Kenyan recruitment to Qatar and other GCC states marred by false promises and racketeering

Kenya’s government has recently come under fire over allegations of orchestrating a job recruitment scam involving thousands of job seekers. Struggling with a 12.7% unemployment rate amongst the 15-34 age group, who constitute 35% of the population, desperate times seem to have led to desperate measures with the government enabling private agencies to operate with impunity. Less scrutinised, however, is destination states’ exploitation of this desperation. The terms and conditions of a massive recruitment drive for a Qatari company, in particular, seem to flout the Gulf country’s laws prohibiting recruitment fees for migrant workers.

The first day of recruitment at the Kenya International Conference Centre Nairobi being overseen by the Minister of Labour, Alfred Mutua. Photo Credit: Minister’s Facebook page

According to the Kenyan Minister of Labour, Dr. Alfred Mutua, the recommendation for the company came directly from his Qatari counterpart. The labour ministers of the two countries – Ali bin Samikh Al Marri and Mutua – had met in Nairobi, where they agreed to amend their labour agreement and create over 200,000 jobs for ‘skilled’ Kenyan workers. 

Soon after, Kenya announced that 3,000 jobs were available in Qatar, and the labour ministry organised several recruitment drives for young Kenyans. Initially, the jobs were in the hospitality, construction, healthcare, and agriculture sectors. More recently, Kenya also deployed Arabic-speaking Kenyan-Somalis to work in Qatar’s law enforcement agencies [see photo].

As evidence of financial exploitation and mismanagement mounts, questions are being raised about the role of both Kenyan and Qatari authorities in enabling these practices, leaving thousands of hopeful workers grappling with debt and uncertainty.

When pressed for details on television on the second day of the drive, the minister refused to name the hiring company. He claimed [29:15] that they were dealing with a company introduced by the Qatari minister of labour, and that “this company does not pay agency fees… They don’t pay agency fees [and say] basically we will provide employment for your people, but we don’t give agents any fees. Let people process their things and bring them here, we’ll take care [of them].” Mutua claimed the unnamed ‘multi-trillion dollar’ company was happy with the placements so far and might increase their Kenyan recruitment quota by 20%, to roughly 10,000 jobs, he claimed. “It’s a mega company that is involved in hotel management, construction, healthcare industry, and agriculture industry. The company has operations in Algeria, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Dubai, but it’s based in Qatar, it’s a multi-trillion dollar company. They have a staff capacity of 65,000.” 

Despite widespread reporting on recruitment corruption and unethical business practices in the Kenya-Qatar corridor, government officials on both ends of the corridor are normalising the phenomenon. Charging workers recruitment fees is prohibited under Qatari law, yet Mutua said, “Qatari people say they don’t believe in 100% paying for workers, because if workers pay nothing, they have nothing to lose and will want to go back home after three months.” According to him, they [it is not clear if he is talking about the company or the government] said they will not pay for everything, only the ‘big expenses’ like tickets, accommodation and food, while workers would have to pay for medical, visas and other fees. [21:07] The comments made by the minister, who seems to agree with the argument, confirm MR’s previous investigations carried out on recruitment fraud.

Promises vs. practices

In the same interview, the Kenyan labour minister explains that the Qatari company did not offer agency fees, which would have led agents to charge workers high fees, and cites this as the justification for the government’s direct involvement in the recruitment process. To assure citizens that the recruitment would be transparent and free from corruption. The initiative was welcomed as a chance for unemployed Kenyans to secure a job abroad without paying huge sums of money to recruitment firms. Because the communication was directly from an appointed government official, jobseekers assumed the offers were legitimate. “…I took it upon myself to say okay, let me run with it as the Kenyan government so there are no agency fees, so there’s no conmanship because the work we [are] doing they would be charging people 200,000 shillings, you know, so they [the agents] could recover their money […] so I want them to know that this work doesn’t have agency fees,” he said.

The direct and very public involvement of the minister made it seem as though the initiative was a G2G (Government-to-Government) recruitment drive, like Kenya’s agreement with the UK, which, despite some flaws, had provided a level of protection for workers. However, as it transpired, the labour ministry was only facilitating recruitment through private agencies, many of which have a track record of charging excessive fees, corruption, and contract substitution. The agency that worked on the first recruitment drive was recommended by the Qatari company and vetted by the Kenyan ministry.

On recruitment day, 25 October 2024, at the Kenya International Conference Centre, candidates came in the thousands – some slept on the road by the gates to be the first ones in. Before 4 pm on the first day, all service sector positions had been filled. Interviews for nurses and drivers were held the following day. The turnout was big enough to make headlines, leading other counties in Kenya to express concern at their exclusion from the programme. In response, the ministry announced plans for wider-scale initiatives. 

Those who did manage to make it to the recruitment drive in Nairobi were in for a rude shock. Hillary, Japheth, and Hellen learnt they would have to pay commission fees to secure their jobs after queuing for hours for their interviews. “We were told it was free; now that I woke up early, queued, and passed the interview, we are now being told to pay KS230,000 (US$1770) for a security job with a salary of KS70,000 (US$595) per month. If you don’t have the money, they are very quick to suggest a bank loan, where the funds are directly deposited into the private recruitment agency’s bank account. “This is a pure scam,” Hillary Wachira, from Laikipia, Kenya, told Migrant-Rights.Org. A visibly disappointed job seeker, he came all the way from Laikipia (184 km away, roughly a five-hour journey by car) and braved a chilly Nairobi night to be able to get a spot for the job interview the following morning. “The interview was very short. They didn’t even look at my qualifications.”

