Middle-East

Saudi Arabia slashes hiring costs for Kenyan domestic workers by Sh80,000

Labour CS Labour Florence Bore at a rescue centre in Saudi Arabia on January 13, 2023. (Photo: Handout)

By Mercy Asamba | Wednesday, January 17, 2024

The maximum annual hiring fees for Kenyan domestic workers' reduced from Sh463,558 to Sh383,811.

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has announced that it has revised downwards the hiring fees for domestic workers in the Middle East country.

Kenya is among the six countries which includes Uganda, Ethiopia, Philippines, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh whose workers have been affected by the changes in annual fees.

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In a statement, the country's Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development on Tuesday, said the maximum hiring fees for Kenyan workers reduced by Sh79,747 from SR10,870 (Sh463,558) to SR9,000 (Sh383,811).

The fees for Ethiopia workers were reduced from SR6,900 (Sh294,255) to SR5,900 (Sh251,609) while for Ugandans were slashed from SR9,500 (Sh405,134) to SR8,300 (Sh353,959).

Hiring costs for workers from the Philippines were reduced to SR17,288 (Sh741,841), for Sri Lankans were slashed to SR15,000 (Sh643,791) while Bangladesh fees will be SR13,000 (Sh557,690).

“This decision comes within the framework of the Ministry's endeavour to develop all services, improve the labour market environment and enhance its attractiveness, and its keenness to review the costs, services provided, and laws according to economic variables, and in a manner commensurate with them,” the Ministry stated on its official website.

Clients' warning

It warned clients against exceeding the announced price ceiling.

The move comes barely three months after President William Ruto promised to sign an agreement where Saudi Arabia will employ 500,000 Kenyans.

“Those from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) want workers. Next month I will be travelling to Saudi Arabia to sign a deal in which 500,000 workers are needed,” Ruto said then.

Later in December, his promise materialised after Labour and Social Protection CS Florence Bore announced that Kenya would send 2,500 nurses to Saudi Arabia in mid-January 2024.

CS Bore said that the move had been supported by the signing of a new Bilateral Labour Agreement between Kenya and the Middle Eastern nation that has set new conditions for exporting human resources.

"We want to streamline the process of the migrant workers. We want to ensure that we identify the right cadre of workers, process them well, and follow them even when they arrive there. We will also get to know the terms of their contracts," Bore said then.

She noted that the opportunities are for the nurses, both diploma and degree graduates.