Nominated Senator Gloria Orwoba has come out strongly against the Ministry of Labour, led by Cabinet Secretary Alfred Mutua, accusing it of failing the very people it was supposed to protect, As reported by Africasnow.
Speaking passionately in the Senate on April 16, Orwoba did not hold back as she exposed what she called serious negligence and fraud in the ministry’s labour export programme.
She said that while the Kenya Kwanza government has tried to create job opportunities for youth through this initiative, the efforts are being destroyed from within by people who are supposed to implement them.
Orwoba said the Ministry of Labour has been slow to respond to growing cases of job fraud involving Kenyans who are desperate to find work in other countries.
According to her, instead of offering help, some government officials are working with rogue agents to steal from innocent citizens. She claimed that these officials have turned a good government programme into a scam that targets poor job seekers. She described it as “butchering a well-intended program” and said it is painful to see this kind of betrayal from people in public office.
She shared her own painful experience where she guided a group of Kenyans towards what she believed was a safe and legitimate process for securing jobs abroad. Instead, they ended up falling victim to fraudsters.
Orwoba revealed that these fraudsters were not just outsiders but included individuals working inside the Ministry of Labour. She said it is heartbreaking to know that people who trusted the government ended up losing their money and hopes because of greedy officials and fake agents.
The senator did not stop there. She went further to criticize how the government is handling Kenyans who are already working abroad, especially in places like Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries.
She mentioned that many of them, especially domestic workers, are still suffering under terrible conditions. Orwoba said the government has failed to protect its people in foreign countries and accused officials of ignoring the cries of suffering Kenyans.
She called for an urgent review of the entire labour migration system to make it safer and more transparent.
In her final remarks, Orwoba made a strong accusation, saying the country is no longer just sending Kenyans into the hands of conmen but is actually protecting the same criminals.
She said thieves and conmen are being allowed to hide behind government titles and warned that this must stop. Her statement has added pressure on the Ministry of Labour to come clean and take real action to clean up the mess within its ranks.
