Foreign jobs: Gov’t deregisters over 700 fraudulent employment agencies

The government says it has in the past year deregistered more than 700 employment agents who have been duping Kenyans on the promise of securing them jobs abroad.

State Department for Foreign and Diaspora Affairs Principal Secretary, Roseline Njogu, cautioned Kenyans seeking jobs in other countries to ensure the agents they work with are registered by the National Employment Authority (NEA).

“Only work with agents licenced by the National Employment Authority. Do not work with travel agents and others calling themselves agents yet they are not,” Njogu said on Tuesday during the inauguration of the Kazi Majuu job fair in Meru.

“At the beginning of last year, the list was 1,200 agents but 700 have been struck off that register because of bad manners and criminal activity,” she added.

Njogu directed Kenyans to refer to NEA’s website (www.neaims.go.ke) for a list of all licenced employment agents.

“We regulate the agents such that if we get a complaint about an agent, we revoke their licence. We ensure that the people who keep their licence are those doing what is right,” the PS said.

“We have come hard on those who become criminals and crooks, those who leave people in the diaspora whenever they are in trouble.”

Similarly, PS Njogu advised those looking for jobs on cruise ships to work with agents verified by the Kenya Maritime Authority.