CS for Labour and Social Protection Hon. Florence Bore and Khaled Actouki
By Benard Mulwa
The government of Kenya and Saudi Arabia have collaboratively joined efforts to rally the process of migrant workers from Kenya going to Saudi Arabia.
This comes even as a delegation of recruiting agents from Takamol, Saudi Arabia visits Kenya today for a two day tour to meet with National Employment Authority, (NEA) National Industrial Training Authority, (NITA) homecare Training Centre and East Africa College of Tourism and Hospitality among other to discuss and deliberate ways on how to streamline the process of recruitment of domestic workers.
Addressing the media in her office today, the Cabinet Secretary for labour and social protection Hon. Florence Bore said this meeting was a follow up of President William Ruto’s visit in Riyadh Saudi Arabia for discussions aimed at enhancing bilateral relations between Saudi Arabia and the Africa nations, job opportunities and the establishment of trade agreement.
The team will brief the Cabinet Secretary for labour and social protection Hon. Florence Bore on the overview of the visit latter tomorrow.
The CS said the bilateral labour agreement has been reviewed and are waiting for the parliament to clear it up adding that the government is going to clean up on rogue recruiting agents, “we have cleaned up rouge recruiting agents up from 900 to 500, and the government is looking forward to have a desk at the Jomo Kenyatta Airport to able to know and track the process of migrant workers” adding that currently there are 210,000 migrant workers in Saudi Arabia from Kenya and the government is looking to increase the number, she told journalists.
Mr. Khaled Actouki, the Chief Executive Officer of Takamol said time, duration and affordability are the factors that puts Kenya in a better position when it comes to the recruiting process as compared to other countries, “Kenyan skilled and domestic workers are well trained, they don’t run away in the middle of their contracts and are affordable” he said.
The government of Kenya is seeking to integrate the National Employment Authority and the ministry of labour.