MPs on Wednesday voted to approve a law that now bars employers from seeking clearance certificates from persons they have no intention to hire.
Lawmakers voted to pass the Employment (Amendment) Bill (No79) of 2019 sponsored by Nominated MP Gideon Keter.
The proposed law mandates an employer to carry out background checks on prospective employees after granting an offer of employment.
Persons seeking jobs, especially in state agencies, are usually required to provide clearance notices from the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC), Higher Education Loans Board, Credit Reference Bureau, Kenya Revenue Authority, and the Directorate of Criminal Investigation.
Keter moved the Bill on grounds that most of the unemployed consist of persons below the age of 35 years hence unable to afford clearance certificates required by employers for purposes of employment.
“It is, therefore, necessary for an employer to require an applicant to submit the mandatory requirements as a condition for confirmation of employment,” he said.
Clearance certificates cost job seekers over Sh5,000. Some of the certificates are renewed annually at about Sh1,000.
Eyes are now on President Uhuru Kenyatta who is expected to assent to the proposed law to give it effect.
In respect to recruitment, an employer shall not require an employee for a contract of service to submit any clearance certificates for which payment is required.
This would be only so if the employer intends to enter into a written contract of service with the employee.
“An employer who intends to enter into a written contract of service may, in compliance with Chapter Six of the Constitution, request an employee to submit mandatory clearance certificates from the relevant entities,” the proposed law reads.
An analysis by the Parliamentary Budget Office projected that state agencies issue clearance certificates for purposes of compliance with Chapter Six of the Constitution net over Sh750 million.
Keter argued that the charges amounted to a rip-off as “public-funded institutions should never be cash cows.”