Two weeks after the first drive, the Kenyan labour ministry presented another plan for mass recruitment across 20 of Kenya’s 47 counties, this time targeting 20,000 candidates for jobs in the GCC, Europe, and the US. The positions being hired for included domestic work, car washers, cleaners, waiters, and security guards. Unlike the first recruitment drive, this round was conducted directly through private Kenyan recruitment agencies tasked with facilitating job placements —the same ones the minister had previously criticised— while the government facilitated loans to help jobseekers cover agency fees.

“What the minister failed to state in the beginning is that there will be a processing fee,” said Hellen Njeri, a candidate at the Nakuru recruitment. “Some of us have not even finished our student loan. We don’t have any money to pay for jobs.” The processing fee was not anticipated during the first round of recruitment. Candidates found out only after they had qualified for the job that they would have to cover some costs like passport and visa fees, medical tests, and agency commissions that would range from KS150,000 to KS400,000.

A senior official at the Ministry of Labour in Nairobi spoke to MR on condition of anonymity and clarified that the ministry only facilitated private agents to recruit and that the initiative is not a government-to-government deal. They (Kenyan jobseekers) were recruited by different agencies that had visas to Qatar. “We (MOL) gave them a platform to come together and recruit fairly. We participated in flagging them off [at the airport] (officially saying goodbye) and making sure they have proper documentation. We don’t want them to be victims of trafficking. We as the ministry of labour are simply facilitating private recruitment agencies, by pushing for faster issuance of passports, and police clearance certificates, but the owners of job orders are private recruiters.”

Risk of debt bondage

Even more bizarre, the cabinet minister had made prior arrangements with banks and microfinance institutions to offer loans to successful candidates. MR had reached out to three banks in Kenya to inquire about loans. KCB Bank allowed candidates with job offer letters to apply for loans. Required documents included a job order document from the agent, a passport copy, a parent or guardian approval letter, a title deed or proof of land ownership, and guarantor forms bearing the guarantors’ signatures. The bank, depending on the credit report, then issues the loan. The maximum loan limit is KS650,000 (approximately US$5,036). KCB had always had this product, catering to seafarers who needed funds for acquiring seaman’s documents, but now extended it to aspiring migrants to the GCC. Those who chose to apply for the loan learnt that the money would be directly disbursed to the agent’s account. 

Mutua had also stated that arrangements with government agencies were made and that departments of immigration and criminal investigations would give police clearance certificates and passports much quicker than usual.

At the recruitment drive in Nakuru, which is about a few hundred kilometres northwest of the capital Nairobi, another drive was held at the Rift Valley Institute of Science and Technology Institute. The candidates, mostly students, were distraught to find out that the jobs were not for free as earlier advertised. They were asked to take loans to finance the commission. Jobseeker Japheth Gesora says, “If the government wants to do business, it should just be honest, there is no difference between going to an agent and coming to this job drive because it’s the same process. Who knows, maybe the recruitment agencies belong to senior politicians eager to cash in through this process.” Gesora says they gave him the job without looking at his qualifications. “I was just asked to pay a commission, the salary is supposed to be KS60,000 Kenyan shillings, but the commission is KS250,000 for a two-year contract. Even if I go abroad, will I send money to my family or will I repay the government?” The minister was present at the recruitment drive and said whoever did not agree with the arrangements was free to leave.

Only a small fraction of the candidates who showed up on recruitment day and paid the inflated fees were finally able to make their way to Qatar. The minister accompanied them to their airport and took pictures, wishing them safe travels. But many ended up with no jobs. One such jobseeker, Jimmy Mutua, told MR, “The interviewers disappeared with our passports, and I was later called to sign an offer letter with a salary of KS41,000 in Iraq and carry with me KS55,000 as commission. Thank God I managed to get my passport back at Chai House, Koinange Street. Hundreds, if not thousands, of passports collected by interviewers are still scattered there on the floor,” he claims. 

Others, like Phile Omondi, who travelled 800 kilometres for an interview, say he lost his passport and no one is taking responsibility. In a recent TikTok video, jobseekers claim they are part of a group of 300 people who were conned after participating in recruitment drives held in December 2024. They say they passed the interviews and paid KES55,000 as part of the commission [collectively KES16,500,000 or USD127,660.5] after signing an offer letter and left their passports with the agent. They trusted the process because it had been endorsed by the government. The agency, only identified as Malo agency, had assured them that their visa would be ready in 14 days. Since raising a complaint with the government, they have not received any support and were only asked to form a WhatsApp group by the Ministry of Labour so they can be reached easily when a solution is found. “When we approached the Ministry of Labour to lodge a complaint against the recruitment agency, the ministry said Malo agency is trying to sabotage the project. They further added that candidates should keep waiting. For how long…”