KENYAN EMPLOYERS AND EMPLOYEES AREN'T USING THE MINISTRY OF LABOURS" SERVICES ANYMORE

KENYAN EMPLOYERS AND EMPLOYEES AREN

T USING THE MINISTRY OF LABOURS SERVICES ANY MORE



It is now over twenty years since I left secondary at O level and handed over my name to the ministry of labour as a job seeker immediately I had received my national identity card .I had a third division certificate and therefore I didn\t expect much in the world of careers and so I felt satisfied with the kind of jobs and salaries that awaited me in my future life.I was contented with the kinds of jobs for very low class people . The jobs included ,night guarding ,house help,general construction works and others .The kinds of jobs that you would not expect someone to spend a lifetime waiting for them on the lsits of jobseekers in ministrys offices of employment.BVut believe it or not ,but I have spent all my working lifetime with my name on that list ,but I have never seen even the dirtiest or the worst in every language that you can think off .



Immidiatley that I let school and got my identity card ,I went and registered with the ministry in their Kisumu city offices where I stayed with them for almost niseven years .I then later moved on to Kericho town where again I went and registered with them in their kericho offices and I have been on their list of job seekers since then and i\m now forty years and ,I have never seen even the wost jobs for t6hat whole period .And believe it or not ,when this jobs come ,they are usually too few for the number of job seekers on the waiting list and this ,I witnessed it only in the Kisumu offices .Here ,the jobs are advertised on the notice board yes ,but they are usually not more than ten and they last for about two weeks on the notice board ,it is only ones in a while that you can find the number of jobs exceeding ten .



The thing is that it looks like the Kenyan employers and employees have stopped using the ministrys services of working between the two sides Because ,judging from the quantity of economic activities in the country ,you can not expect the number of manual jobs in one month to be only ten in a Place like Kisumu city or Kericho town with all it\s tea farms and factories ,shops and offices and all the construction works that goes on in the cities .The offices are some times empty despite all the activities that need a lot of labour that we see around us every day in this country .



This means that jobseekers will have to wake every morning and stroll around the whole city hunting for jobs ,asking from one door to another ,a thing that we used to find gathered and organized in one place by the ministry of labour.This method of walking allover the cities in search of jobs will also come with its own side effects .One of this side effects which is the most obvious ones is the suffering and exploitation that tboth sides will be going through though ,the weakest ones will suffer most and in this case the weak ones are the employees who will have skipped the normal procedures that were set down by the ministry of labour to control all this problems that do arise when a misunderstanding between the two sides occurs.People will be roaming the streets of the cities inseach of work to do ,in the end it will lead to the many abuses that the government has been trying to save it\s people from.



It looks like job seekers have come to look down upon the ministry and it soffices plus its services because were it not that way ,the wouldn\t have turned away and gone to do their own thing on the cirddors or verandahs of the work places .The people seem to have despaired completely and it seems like they think that they can not be listene to or they can not be assited with their problems if they reported them to the concerned staff in the ministry .Sincertely speaking ,there have been very many reports of abuses in the press and just on the streets .People have been complaining of mistreatment or exploitation by their employees and bad working conditions and the many abuses but not even ones have we seen the ministrys officials in such an action .The last time that I saw a labour inspector come to a work place was very many years ago during my youth in Kisumu city when we were construction the present swan millers .Otherwisae ,they are rarely seen in action.



The thing is that ,the current trend of things isn\t the right one because everyone will be treating the other whichever way they will like .And going to roam from door to door asking for employment isn\t good either .It would have been good if we gathered all this things in one central place and carried them out in that place .Roaming all over the country in search of a job is too degrading ,we would rather go back to previous method of things and then overhaul the whole ministry if there are any problems with its efficiency and the insert new programs instead of looking like mentally un fit people .Just imagin people like me have spent a whole life time on the ministrys jobseekers lsit without a job even ones and then jus t imagin again a mason or plumber or even university graduates wandering randomly all over the country asking from door to ddoor for employment .



There are empleoyment bureaus yes , but the ministry of labour is supreme because it is the governemnets arm in those matters and there fore ,neglecting its services or evne the lazyness of the ministrys staff shouldn not be entertained .Another thing is that this employment bureaus ,most of them deal in bigger jobs like aacounting ,teachers and nurses and so on .But for jobs like watchmen and house helps who neeed the protection of the government most it wold be better if they went to the ministry for help.Thetre cxould be those that take care of their client elsewhere in the country but believ it or not ,we have been always hearing of misunderstandings between the two sides being reported in the slums of our cities .

IT looks like the people hav sidestepped the ministry of labour and decided to do their own thing on the streets .May the governemet ,through the ministry that is concerned , look at it self well and try to improve the situation ,there could be a problem