to reduce the cost of running missions, we will be hiring Kenyans residing in the countries where we have missions to work for us instead of exporting staff from Nairobi,” Mutua announced.
According to data from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, around 3 million Kenyans live and work abroad.
Additionally, Kenya has 55 embassies and high commissions, 32 consulates, and two other representations abroad.
The standard practice this far, has been to staff the different offices abroad by sending diplomats from Kenya.
With the new changes announced by CS Alfred Mutua, the government will be giving priority to the 3 million Kenyans in the diaspora when the opportunity arises.
Mutua while in Sydney further announced more changes in service delivery at Kenyan embassies across the world.
The CS revealed that plans are underway to have Kenyan passports and identification cards printed in embassies to allow Kenyans working abroad to access their documents with ease.
Away from that, as part of the plan to export human capital, the government announced it is seeking a bilateral labour agreement with Australia to allow Kenyans to emigrate as seasonal workers.
Kenya already has a bilateral agreements with the United Kingdom, Oman and Saudi Arabia to export talent.
