News Analysis By Leo Odera Omolo In Kisumu City
CAMPAIGNING for his second term re-election in 2007 the retired president Mwai Kibaki made a pledge that his PNU government would create 500,000 jobs for youth and school leavers annually.
Indeed several half a dozen of newly established industries sprung up during the period of 2007-2013 giving Kenyans the hope for more employment opportunities.
Five new sugar mills were established during the period under review with an opening up of close to 1500 employment opportunity for Kenyans. This was in the agricultural sector where new five sugar factories were established and commissioned to be begin their production operation.
These factories included Sukari Industries in Ndhiwa, Homa-Bay Count, Trans-Mara Sugar Company Limited in Trans-Mara, Narok County, Kibos Sugar and Allied Industries limited based at Kibos near Kisumu City, West Kenya Sugar Com0-any and Butali SugarCompany both located near Kakamega town in Kakamega County. The sixth sugar mill is the relatively much smaller Soin Sugar Works , which is located in Ainamoi constituency within Kericho County.
Most of the investors in all these facilities were locally based entrepreneurs and Indians from India.
However, the dream of many Kenya technocrats of securing jobs in these new sugar mills were dashed, when the investors arms-twisted the PNU/ODM coalition government headed by two principals in the name of President Mwai Kibaki and the Prime Minister Raila Odinga, and made sure that they imported their Indian kith and kins from India ,Pakisan and Bangladesh for all senior managerial positions.
Strange things happened. The very government which issued hundreds of work permits to hundred of expatriate workers in the new facilities, leaving Kenyans with nothing to be proud of.
The most shocking thing, however, is the categories of imported expatriate workers. Most of them are said to be semi-illiterate consisting of motor vehicle and electrical mechanics, store-keepers, account clerks, time keepers, cane yard clerks, cashiers, salesmen, warehouse clerks, messengers and the like.
The existing laws and regulations governing the employment of expatriates in Kenya were flagrantly ignored. The existing law says that expatriates may be engaged to fill up a vacancy on jobs categories where a local indignant Kenyan African is not available to take up the position.
The man who was at the helm at the Ministry Immigration and registration of Persons in the coalition government was none, but Raila Odinga right hand man Gerald Otieno Kajwang’ who is currently the Senator for Homa-Bay County.
Expatriate workers, from Indian, were issued with work permits through the back door and within five years they flooded the five sugar factories. In one factory, the proprietors even imported a Cooke specialized in Indian dishes to be In hand to prepare the meals for their expatriate foreign Indian managers and other Indian workers.
This is a very said situation taking into account that after 50 years of independence, Kenya has trained and turned out thousands of technocrats, artisans and so many skilled workers in excess of its industrial output. These highly skilled personnel are jobless while many unqualified foreign workers sits on plum jobs in their doorsteps
A survey recently carried out by this writer revealed that more than 60 Indian are working at the West Kenya Sugar Company, 47 Indians are engaged at the Butali Sugar mill .The two mills are located in Kakamega County. 49 Indians are engaged In KibosSugar and Allied Induaatries ,which is located at Kibos near Kisumu City, 50 are working at the Sukari Industries in Ndhiwa, Homa-Bay County while 45 are engaged on jobs at the Trans=Mara Sugar Company in Narok County.
These expatriates are earning between Kshs 40,000 and 85,000 per month and do repatriates their salaries back home to their families without being subjected to mandatory deductions such as NSSF and NHIF.
All these anomalies happens while the outspoken Secretary General of the COTU{K} Francis Atwoli, who is also the General Secretary of the Kenya Plantations and Agricultural Workers Union is keeping a total mum. Also silent is the Secretary General of the Kenya Union of Sugar Plantation Workers Francis Wagara.
The few lucky African who got top jobs such as supervisors, clerks and in most cases Human Resources Managers, their salaries are so discriminative in comparison with the salaries earned by expatriates. The highest paid African only take home between Kshs 6,000 and 25,000 per month. And in most cases their employment is treated as casuals without any letter of appointments. Some of the expatriate workers are too old and arguably pensioners in their home of origins.
In this context the Kenya government is silent while its citizens are being discriminated on a few jobs which are available and being enslaved in their own motherland with their elected government is keeping mum. And at the same time speaking loudly about its plans to attract foreign investment with the purpose of jobs creation, and yet it cannot give the direct to the existing firms of foreign investors, Who are flagrantly and defiantly contravening the labor laws of the country?
Do we really need clerks, mechanics, fitters, welders, plumbers cookes, account clerks, cane yard clerks and time-keepers from India?
The government should send a team of experts to the five Indian owned sugar mills to carry out a thorough surgery and jobs evaluation so as to ascertain if the hundreds of foreign expatriate workers are necessarily required.
Ends