Five years is a long time to go without receiving a salary consistently. For any worker, it can mean unpaid rent, children missing school, debts piling up, broken relationships and a family slowly sinking into financial hardship.
Yet this is the reality facing workers at the Embassy of the Republic of South Sudan in Nairobi, according to employees who say they have gone for years without receiving their full and regular salaries.
What makes the situation even more troubling is that the matter has already been raised publicly, taken to court and brought to the attention of Kenya’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Still, the workers say nothing meaningful has changed.
In 2025, nine Kenyan employees working at the South Sudan Embassy went to the Milimani Law Courts seeking more than $320,195, equivalent to about Ksh 41.9 million, in unpaid wages.
They said they had worked for the embassy for years but were never given written employment contracts.
Their accounts paint a disturbing picture.
The workers say they received regular salaries mainly between 2013 and 2015. From February 2016, payments became irregular, with some months receiving only half their salaries and other periods receiving nothing at all.
They cited several periods of non-payment, including October to December 2016, August to December 2017 and April to June 2025.
These are not small administrative delays. They represent people’s livelihoods.
A worker cannot tell a landlord that an embassy has financial problems in Juba.
A parent cannot tell a school that their child’s fees will be paid when the embassy eventually finds money. Banks and lenders do not suspend their demands because an employer is facing economic difficulties.
The workers say they repeatedly wrote to the embassy seeking payment of what they were owed.
They also produced salary records and other documents to demonstrate that an employer-employee relationship existed.
The matter also received public attention after The East African reported on the salary dispute in July 2025. Yet, according to the workers, the publicity did not result in a solution. Instead, there was a change of ambassadors while the underlying problem remained.
That is where Kenya’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs comes into the picture.
The workers say their lawyer, Nicodemus Ouma, wrote to the State Department on April 14, 2025, asking the government to intervene before the matter escalated into litigation.
They say they gave the ministry 30 days to help resolve the dispute.
More than a year later, they are still waiting.
This raises a simple but serious question: who protects Kenyan workers when the employer is a foreign diplomatic mission operating on Kenyan soil?
Kenya regularly speaks about protecting its citizens working abroad. The government rightly expects other countries to respect Kenyan citizens and their rights when they are employed in foreign jurisdictions.
That same principle should apply at home.Diplomatic status should not become a shield against basic accountability.
The issue is not about hostility towards South Sudan. It is not about attacking its diplomats or questioning the country’s relationship with Kenya.
It is about workers who say they performed their duties and have not received all the money they earned.
The government must also explain what role it can legally play in such disputes and what steps it has taken since receiving the workers’ complaints.
If there are diplomatic or legal limitations, Kenyans deserve to know them. Silence only creates the impression that the workers have been abandoned.
Calling the Ministry of Foreign Affairs a “toothless dog” may sound harsh, but it reflects the frustration of people who believe they have exhausted every reasonable avenue. They have complained. They have sought legal assistance.
They have gone to court. Their case has received media attention. Yet their situation, according to their account, remains unresolved.
That should concern every Kenyan.
Kenya is not simply a place where foreign missions rent offices, conduct diplomacy and enjoy the privileges that come with international relations. It is also a country with workers, laws and institutions. Foreign missions operate within a host country that has a responsibility to maintain order and protect the dignity of people living and working within its borders.
The reported salary dispute therefore goes beyond nine employees. It raises questions about how Kenya deals with labour complaints involving diplomatic missions and whether vulnerable workers have any practical avenue for justice when their employer is a foreign government.
The workers have also pointed to Kenya’s relationship with South Sudan, including the use of the dry port in Naivasha, as an example of the broader cooperation between the two countries. Such cooperation is important, but good diplomatic relations should not require Kenya to remain silent when its citizens claim they are being denied their wages.
Diplomacy cannot only be about handshakes, agreements and official statements. It must also be about responsibility.If the allegations are accurate, these workers are not asking for charity.
They are asking for money they say they earned through years of service.
The South Sudan Embassy should provide clear answers about the outstanding salaries and explain what steps are being taken to settle legitimate arrears.
Kenya’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs should equally explain what it has done, what it can do and why the workers’ complaints have apparently remained unresolved for so long.
Five years of salary problems should not be treated as an ordinary disagreement between an employer and employees.
Behind every unpaid salary is a human being. Behind every human being is often a family depending on that income.
The workers have waited long enough for their voices to be heard.
Now the responsibility lies with the relevant authorities to address the matter openly, fairly and within the law.If Kenya cannot protect workers inside its own borders, especially when they raise complaints against foreign institutions operating in Nairobi, then the government’s repeated promises about protecting citizens begin to sound hollow.
This is not about making noise for the sake of it. It is about demanding accountability where workers say their livelihoods have been ignored for years.
And if the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has a solution, Kenyans deserve to see it.
If it does not, then it should explain why.
Add Comment