Africa-Press – Kenya. The government intends to send 250,000 Kenyans to work abroad each year as part of its job creation strategy.
President William Ruto said the move is also aimed at enhancing the country’s remittances from abroad.
To actualise this, Ruto said, the country has signed a number of bilateral agreements with several countries.
“From last year to this year, we have increased our remittances by about $50 billion, and it is my intention that in the next five years, we should take our remittances from $4 billion to $10 billion.”
He said his administration is keen to reorganise labour laws.
Ruto said there are some 140,000 young people who were not working last year but are now working this year in the housing programme.
We have another 120,000 young people in our Tvets, ICT hubs who are earning salaries, he said.
Ruto said the pace at which jobs are created in the country is lower than the rate at which new workers enter the job market.
“Every year, 1 million workers enter the job market in Kenya while only 200,000 are absorbed into formal jobs both in the private and public sector.”
Ruto made the remarks on Wednesday at Uhuru Gardens during the 59th International Labour Day celebrations.
The theme of this year’s celebration is “Kenyan workers stand for advanced information technology and training to drive our digital economy.”
During the event, Labour CS Florence Bore announced that 30,237 job seekers had been profiled as of April this year.
Bore said the job seekers have been profiled in the National Employment Authority Information Management System for the Skills Inventory.
“Government launched the National Skills Inventory to map out the skills of all Kenyans seeking employment to enhance employability locally and abroad,” Bore said.
The CS said in its pursuit to address the high unemployment rate, the government has continued to engage with other governments that have a high demand for labour through initiating negotiations of bilateral labour agreements or memoranda of understanding to provide for safe and orderly labor migration.
“We have retained foreign employment on top of our agenda, and so far we have pursued and signed four (4) bilateral labour agreements. Seven are in the advanced stages of eight negotiations, while 14 are in draft form. The aim is not only to provide overseas opportunities but also to encourage the return of skilled workers with enhanced capabilities,” she said.
The CS said there are 254,312 active jobs advertised by private recruitment agencies on the National Employment Authority.
“In our quest to foster workplace harmony and acceptable conditions of work, the labour inspectorate has diligently processed over 11,312 labour disputes, conducted more than 12,156 workplace inspections, and facilitated the registration of an additional 334 collective bargaining agreements in the last year.”
Bore said that in order to eliminate child labour by 2025, her ministry recently joined Alliance 8.7 as a pathfinder country and further established seven county child labour committees to address the concerns.
She said her ministry continues to implement the cash transfer programmes with an increase in social assistance coverage for orphans and vulnerable children and persons living with disabilities and the Inua Jamii Programme for the elderly, where the government has committed Sh 28 billion.
“In a move to afford social security to those in the informal sector, we have intensified campaigns to promote the Haba Haba programme under the NSSF, where members can access their savings plan through their mobile phones by dialling *303#. It gives members a chance to save a minimum of Sh25 a day, with the option of withdrawing 50 per cent of their contribution after consistently contributing for a minimum of five years,” Bore said.
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