Hiring agencies deny sending untrained domestic workers to Saudi

Private employment agencies in Kenya have denied claims they do not train Kenyan women taken to Saudi Arabia for employment as domestic workers.

Kenya Association of Private Employment Agencies on Tuesday said there is no way an untrained woman can be approved for travel to the Gulf country.

“I am shocked Waziri would say that. They are the government. We are just agents. If there is no training as is required, then it is the government that is sleeping on the job,” Kapea chairman Mwalimu Mwaguzo said on phone on Tuesday.

He was responding to Foreign Affairs Cabinet Secretary Alfred Mutua who on Thursday said the recruitment agencies do not train the domestic workers on technological components like dishwashers, microwaves and washing machines, among others.

Mutua told MPs in Mombasa the women who end up in houses of their rich employers then make blunders when they arrive in Saudi Arabia and spoil expensive gadgets because they do not know how to operate them.

This makes their employers, who expect the workers to have been trained, angry.

“The problem with Saudi Arabia starts in Kenya.  A girl is taken from Kathonzweni, Pokot or Lunga Lunga. They have never seen a microwave. They are taken into a house where they find a microwave. They put in a metallic spoon and it explodes. They put clothes in a dishwasher. You cannot blame them,” Mutua said.

Mwaguzo said there is an electronic system called Musaned where all registered recruitment agencies are included.

Musaned, launched in 2014 in Saudi Arabia, aims at introducing the rights and duties of the worker, the employer, procedures and mechanisms under one umbrella.

This is done through coordination between the domestic labour service providers of recruitment offices and companies in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to request domestic workers or household employment within the list of allowed recruitment countries in various fields of employment.

The system also has officials from the Labour ministry and at the National Employment Authority in Kenya who approve those meant for travel after going through the checks and balances including training, according to Mwaguzo.

“Where does the approval come from if one is not trained? You can’t get approval if one is not trained,” the Kapea chairman said. 

He, however, concurred with CS Mutua who said Kenyan veterans in Saudi Arabia are mostly responsible for the suffering of many of the Kenyan girls in the Saudi Kingdom.

Mutua said there are cartels made up of Kenyans living in Saudi Arabia who influence the Kenyan girls into abandoning their contracted domestic jobs with, sometimes false, promises of better paying jobs.

“When you break your contract with your employer, you no longer qualify for medical cover,” the CS said. 

He said that in Saudi Arabia most of the hospitals are public and treat residents for free.

When Kenyan girls who break their contracts fall sick and seek medical attention, the public hospitals will still treat them but then notify their immigration department, who will deport them.

The girls who have broken their contract with their employers avoid this and end up suffering without any medical attention, according to Mutua.

He said there are also Kenyans who brew and sell illicit drinks, including chang'aa  in Saudi Arabia and recruit newly arrived Kenyan girls after influencing them to break their contract with their employers.

Mwaguzo said this is true.

“There are dalalas (brokers), mostly Kenyans who have lived there for ages, some of who have survived after breaking contract with their employers, and others who are still working with their employers," he said. 

“Most of these dalalas were Kembois and are now seeking all manner of jobs for the girls, including prostitution and any other chances that can be found.” 

Kemboi is a term, coined from Kenyan veteran runner Ezekiel Kemboi’s name, referring to those who escape from their employers to do other businesses in the Saudi Kingdom.

He, however, said the Kenyan government was notified of this long ago but has done nothing.

“The solution to the problems of Saudia is to return all the Kembois and dalalas to Kenya. Because the Kembois and dalalas are the ones who do all the dirty things in Saudia,” Mwaguzo said. 

He said the Kembois and dalalas have developed a strong network and can get you anything you want.

“If you get pregnant in Saudia and you want to abort, they will help you,” Mwaguzo said. 

The Kapea chairman said some of the Kenyan dalalas have been arrested by the Saudi government and deported.

“And many times the Saudi government has offered amnesty to them, asking them to come out but this has done little to solve the problem,” Mwaguzo said. 

The Kapea chairman said most of the time the Kenyan girls who seek help from the Kenyan embassy in Saudi Arabia only do so after life becomes unbearable on the run.

“They go there after 10 months, 1 year, or even two years on the run having broken their contracts with their employers. At that time there is little the embassy can do. People blame the embassy there unfairly,” Mwaguzo said. 

He said those who get help from the embassy are those who get away from their mistreating employers and run straight to the embassy.

“There are many Kenyans in Saudia who have no contracts because they ran away from their employers. Their families do not make noise because they receive monthly cheques from the illegal work their children do.” 

He said they usually call their families to inform them that their children have escaped from their employers.

“We beg them to ask them to report to our offices. But they don’t.  Once difficulties start kicking in, and no money is sent to them, that is when they run to you the media to cry,” Mwaguzo said. 

“When you sit down with them candidly and ask them to tell you the truth, you will find out the children escaped from their employer long time before.”

(edited by Amol Awuor)