Kenyan Labour Cabinet Secretary Alfred Mutua, right, shakes hands with Saudi Vice Minister for Labour Abdullah bin Nasser Abuthnain in Riyadh on November 12, 2026. Credit: Alfred Mutua (@DrAlfredMutua) on X.
Kenya’s labor minister Alfred Mutua says employment agencies in Saudi Arabia signed commitments for 293,600 jobs for Kenyans after talks in Riyadh on Thursday, a figure many Kenyans online greeted with scorn.
Mutua wrote on X that he negotiated better terms with Saudi Vice Minister for Labour Abdullah bin Nasser Abuthnain and then met employment agencies operating in Saudi Arabia, which he said signed commitments for jobs ranging from drivers, caregivers and house helps to nurses, doctors, teachers, construction workers and oil and gas experts. The jobs are pledges from private firms, not offers from the Saudi government, the Ugandan site ChimpReports noted.
He said the two countries signed a technical annex to their July 5 agreement on the recruitment of domestic workers, which he said would streamline procedures and lower recruitment costs, and a letter of intent for a three month pilot with a cap on all inclusive recruitment costs, which agencies may choose to join. Technical teams are to finish a separate agreement on skilled workers within a month, he said, adding that Saudi Arabia recruits about 2.5 million new workers every year.
Replies to his post were mostly hostile. “Glorified trafficking,” one user wrote, and several called him a slave trader. Another wrote in Swahili, “Send your own children to the Middle East.” A few defended the work abroad, with one user replying to a critic, “Give me a better paying job and I’ll stop being one.” Rights groups have long documented abuse of Kenyan domestic workers in Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states, including in Amnesty International’s May 2025 report Locked In, Left Out.
In an X thread on Saturday, Labour Cabinet Secretary Alfred Mutua said the pilot targets at least 10,000 Kenyan workers a month, that he had directed the National Employment Authority to invite interested agencies to register, and that Saudi Arabia would speed up visas through its Nairobi embassy. He said both governments would review the pilot after three months and warned Kenyans against unlicensed recruiters.
Mutua wrote that the Saudi government had committed to a more transparent and responsible recruitment system that protects workers. Kenya’s Ambassador to Saudi Arabia, Joseph Masila, attended the meeting, according to the Kenyan site Hivileo. Mereja Media found no statement from Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Human Resources on the number of jobs by Friday evening.
Sources
- Alfred Mutua on X, Kenya secures commitment for 293,600 job opportunities in Saudi Arabia, Nov 12
- Tuko, Alfred Mutua secures 293,600 Saudi Arabia job opportunities for Kenyans, Nov 13
- ChimpReports, Kenya secures 293,600 jobs in Saudi Arabia, Nov 13
- Hivileo, Govt secures 293,600 job opportunities in Saudi Arabia for Kenyans, Nov 13
- Amnesty International, Locked In, Left Out: The Hidden Lives of Kenyan Domestic Workers in Saudi Arabia, May 13, 2025
- fionahIRL on X, reply, Nov 13
- Seif_Ngutu on X, reply (Swahili), Nov 13
- megooneret96059 on X, reply, Nov 13
- Alfred Mutua on X, thread on the recruitment pilot, Nov 14
- Alfred Mutua on X, thread on the recruitment pilot, Nov 14