HIGHLIGHT OF THE LABOUR MIGRATION MANAGEMENT BILL, 2024 KENYA
The Labour Migration Management Bill, 2024 is a senate bill sponsored by Hon. Senator Mutinda Maureen Tabitha. The bill was first public on 23rd March 2024 as Kenya Gazette Supplement No. 72 (Senate Bills No.16) and is intended to regulate private employment agencies and the recruitment of workers both within and outside Kenya.
The primary objects of this bill are to promote safe, fair, ethical and orderly recruitment of workers, protect the rights of job seekers, enhance coordination of labour migration governance in Kenya, enhance transparency and flexibility in labour migration and promote overseas employment among other objects.
Below are some of the key provisions of the bill:
| NO | TITLE | RELEVANT PROVISION |
| 1. | Responsibilities of National Employment Authority | registering and regulating private employment agencies.developing and monitoring pre-departure programmes for migrant workers.identify and create awareness on employment opportunities in any foreign country.verify and approve job orders emanating from private employment agencies.develop and implement programmes necessary to safeguard the rights and welfare of migrant workers.develop and implement a return and reintegration programme for migrant workers |
| 2. | Establishment of a Multi-Agency Committee | For purposes of vetting and approving registration of Private Employment Agencies |
| 3. | Role of county government | To issue County operating licences to private employment agencies To establish a database of migrant workers from specific counties. To develop policies and programmes for incentives to migrant workers from specific counties to invest in. |
| 4. | Migrant workers portal | NEA to establish a migrant workers online portal for purposes of registration of private employment agencies, facilitate the registration of migrant workers and provide details of all registered private employment agencies among others. |
| 5. | Registration of private employment agencies | application to be made to the Director-General. For registration application to be approved, the applicant must provide proof of registration in Kenya as a Company/Partnership/LLP/PBO, county operating license, financial capacity as prescribed by the Authority, existence of new market, experience in human resource management, and a duly notarized undertaking for liability for claims of damages for commissions and omissions. |
| 6. | Security bond | every private employment agency that is engaged in the recruitment of workers for foreign employment must, upon receiving a notification of approval and notification of payment from the Director-General, execute a security bond with a bank or an insurance company registered and licensed in Kenya. |
| 7. | Branches | A registered private employment agency that seeks to open a branch must apply to the Authority for registration of the branch. |
| 8. | Change of office | A private employment agency that seeks to change its registered office or branch office must apply to the Authority for change of office. |
| 9. | Approval of job orders (job order means instructions issued by an employer to a private employment agency to recruit employees on its behalf and it contains information on the job openings the employer seeks to fill and the expected terms and conditions of employment) | A private employment agency must submit every job order to the Authority for approval. A job order for foreign employment must be attested by the relevant Kenyan mission and thereafter submitted by the private employment agency to the Authority for approval. |
| 10. | Advertisement of jobs by private employment agencies | A private employment agency must not issue any advertisement calling for applications for employment unless the Authority has approved the advertisement. |
| 11. | Obligations of private employment agencies | To keep and maintain an up-to-date register of recruited workers and provide this to the Authority as and when required.To provide the contract of employment to the migrant worker at least fourteen days before the date of departure.To ensure that a contract of employment complies with the provisions of any relevant written law, bilateral labour agreements and memoranda of understanding between Kenya and the countries of destination.To notify the Authority of any migrant worker who is in distress.To inform the Authority in writing of any change in the particulars stated in the application for a certificate of registration within 30 days of such change.file such returns as may be prescribed in regulations.A private employment agency MUST NOT charge or receive in respect of anything done or to be done at an employment agency: any fee or other payment or reward at a rate higher than that which may from time to time be prescribed for any particular area or class of business or any fee, payment or reward, unless provision has been made for the charging of such fee, payment or reward in regulations made under this Act. |
| 12. | Pre-departure procedure for foreign employment | A person who desires to travel to another country for purposes of foreign employment must undertake pre-departure orientation. |
| 13. | Foreign contracts of employment. | Where an employer who is not resident in Kenya or a private employment agency intends to recruit a migrant worker for foreign employment, the employer or the private employment agency must arrange for the conclusion of a contract of employment between the employer and the migrant worker before departure from Kenya. Such contract must be attested to by a labour officer. |
| 14. | Security in foreign contracts of employment | the Commissioner for Labour may require the employer (whether domicile in Kenya or not) to give a security bond in the prescribed form, with one or more sureties resident in Kenya and approved by the Commissioner for Labour for the due performance of the contract in such sum as the Commissioner for Labour considers reasonable. |
| 15. | Offence to induce a migrant worker to proceed abroad under informal contract | A person who employs, engages, or knowingly aids in the employment or engagement of a migrant worker with the intention that when so employed or engaged that person shall proceed outside the borders of Kenya or induces or attempts to induce a migrant worker to proceed outside the borders of Kenya, unless the person has duly entered into a foreign contract of employment with the migrant worker under the Act, commits an offence and is liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding two million shillings or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years or to both. |
| 16. | Registration of migrant workers | A person who intends to travel to another country for purposes of foreign employment must apply to the Authority for registration. |
| 17. | Appointment of inspector | Authority to appoint inspectors monitor compliance with the act. |
| 18. | Orders of the authority | The Authority may issue to a private employment agency such orders as it may consider necessary for compliance with the provisions of the Act. |
| 19. | Restriction on labour migration | The Cabinet Secretary may, by notice in the Gazette, restrict the migration of Kenyan workers to any country if the migration to that country may jeopardize public or state interest or the health and safety of the migrant workers. |
| 20. | Repatriation of migrant workers | The repatriation of a migrant worker and his or her personal belongings shall be the primary responsibility of the private employment agency which deployed the worker and all costs attendant to repatriation shall be borne by or charged to the agency if the migrant worker is found on medical examination to be unfit for employment, the migrant worker fails to secure the employment signed for under the contract of employment or the Authority finds out that the migrant worker has employed by misrepresentation or mistake. |
| 21. | Petitions to the Cabinet Secretary on private Employment agencies | A person may submit a petition to the Cabinet Secretary on any activity of a private employment agency |
| 22. | Appeals | A person who is aggrieved by any administrative decision made under this Act, may appeal to the Employment and Labour Relations Court within thirty days of the decision. |
| 23. | General penalty | A person who commits an offence under the act for which no specific penalty is provided is liable, on conviction, to a fine not exceeding one million shillings or to a term of imprisonment not exceeding two years or to both. |
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