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{
    "id": 1183957,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1183957/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 365,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Methu",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13581,
        "legal_name": "Methu John Muhia",
        "slug": "methu-john-muhia"
    },
    "content": "As she has rightly put it, we are not saying that there are no benefits we, as country, are getting out of exporting labour to the Gulf countries. The rate of unemployment in our country is very high and we encourage our people to seek greener pastures elsewhere. According to the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK), the Gulf countries are the third largest remittance of foreign currency to our country. This means that they are a major source of employment to our people. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, as that maybe, we cannot also close our eyes to major challenges facing our young people in Gulf countries. I am now seized of a case of a young girl by the name Peris Mogure from a small village called Gitamaiyu in Nyandarua. She left Kenya for Saudi in 2019 for a two-year contract. She used to remit her dues until May 2022 when she lost her sister’s contact. She became very worried because she was unable to communicate with her sister. Thanks to the era of social media, they raised a Facebook post. It is at that point that they knew that their daughter Peris Mugure was in the deportation unit in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia and in very bad shape. They were almost not able to recognize her. To this minute, they have not been able to have her back home. That is one case amongst very many cases that we get every day. You see them in the news and social media. Just the other day, the CS was receiving a case that was in the social media. Those are just few examples out of the very many cases we get involved in every day. Therefore, this Motion is very timely. According to the Amnesty International records, majority of the workers in the gulf countries complain majorly on issues of forced labour, physical abuse, rape and dangerous working conditions. The Mover has just given a case of a person who suffered serious burns and has permanent scars that remind her of her days working there. If we do not address these issues and celebrate the fact that the Gulf countries are the third biggest contributors of employment, then our young people will continue to suffer in those countries. The current sponsorship system that is being used by the Government of Saudi Arabia of giving some individuals permits to secure cheap labour for their country being abused by agents. Therefore, we must address that problem so that we assure our youth a better future in foreign countries. Philippines used to be one of the countries that exported a lot of labour to Saudi Arabia. However, they suspended deployment of their workers to Saudi Arabia in 2019 and I believe for a good reason. It cannot be that they just woke up one day and decided to stop exportation of labour to Saudi Arabia. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, this Motion is seeking many resolutions as to how we can address myriad of challenges faced by our people working in Gulf countries. One of them is immediate establishment of a functional overseas labour office so that people working there have an access to office where they can report their problems. This office will handle dispute resolution so that if you are in Saudi Arabia and your contract has not expired and you are involved in a major dispute with your"
}