The chairperson of private recruitment agencies in Mombasa has defended the more than 20 agencies in the city over claims that they promote the suffering of domestic workers in Middle East countries.
Mwalimu Mwaguzo said most of those workers, primarily women, lie about what they undergo out there to whip emotions and attract sympathy.
He said the claim that the workers who are taken to deportation centres are required to pay air ticket fees before repatriation is a lie.
Mwaguzo said that anyone who is taken to a deportation centre ceases to be in the hands of the agents and is put under the host country's government, in this case, Saudi Arabia.
He said deportation centres only admit girls who are either doing prostitution or those who have run away from their employers, adding that the issue of documents being retained by the sponsors or bosses of these girls is under Saudi law.
"So if Kenyans are unhappy with it, it's up to the government of Kenya to change this policy in a Memorandum of Understanding with the government of Saudi Arabia. It is beyond our control as agents," Mwaguzo said.
"We don't sign bilateral agreements. We are not even involved in the negotiations. This is a government-to-government issue."
He said the policy was initiated in Saudi Arabia because of runaway Kenyans who could leave work without notice.
Start engagement with Saudi
Mwaguzo said the association of agents in Kenya suggested removing the Kafala system, which requires all migrant workers in the Gulf countries to leave their travel documents to their employers.
He said it remained up to the Kenyan government to start engagement with the Saudi government to fast track it, adding that government's slowness has stalled the process since 2018.
On the issue of varying salaries for domestic workers in Kenya working in different countries, he said the agents have no power to determine or even negotiate the salaries of Kenyans abroad.
"People think that it is the agents who determine the salary cap for these workers, but the fact is it is the government of Kenya, through a bilateral agreement with the receiving country," he said.
Mwaguzo said that the MoU between the agents in Kenya and those in Saudi Arabia state that if an employee disagrees with their boss, there are three chances of the worker having bosses changed.
If the three chances are exhausted, and the worker is not satisfied with working there, and they have not stayed for at least three months, the Kenyan agent should take a replacement for the other worker.
Upon release from the employer, he said, it is upon the worker and their Kenyan agent to work on how that person travels back to the country.
While responding to the question of sick Kenyans getting neglected, he said that an individual couldn't decide they are sick and demand leave from work without a doctor's consent.
Mwaguzo also said that the workers are provided with a medical cover that caters to their medical needs in case they fall sick.
"But to be honest with you, most of those cases (where people claim that they are sick and want to come back) are just a trick because of getting bored with work," he said.
Big culture shock
"There is also a big culture shock that new girls get when they arrive in Saudi Arabia. Please, let's not say that culture shock is a sickness."
He said many "lazy" people travel to the Middle East because they see others travelling.
"Some people are used to waking up as late as 10am. So when they realise the fun they had fantasised about is not there, they fake sickness," Mwaguzo said.
He said that some women also demand to come back to Kenya after hearing that their husbands are cheating on them.
To cheat the process, Mwaguzo said, they also "fake illness just to come back and be with their spouses."
Before going abroad, he said, the National Industrial Training Authority and the National Employment Authority train all the workers.
They are also told the kind of work that they are going to do, and they have the right to complain and ask for changes, he said.
Still, the chairperson said the government should take responsibility for the thriving illegal recruitment agents who con Kenyans and bypass all the laid down processes.
"The other day, I reported a case of a con recruitment agent at Central police station. The agent bribed the police and was released. Whose crime is that?" he said.
Hassan Maimuna of Asal recruitment agency told the press on October 13 that Kenya cannot create jobs for all, and that their work of facilitating human labour to Saudi Arabia has eased the unemployment crisis in Kenya and helped many low-income families get an income.
Create safe houses
The agents then said they had petitioned the government of Kenya to create a safe house for Kenyans in Saudi Arabia so that mistreated people could take refuge there, awaiting deportation.
Muslims for Human Rights through its rapid response officer, Francis Auma, is now calling for a ban of the agencies in Kenya until proper modalities are implemented.
"We must tell the truth. There is a big problem with our recruitment agencies and they know. Most of them are fake and sell off our children to slavery," Auma said.
The Muhuri dismissed the agencies' claims that the Kenyan women fake sickness, saying that the agencies are prioritising money over human dignity.
"How many people have gone to Saudi Arabia and come back dead? Why are they not addressing this issue? And they expect us to keep quiet? That won't happen," Auma said.
Mathias Shipeta, a rapid response officer at Haki Africa, said that while there are people who get into trouble while in the Middle East, there are many others who have grown and developed their families through working in the Gulf countries.
Shipeta, however, said Haki Africa will continue to account for those agencies that neglect Kenyans suffering abroad.
He asked those seeking to go abroad as labourers to only use registered and accredited recruitment agencies.
Government intervention
Meanwhile, Foreign and Diaspora Affairs Cabinet Secretary Alfred Mutua is currently in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to look into the plight of Kenyans working there.
The CS has fulfilled his promise to respond immediately to the issue of Kenyan workers being mistreated in the country.
Mutua made the promise when being vetted by Parliament ahead of taking oath of office a week ago.
The visit follows the meeting he had with the Saudi Ambassador to Kenya Khalid Abdullah Alsalman on Friday, October 28, where the two held discussions touching on various issues central of which was the welfare of Kenyans working in Saudi Arabia.
The CS on Monday convened a meeting with representatives of employment agents who recruit Kenyans for jobs in Saudi Arabia.
It was during this meeting that he pledged to travel to Saudi Arabia to meet with Saudi authorities and the Kenyans living and working there to get first-hand information that will assist him in coming up with lasting solutions to their welfare challenges.
Lasting solution
Kenyans, especially on social media networks, have reacted positively to these efforts as they welcomed the renewed commitment to come up with lasting solutions and completely eliminate the animosity associated with working in the Gulf country.
The issue of Kenyans suffering and in some cases losing their lives while working in Saudi Arabia has over the years elicited strong emotions in the country.
All eyes are now on the new CS to see whether he will succeed where his predecessors failed, and without severing the strong ties between Kenya and the Arab country.
While in Saudi Arabia, Mutua will also explore other issues of interest to Kenya, including various forms of direct and indirect investments, export market opportunities and other forms of bilateral trade.
All these are part of his intention to increase the country’s inflows from the diaspora to more than Sh1 trillion per year from the current Sh400 billion.
After his visit to Saudi Arabia, the CS will travel to Munster, Germany, to attend the G7 Foreign Ministers meetings that is slated for Friday this week where he will provide an update on Kenya’s role in promoting regional peace and security.
Mutua will also seek partnerships that will promote the government’s agenda of empowering medium and small-scale enterprises.
(edited by Amol Awuor)
