A one-stop-shop resource centre has been opened in Eldoret, Uasin Gishu County, providing comprehensive support to potential Kenyan migrants and returning migrant workers and their families.
The Kenya Labour Migration Resource Centre (KLMRC) facilitated by the National Employment Authority (NEA), with support from the International Labour Organization (ILO), will strengthen support systems available to Kenyans seeking employment opportunities abroad.
Labour and Social Protection Cabinet Secretary Dr. Alfred Mutua said the government was working tirelessly to streamline the sector by ensuring it comes up with clearer systems, stronger policies, and structures to ensure people migrate safely and return protected and empowered.
The CS said labour migration was not an escape from Kenya, but a pathway that can strengthen Kenya, adding that migrant workers contribute significantly to the national development through remittances, investment, and transfer of knowledge and skills.
In a speech read on his behalf by Uasin Gishu County Commissioner, Dr. Edyson Nyale, Dr. Mutua advised Kenyans to use licensed recruitment agencies and not to trust anyone promising quick jobs abroad without proper documentation. “A genuine opportunity will always be processed through the correct channels,” said the CS.
According to NEA Director General Mrs. Edith Okoki, services provided at the centre will play a critical role in ensuring safe, well-informed, and productive labour mobility.
“The resource centre will offer guidance, information, counselling, and other services related to overseas employment,” Okoki said.
This will be the sixth KLMRC facility after Nairobi, Thika, Machakos, Kisumu, and Mombasa that are already offering services to Kenyans as NEA expands the networks to bring services closer to communities.
“The Centre will offer guidance on ethical recruitment, verified job pathways, safe migration procedures, and rights at work; it will be a place where dignity is defended and hope shaped into real opportunity,” she added.
“To the young person who has dreamed of working abroad but never knew where to start, the parent who worries about the safety of their children overseas, and our returning migrant workers who want to rebuild and move forward, this centre is for you,” Okoki said.
He said to ensure structured, safe, and legal employment pathways for Kenyan workers, the government had already signed bilateral labour agreements (BLA) with seven countries, including the UK, Germany, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Oman, and Qatar, with 17 others on the cards. “We are almost at the tail end with Canada, the US, Jordan, and Austria,” she added.
The opening of the resource centre comes at an opportune time to protect residents of Uasin Gishu planning to travel abroad in search of job opportunities, considering that hundreds of the residents have in the past been scammed by unscrupulous agents.
An ILO representative, Aida Awel, observed that the Centre strengthens Kenya’s labour migration governance architecture and contributes meaningfully to the realization of the National Labour Migration Policy and the broader vision of Kenya’s development agenda.
The Kenya Labour Migration Resource Centre stands as a practical solution to these challenges. It embodies the principles of fair recruitment, access to accurate information, protection of migrant workers, and promotion of safe and productive migration pathways, which the ILO has long championed under international labour standards, she added.
She affirmed ILO’s commitment to expanding decent work, promoting fair recruitment, and ensuring that every migrant worker’s rights are protected from the moment they migrate, during their employment abroad, up to the time they return home.
by Kiptanui Cherono
