Thousands of desperate jobless Kenyans are on a daily basis falling victims to rogue employment agencies fleecing them of millions of shillings in the pretext of getting them jobs abroad. Mostly targeted are people seeking both menial and professional jobs in the Middle East.

Several employment agencies have sprouted out, taking advantage of the unemployment crisis to con unsuspecting Kenyans hoping to get jobs outside the country to better their lives. The rogue employment agencies are in effect derailing the government’s plan on export labour in a bid to reduce joblessness.

Last week, the National Assembly Committee on Diaspora Affairs and Migrant Workers, while on a visit to Mombasa, came face to face with shocking revelations of how some agencies defraud Kenyans under the guise of overseas job recruitment.

Despite claiming to have facilitated the deployment of more than 600 Kenyans, two of the agencies visited by the committee lacked essential office documentation, raising serious concerns.

According to the committee, Al Hadhramy and Mahla and Attawakul recruitment agencies are reportedly involved in a con scheme where owners are said to have collected millions of shillings from hundreds of Kenyans and left them stranded.

Questions have also been raised over the culpability of the National Employment Authority (NEA) over the con game scheme that has continued to take place under its nose.

Besides fleecing Kenyans, reports and cases abound of how some agencies end up dumping people in countries where they can hardly communicate in the local language, with no place to live and without money.

Scores of Kenyans have also ended up in the hands of cruel employers who torture and enslave them. Quite a number have returned home in coffins.

Promises by the Ministry of Foreign and Diaspora Affairs that it is working closely with its Labour counterpart to weed out rogue employment agencies have unfortunately remained on paper.

Though the government earns about Sh309 billion in remittances every year from export of labour, the sector should not be left in the hands of unscrupulous people to take advantage of the desperation of jobless people.

The government through NEA, the police and other investigative agencies must crack the whip on the crooked recruitment agencies. People Daily

 Five communities control over 70 percent of the National Social Security Fund (NSSF), it has now emerged.

Documents tabled before the Senate National Cohesion and Equal Opportunities Committee revealed in addition to the government parastatals being ethnically imbalanced, the majority of the staff are aging staff.

NSSF Chief Executive Officer (CEO) David Koross told Senators over 60 percent of the working force are aged between 50 and 60 years with the last massive employment recruitment having been conducted in 1996.

“We have an aging workforce and its something we want to address by ensuring in our recruitment we will be more biased to the young people by also considering the ethnic balance,” stated Koross.

The NSSF CEO mentioned plans have been instituted to ensure a balanced workforce is prioritized in the next recruitment

“We are facing a risk of people with a lot of knowledge having invested a lot on them and this knowledge not being passed on to the incoming generation,” said Koross.

Submission before the Senate Committee chaired by Marsabit Senator Mohammed Chute shows that Kalenjin Community has the highest representation in the workforce at 18.24 percent which translates to 199 members of staff out of 1,091.

Kamba Community comes in second with 17.51 percent (191), Luo Community is the third highest with 13.38 percent (146), and Luyha community follows closely at 12.47 percent which translates to 136 staff.

Kikuyu Community holds 12.47 percent of the workforce at the state agency amounting to 135 members of staff.

The other 44 ethnic groups share the remaining 26.03 percent of positions with only 22 communities making it on the list.

The Constitution and the National Cohesion and Integration Act of 2008 require that all public entities seek to represent the diversity of the people of Kenya in hiring staff and that no public establishment shall have more than one-third of its staff from the same ethnic community.

Under the diversity policy for State Ministries, Departments, and Agencies released in December 2015 by the Public Service Commission, ethnic groups whose job representation surpasses their corresponding national population proportion are considered to be over-represented.

The diversity policy was expected to tackle the problem of over-representation by setting hiring quotas for ethnic groups and disadvantaged classes such as the disabled.

The Constitution introduced the ethnic representation requirements to check a historical trend where the tribesmen of those in power were favoured during recruitment. By Irene Mwangi, Capital News