Labour Cabinet Secretary Alfred Mutua on Thursday, May 15, revealed the government would review the policy allowing domestic workers from Kenya to work in Saudi Arabia.

While speaking during the regional conference on Quality Skills Development and Apprenticeship in Mombasa, Mutua disclosed that plans were underway to restructure the approach on whether domestic workers will be allowed to work in the Gulf nations.

Mutua’s remarks were in response to a damning report by Amnesty International which revealed that domestic workers in Saudi Arabia were facing various forms of abuse, including forced labour, exploitation, and human trafficking.

The NGO lamented that Kenyans are lured to Saudi Arabia with promises of well-paying jobs, only for them to find themselves trapped and being abused by their employers.

Labour CS Alfred Mutua delivering a speech during the Nyanza International Investment Conference on February 7, 2025.

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Alfred Mutua

Consequently, the international non-governmental organisation called on the government to move with speed and save Kenyans working in Saudi Arabia from abuse.

“There was a report released by Amnesty International about the death and so-called mistreatment of Kenyans abroad in Saudi Arabia. The challenge that we are facing is with domestic workers,” Mutua noted.

He added, “As a government, we are reviewing what is happening with our domestic workers. We are reviewing whether we should have domestic workers continuing to go to Saudi Arabia or not. If they are going to go there, what are the parameters that we need to put in place?”

CS Mutua drew attention to the fact that despite having numerous Kenyans across various employment sectors in Saudi Arabia, only domestic workers experienced such work-related issues.

As such, the CS expressed that this necessitated a greater focus on the domestic sector in order to curb the issue that posed a great risk to existing bilateral ties between Kenya and Saudi Arabia.

Amnesty International had demanded that the government ensure bilateral labour agreements between the two countries are rights-based and set out clear protection guarantees for domestic workers. This is in line with international standards, including on recruitment and the employer-pays principle, working and living conditions, payment of wages, non-discrimination, dispute resolution, and access to justice.

With the increased cases of Kenyans being duped into foreign countries with promises of good jobs only to end up in modern slavery, Amnesty called on the Kenyan government to strengthen the regulation of recruitment agencies, something the immigration department has been working on.

Further, the government was urged to ensure all migrant workers, regardless of their migration status, have access to a transparent and effective complaints mechanism through which they or their families can seek redress.

Currently, nearly 200,000 Kenyans work in Saudi Arabia as drivers, domestic workers, waiters, and in other areas of employment.

A photo of Saudi Arabia's Capital City, Riyadh.

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Aljazeera