Chief Justice emeritus David Maraga has issued a strong
warning against what he described as the modern-day depletion of Kenya’s
workforce through unregulated labour export, likening the trend to Africa’s
historical loss of its people to slavery.
Maraga said Africa still carries “unspoken wounds” from
centuries of enslavement and cautioned that the country risks repeating the
same mistakes under the guise of creating job opportunities abroad.
“Our beloved Africa still lives with the unspoken wounds of
losing her children to enslavement centuries ago,” he said.
“Shipped across the oceans, the depletion of Africa’s best
talent is a tale that seems to be repeating itself in 21st Century Kenya, only
this time, through the seemingly innocuous guise of helping young people earn a
living abroad.”
Maraga argued that relying on foreign labour markets exposes
Kenyan workers to exploitation while weakening the nation’s social and economic
fabric.
He insisted that no modern African state should allow the
shipping off of its people to build foreign economies on cheap labour.
“We cannot, ever, in this free Africa, fall prey to that
dark greed of shipping off our best across the oceans to build foreign lands on
the cheap, through suffering and indignity,” he said.
He pledged that his administration, should he be elected president
in 2027, would prioritise the welfare and protection of Kenyan workers.
“My government will jealously protect our people as our most
treasured resource,” he said.
Maraga further argued that the responsibility of elected
leaders is to create opportunities within the country rather than outsourcing
livelihoods to other nations.
He also linked the labour export trend to systemic
governance challenges, noting that corruption and mismanagement continue to
stifle local economic prospects.
“It is against the very nature of elected governance to
trade off our people as labour to foreign lands instead of expanding
opportunities at home and ending the corruption that is bleeding our economy,”
he said.
His remarks come amid ongoing national debate over the
safety and rights of Kenyan migrant workers, particularly in the Middle East,
where cases of abuse and unsafe working conditions have been widely reported.
Recent reports also claim that senior government officials
or their relatives have interests in companies involved in recruiting Kenyans
to the Gulf, a move Foreign Affairs Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi denied
on Wednesday.
Mudavadi made the disclosure while responding to questions
from Samburu West MP Naisula Lesuuda, who sought clarification on government
interventions to protect Kenyans seeking employment in Gulf countries.
