It’s a tough world out here. The rich want to get richer and the poor keep trying to uplift themselves. It is estimated that over 70% of those born poor remain poor until the end of their days.

It turns out there’s a good reason for that. The world cannot function without the poor, and therefore the wealthy want to maintain the status quo. That explains why millionaires and billionaires continue exploiting poor people without blinking an eye.

There’s no denying that joblessness in Kenya is at record levels. Less than half of Kenyans of working age have formal employment. This has presented an opportunity for con men to rip them off.

For the past few weeks, Royal Media Services has been airing adverts seeking sales agents in every county. Using their massive media empire, RMS has been pushing these ads multiple times a day on TV and all their radio stations.

However, Kenyans seeking to apply have been shocked to find out that they have to pay a Sh1000 application fee.

Here’s a screenshot of what awaits you after you input your personal details on the online application form.

RMS does not state what the non-refundable Sh1000 is meant for.

Citizen TV is the most watched TV station in Kenya. That alone accounts for millions of viewers, most of them unemployed. When you bring in all their national and vernacular radio stations, we can conclude that most if not all Kenyans have heard the message… either first hand or via word of mouth.

Kenya’s youth unemployment is estimated to be about 40%. It is therefore likely that a few million jobless Kenyans have thus far heeded the call to action and attempted to apply for the job.

Upon finding the Sh1000 shocker, most will pull out, but RMS will still have tens of thousands who will end up paying.

By the end of this exercise, it is likely that SK Macharia will have in excess of Sh100 million in his account.

If this is not theft, I don’t know what is.

We have heard a million times, including from RMS properties, that anyone charging you for a job application is a con. It may not be illegal but it’s outright unethical. I guess they don’t play by the same rule book.

Royal Media has not been doing well financially with many layoffs including several well known names taking place in the past few months. It is rumoured that this ‘recruitment’ exercise is meant to pump in some urgently needed revenue into the company.

Read: Why Citizen TV Has Sacked Terryanne Chebet

Kenyans have taken to social media angered by these developments. Some are demanding RMS immediately refunds all monies it has collected and stop the exercise.

Here is a collection of tweets from the hashtag #RMSJobScam.