On 16 March 2016, a report on Kenya’s immigration system said corruption had made it difficult for the department to deal with foreign workers who entered the country as tourists and later sought work permits through bribery.
The article said complaints to the authorities had gone nowhere, with a source claiming that a Sh1 million bribe paid to senior officials at the immigration ministry was more attractive than enforcing the law. It also said Major-General Gordon Kihalangwa had taken over the department two years earlier.
Under the Immigration law, the report noted, a Kenyan worker must be considered first before a foreigner is hired, even where the employer is a multinational. It added that a foreigner may only be allowed to work where no Kenyan has the required expertise, and then only for two years while training a Kenyan replacement before returning to the country of origin.
The report said the issue had been worsened over the past 3 years by a rise in corruption under the Jubilee regime, alongside a growing number of expatriates in the Kenyan market. It also said many Chinese workers, some on government secondment, were taking up casual jobs that could be done by Kenyans.
According to the report, a single work permit for an expatriate costs Sh400,000. It said some foreign workers had remained in the country beyond the 2-year limit by submitting fresh permit applications and “beating the system.”
A source at the Immigration ministry named the following firms and institutions as having been flagged:
- Price WaterHouseCoopers (PwC)
- KPMG
- Konza City
- French Embassy In Nairobi
- DAC Aviation
- Bidco
- Oilibya
- WPP - Scan Group
- Freight in Time (FIT)
- IPE Global (Africa) Limited
- Light International Schools
- Blowplast Limited
- CGHU
- Twyford
- Kenya Bureau of Standards (KeBS)
- Kipeto Wind Farm
- Bata Limited
- Standard Gauge Railways (SGR)
- Opalnet Limited
- ICAP
- China Global Television Network
- China Road and Bridge Corporation (CRBC)
- China Communications Construction ( CCC )
The report did not say whether the named organisations had responded to the allegations.
