13 foreign workers busted with illegal Kenyan work permits

13 foreign workers busted with illegal Kenyan work permits

The government has discovered thirteen people with fake work permits in the ongoing verification of foreign workers.

Interior CS Fred Matiang’i who led the exercise at Nyayo House, Nairobi on Thursday said appropriate action will be taken against them.

According to him, some foreigners have low cadre jobs that could have been taken up by Kenyans.

“You are a site manager? We gave you a permit to be a site manager?  Is it that we do not have site managers in this country,” he posed.

The exercise that kicked off on Monday aims at digitizing the foreign work permit database.

This came after the government revealed that official records show only 34,000 legal foreign workers, a figure way below the actual number of foreigners in the country.

“ If we have nabbed thirteen people by the third day there are indeed people with illegal work permits in this country,” the CS said.

Matiang’i said a preliminary report on the developments of the exercise will be concluded in thirty days.

In April, the Interior Ministry issued a 60-day ultimatum for illegal foreign workers citing high unemployment levels of Kenyan citizens.

“Give me one reason why we need to give a permit to someone coming to be an accountant in Kenya or in the case of civil society, why give a permit to a programme officer with the number of graduates who have masters degrees,” Dr. Matiang’i added.

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