On 6 May 2019, Michael Pillinger, IOM Kenya Chief of Mission met with key government officials from the Ministry of Labour and Social Protection including, Hon. (Amb) Ukur Yattani, Cabinet Secretary Eng. Peter Tum, Principal Secretary, and Hon. Abdul Bahari, Chief Administrative Secretary in Nairobi. The meeting was also attended by representatives from the National Employment Authority (NEA), Ms. Winnie Pertet, Board Chair and Ms. Edith Okoki, the Acting Director General.
The meeting deliberated on the implementation as well as prioritization of activities for the newly launched project “Capacity Building Support for the Government of Kenya to Develop a Labour Migration Policy and Labour Bill to Enhance Protection of Kenyans Working Abroad” funded by the IOM Development Fund (IDF).
The project will support the government of Kenya to develop a Labour Migration Policy and Labour Bill to Enhance Protection of Kenyans Working Abroad and envisions to align these regulatory frameworks to international instruments including the 1990 UN International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of all Migrant Worker and Members of Their Families; the ILO Multilateral Framework on Labour Migration (ILO, 2006); the Domestic Workers Convention, 2011(ILO Convention No.189) among others.
“The Ministry of Labour and Social Protection is grateful for the financial and technical support from IOM. And, there is a supply and demand mismatch for labour especially in the Gulf countries for Kenyan migrant workers and their mistreatment abroad,” Ambassador Ukur Yattani emphasized. To overcome this challenge, coordinated work is needed as well as learning and implementing best practices from countries who have made milestones in the protection of their citizens, migrant workers. The Ministry looks forward in collaborating and working closely with IOM to promote safe, orderly and regular migration, added the Ambassador.
During the meeting, it was agreed to setup immediately the project technical working group to work closely with the project consultant and the IOM team on finalizing the Draft National Labour Policy and Bill. “IOM will continue to provide technical and financial support as well as other resources at the request of the government through the National Coordination Mechanism on Migration (NCM), and under the auspices of the IOM Development Fund,” underscored by Michael Pillinger, IOM Kenya Chief of Mission.
This IDF project will be implemented until December 2020 and will be complemented by other labour migration projects implemented by IOM in Kenya.
