State is cleaning up private recruitment agencies – PS

The government is streamlining the Private Recruitment Agencies sector, Labour PS Shadrack Mwadime has said.

Speaking in Garissa during an official tour, he said some agencies have been engaged in human trafficking and human smuggling.

“We don’t want our young people to be exploited negatively. And therefore, we have been extremely firm on that,” Mwadime said.

He said a senior officer from his office will chair a vetting committee of security agencies that will tackle the issue.

Mwadime met with the staff to see first-hand some of the challenges they are facing, with a view to addressing them.

Present were senior officials from his department.

Mwadime said there were 1,000 private recruitment agencies (PRAs) in Kenya, but his department has reduced them to 500.

The PS said the move is deliberate to stop the exploitation that has been carried out by the agencies in the past.

He encouraged young people to access the website and see the job orders that have been uploaded in the National Employment Authority integrated management system.

This is one way of assuring the youth that the programme is secure, he said.

“Those PRAs that are in red ink should be avoided as much as possible,” the PS said.

“Because their performance is still wanting and we have not given them the green light to continue doing the recruitment.

"But those that are in black have been vetted, and we are a hundred per cent sure what they are doing is in accordance with the law.”

He said the government has embarked on a labour migration programme, and that two weeks ago, he was in Germany in the first round of negotiations with the country.

Government officials from Germany will be coming to Kenya for the second round of negotiations, he said, and the two countries should have signed a bilateral labour agreement by June.

This, he said, will ensure that young people in the country access job opportunities opening up there in a structured way.

“We don’t want to allow that which was wanting before, where we had private recruitment agencies who would list some of our young people to work abroad but in many cases, there were no jobs,” he said.

Mwadime said there are about 260,000 jobs currently available across the world, but they should be approached strategically.

He encouraged the youth to create accounts so they can access some of the jobs.

On passport delays, the PS said going forward, his department had agreed with the Immigration department that priority be given to those migrating abroad to access the jobs.

“We have a one-stop shop within the Labour department, where a young person trying to secure a job abroad will be able to get the services,” he said.

There is also a labour migration desk at JKIA, he said, adding that the objective is to curtail human trafficking and human smuggling. 

 The PS had earlier visited county commissioner Mohamed Mwabudzo, where he planted a tree.