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{
    "id": 1525644,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1525644/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 31,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "The Cabinet Secretary for Labour and Social Protection",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "Mr. Speaker, Sir, one cannot pretend to go there as a driver if he does not have a document to show that he is a driver. Even with hospitality, we cannot allow you to go there if you have never taken any hospitality courses. So, we make sure that those are aligned before you go. We have set up a desk at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) and other international airports. The immigration now requires anybody going for employment to be verified by that desk at the airport before they can be allowed to leave the country. This ensures that people are smuggled out of the country. Mr. Speaker, Sir, we also have monitoring and spot checks of private employer agencies and we do impromptu visits to ensure that they are not briefcase agencies. We also have provided distress reporting tools and phone numbers to Kenyans working abroad. These phone numbers are available on our website. Any distress, you call this number and we are able to know. There is also an oversight and community feedback mechanism where the Ministry in collaboration with International Organisation for Migration (OIM) has established this mechanism to facilitate continuous monitoring of the private employer agencies. They are now there. We have a system where one has to go for vetting once their license expires. This is done before it is extended for another year. Documents are brought from the Attorney- General, National Intelligence Service and other offices. People are at times not allowed to continue working because they have been shown to be undertaking unscrupulous deals. Therefore, vetting is undertaken to ensure that the oversight is done well. We also have pre-departure training and orientation. I was in Mombasa this week where we opened the Saudi House. In that house, people going overseas will be taught how to work if they will be employed as house girls. With that help, they will not put shoes in the microwave. They will also have an understanding of how to separate clothes when using the washing machine. They will also know that they should not use the dish washer to wash clothes. We are also collaborating with governments, agencies and organisations. A good example is Germany. There is a group interested in setting up a German Hospital in Kenya to teach people how to work in a German facility before they leave to go and work there. This will reduce conflict when people go overseas. We also have capacity building of private employment agencies on ethical recruitment and it is ongoing. It is all explained there. Part ‘c’ of the Question is on the cases of passport confiscation involving Kenyan migrant workers. The law is clear. The Kenyan law and BLMA that we sign do not allow Kenyans to have their passports confiscated. This habit has been going on for a long time in some countries. With the new international labour organisations, there countries like Kenyan, for example, have laws that prevent people from handing over their passports to their employer. The passport is their document. We have asked them to report to the Kenyan Embassy if the employer asks them to hand over their passport to them. If I hear of any case, I call the relevant Minister in that country who then works on it. The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Director, Hansard and AudioServices, Senate."
}