Editor's Review

"We will be hiring Kenyans residing in the countries where we have missions to work for us, instead of exporting staff from Nairobi." 

Foreign Affairs Cabinet Secretary Alfred Mutua now says the government will no longer be sending staff from Nairobi to go and work for State Missions Abroad.

In a statement of Saturday, September 30, Mutua said the Ministry will instead tap Kenyans already living in countries where Kenya has missions.

The Foreign Affairs CS explained that the move is aimed at reducing the cost of running the missions.

“I shared with them that as part of my strategy to reduce the cost of running missions, we will be hiring Kenyans residing in the countries where we have missions to work for us, instead of exporting staff from Nairobi,” said Mutua

He announced the changes after meeting Kenyans living in Sydney, Australia in part of his diaspora engagements.

File image of CS Alfred Mutua. 

CS Mutua also noted that he discussed the plan to have passports and Identity cards printed at embassies to enable Kenyans working abroad to obtain documents easily.

“We discussed consular services and my goal in the near future for IDs and passports to be printed at our embassies and issued chap chap to deserving Kenyans,” he stated.

“We also discussed my plans for a bilateral Labour agreement and negotiations with Australia to allow Kenyans to come and work as seasonal workers.”

The Foreign Affairs CS also disclosed that the Kenyans in diaspora complained about being harassed at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport where gifts for their families are confiscated on arrival.

“I agreed with them that this is an area that KRA will have to change and adapt to international best practices for arriving guests,” he added.

Mutua further said he will be engaging with senior Australian officials to discuss how to better partner with Australia for the mutual benefit of both countries.