On Tuesday, the Cabinet Secretary for Labour and Social Protection, Florence Bore, revealed that Kenya has engaged in a significant labor migration agreement with Saudi Arabia.
According to Bore, who is currently on an official visit to Riyadh, Kenya is poised to gain substantially from job opportunities in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. She said this is a positive development for thousands of young graduates from colleges and universities in Kenya.
“Had a good meeting with a mega Recruitment agency – Abdal Human Resources on the recruitment of Nurses. The firm has offered Kenya a job order for recruitment of 1000 nurses and our meeting discussed the facilitation and requirements for the good of our Kenyan nurses,” she said while reiterating her Ministry’s commitment to securing more jobs for Kenyans.
“Kenya recently graduated 22,000 public health professionals including nurses. The goal remains to create employment opportunities for our skilled and unskilled workforce,” added the CS.
The Labour Minister additionally confirmed that Kenya has entered into a Bilateral Labour Agreement for the recruitment of healthcare personnel with the United Kingdom and Northern Ireland.
“We are also pursuing agreements with other markets including, Canada, Germany, Austria, Italy, and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia,” she added.
CS Bore welcomed the decision by the Saudi Arabian companies to expand their market indicating that “soon Kenya shall be getting job orders for cleaners and workers in the hospitality industry from them.”
On Monday, Bore also held discussions with officials from Eitinaa Human Resources Company, a recruitment firm that she mentioned continues to extend job offers to Kenya. She stated that the meeting was focused on exploring additional job opportunities and addressing challenges encountered by Kenyan recruitment agencies, to find mutually agreeable solutions.
“This company mostly deals with house nurses, caregivers, domestic workers, personal assistants, chefs, and Nannies. I’m delighted that the company gave their word to give 100+ opportunities for each category of workers,” she said.
The Labour Minister and her delegation also engaged in discussions with officials from Takamol and Musaned, as well as Professional Accreditation Bodies in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, to strengthen collaboration and identify additional employment opportunities.
She said that Kenya is particularly interested in streamlining the recruitment process for domestic workers and effectively managing data for migrant workers.
“We proposed our Kenyan Embassy in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to be granted access to the Musaned system to enable them to keep track of our migrant workers in the Kingdom,” she said
“We also sourced for collaborations in the sector of Professional and Accreditation bodies intending to adopt best practices and incorporate technological advancements and addressing the changing dynamics of the global labor markets,” added Bore.
The Cabinet Secretary reiterated that Kenya’s accreditation criteria and processes adhere to international standards, ensuring that the country’s workforce meets global benchmarks in their respective fields.
