Ruto's obsession with exporting cheap labour abroad instead of creating local jobs

A report released by the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) in 2018 revealed that every, nine out of ten unemployed Kenyans are 35 years and below. 

The unemployment rate in Kenya therefore is an issue that is well documented and known but surprisingly, neglected. It once seemed like the proverbial tortoise who began the race walking so slowly, that many forgot about it, slowly but surely it has caught up with the rabbit and is overtaking it.

Although the overall unemployment rate in Kenya is at 12.7 per cent, the youth (15 – 34 year olds), have the highest unemployment rate of 67 per cent.

This by itself is a call to critical assessment by the government to ensure this critical and productive age-set are gainfully engaged and contribute meaningfully to national development.

State’s Strategy to export cheap labour 

Since the Kenya Kwanza administration assumed office in 2022, every time top state officials comment on the government’s agenda on job creation, one will almost never miss the obvious allusion to having negotiated with foreign countries to offer Kenyans jobs in specific foreign countries, normally without divulging the exact nature of these touted positions. 

A quick look at the government agency – National Employment Authority Integrated Management System (NEAMIS) would leave one perturbed as over 97 percent of the jobs on offer by the various foreign employment agencies are menial jobs with domestic work being the most advertised opening, one would be lucky to spot a white collar job vacancy.

Of fast-tracking passports and free air tickets 

Leading the charge to take Kenya’s labour force abroad is President William Ruto. In July 28, 2024, he pledged support for unemployed Kenyan workers seeking to find work abroad by setting up a dedicated desk at the passport office to fast-track their passports acquisition. He went one step further to state that, “they (relocating workers) do not even need money for flight tickets, we will pay for flights.” 

This must be music to the ears of many citizens seeking meaningful work out there. 

However, fulfilling such promises will be a tall order in light of hitherto unfulfilled lofty promises as well as the government’s admission of a financial crunch. The Department of Immigration domiciled at Nyayo House has also for umpteenth time failed to process travel documents effectively and efficiently despite such services being paid for at exorbitant rates and the cabinet secretary in charge promising to rid it of corruption cartels.

Local jobs freeze as manufacturing sector shrinks

According to data published by KNBS in April 2023, around two-thirds of jobless Kenyans had given up looking for jobs or starting a business due to the tough economic environment which has seen firms either a freeze hiring or a shut-down altogether. 

Since covid-19 pandemic, the incomes of Kenyans have been on the decline, pressed by an underperforming economy, a currency that has been mercilessly battered before stabilizing in the recent months, inflationary pressure, and higher fees, taxes and levies on anything the Treasury fancies might give it more revenue.

An analysis of Kenya’s manufacturing sector, according to Kenya Association of Manufacturers (KAM), shows that it has been shrinking, from contributing 10.9% to GDP in 2013 to 7.6% in 2023. In 2023, during the public consultations on Finance Bill, KAM insisted that the budget policy would adversely affect the manufacturing sector and cripple the competitiveness of many local industries. This would lead to a reduction in revenue, job losses, a reduction in exports, loss of competitive advantage in the region, loss of tax revenue, and increased prices of local goods which would hurt local consumption.

However, since assuming office in 2022, the President has repeatedly defended his many trips overseas as fruitful for among other things facilitating agreements to have young qualified Kenyans secure jobs abroad. The Kenya Kwanza Administration has however remained mum on how it intends to spur the growth of local jobs by ensuring the sustenance and growth of local industries. 

This would reverberate by having more locally manufactured goods for its citizens, a wider pool paying corporate tax, excise duty taxes, a lot personal income account taxes and of course the increase of low hanging fruit taxes such as the value added tax (VAT) on many more purchases when the buying power of citizens is enhanced.

Menial and domestic jobs - only few techie positions

The majority of overseas job openings tend to be menial or domestic jobs but this could be in great contrast to a picture carried by the local dailies on July 30, 2024. Therein, the Prime Cabinet Secretary and Cabinet secretary for Foreign Affairs, Musalia Mudavadi is seen posing with 20 teachers who had secured jobs abroad. The photograph was taken with a part of a group of about sixty teachers during their send-off ceremony. 

CS Mudavadi said the relocating teachers were headed to the US, in various district schools and he asked them to fly Kenya’s flag high. But the sad fact here is that on one hand, the teacher to students ratio in Kenya is, in some cases, still as high as 1:70 even in instances where the most should be at 1:40. 

On the other hand, the government is actively involved in a “brain-drain” situation which we might not feel now but the coming generation will. 

Here comes Mutua, the chief exporter 

The newly appointed Cabinet Secretary of Labour and Social Protection, Alfred Mutua, told the Committee on Appointments that he will be sending Kenyan lawyers to the Gulf nations that share labour agreements with Kenya. 

During his vetting, Mutua said he would do so as soon as he takes office, to understand the dictates of their laws upon our immigrant labour force. He says this will enable Kenya send workers through legitimate recruitment agencies to forestall exploitation while at the same time leveraging on knowledge of their laws to negotiate for Kenyan workers’ competitive remuneration, safety and rights while in employment within the gulf region. 

In what must have been a straight barb to the hearts of the members of the Committee on Appointments, CS Mutua said, "I want to move the numbers from the ones that are there to about 5,000 a week to 10,000 eventually. I want it to be constituency-led so that we can have quotas where MPs can provide people who we can send overseas." 

Whether this secured favour with the committee will of course remain a purely matter of conjecture.

Labour immigration a cheap source of foreign exchange?

Speaking during the 2024 Labor Day ceremony hosted by Central Organization of Trade Unions (COTU) at Uhuru Gardens in Nairobi, President Ruto said “the government intends to send 250,000 Kenyans to work abroad each year as part of its job creation strategy. Further, he said the move is similarly aimed at enhancing the country's remittances from abroad. 

To actualize this, the country has signed a number of bilateral agreements with several countries.” He said Kenya has increased its remittances by about $50 billion, and he said he hoped that in the next five years, Kenya’s remittances will go up to $10 billion. 

Meanwhile the plight of Kenyans working in the Gulf Countries continue to wrench the hearts of many as stories of mistreatment, slavery, and denial of basic human rights for Kenyan workers abound. Feeble, if any movement, by the government is ever witnessed as a number of immigrant workers come back home lifeless.

The factor of youth unemployment in Kenya is a time-bomb that many administrations have hitherto ignored or skillfully avoided but it seems the Kenya Kwanza government has stepped right in the middle of. 

If this is not handled skillfully it remains a potent time-bomb that might impact the society adversely. The government needs to take pragmatic steps, be decisively and delicately diffuse the situation, or it might prove costly in the long run.