The video is disturbing. It shows an Indian national aggressively confronting a Kenyan worker at the Sarit Centre in Westlands, Nairobi, in an incident reportedly involving verbal, physical, and racial abuse .
The management eventually escorted the aggressor out.
This incident, which has sparked widespread outrage, is not an isolated anomaly. It is a symptom of a deeply troubling and pervasive problem that Labour and Social Protection Cabinet Secretary Alfred Mutua seems either unwilling or unable to confront: the systemic exploitation and humiliation of Kenyan workers, often at the hands of foreign nationals, right here at home.
While CS Mutua has been vocal about protecting Kenyans abroad recently announcing the repatriation of 234 migrant workers who faced exploitation in countries like Myanmar, Saudi Arabia, and India a glaring blind spot remains on his own doorstep.
His ministry, tasked with safeguarding the dignity and rights of all Kenyan workers, has appeared passive in the face of growing evidence that foreign nationals are being given a license to mistreat Kenyans with impunity.
The Sarit Centre incident is merely the tip of the iceberg. Reports from the medical sector paint a damning picture of a system designed to sideline Kenyan professionals in favour of a cheap, exploitable foreign labour force.
The Kenya Medical Practitioners, Pharmacists and Dentists Union (KMPDU) has accused private hospitals of deliberately bypassing Kenyan doctors to hire foreign practitioners primarily from India, Egypt, and Pakistan who are paid a fraction of statutory wages.
Over 3,000 foreign general practitioners have been licensed in Kenya in the past four years, even as thousands of qualified Kenyan doctors remain unemployed .
KMPDU Secretary General Davji Atellah didn’t mince words, describing the practice as “modern-day slavery” and a violation of International Labour Organisation conventions.
The exploitation is not just happening abroad; it is a thriving business model within Kenya’s borders, where foreign doctors are deliberately targeted because they are a vulnerable workforce willing to accept contracts far below the legal minimum.
This is where CS Mutua’s silence is deafening. While he has initiated a multi-agency taskforce to combat fake foreign job agents sending Kenyans abroad , there is a conspicuous lack of similar vigour in tackling the “fake” employment practices that are undermining local jobs and workers’ rights at home.
He has warned employers about a new wage directive and even defended the government’s labour mobility programme by blaming Kenyans for “misbehaving” abroad .
But where is the robust defence of Kenyan workers being mistreated in their own country?
The issue extends to other sectors.
The Seafarers Union of Kenya has raised an alarm over the exploitation of seafarers, with workers going for months without pay and, in some cases, being detained in foreign countries.
This is occurring as Kenya invests in the blue economy, yet regulatory bodies appear slow to act against rogue employers.
There is a dangerous narrative emerging: that Kenyans are disposable in their own labour market, easily replaced by foreigners who can be exploited more easily.
This narrative is being fueled by inaction.
CS Mutua cannot simply be a minister for Kenyans working abroad. His mandate covers the dignity of every worker within the Republic of Kenya.
The Sarit Centre incident and the systemic exploitation of foreign doctors are not just labour violations; they are national embarrassments that demand immediate, decisive action.
Questions for CS Mutua:
1. What specific action has your ministry taken following the reported abuse of Kenyan workers by Indian nationals at the Sarit Centre?
2. Why has your ministry failed to enforce labour laws that protect Kenyan doctors from being undercut and displaced by foreign practitioners on illegally low wages?
3. Do you believe that the failure to protect the welfare of local Kenyan workers is a betrayal of your constitutional mandate and a contributor to the desperation that forces many to seek dangerous jobs abroad?
The Kenyan worker deserves more than promises of protection in distant lands. They deserve protection in their own country.
They deserve a Labour CS who will act with the same urgency and ferocity against those who mistreat them at home as he does for those who face abuse abroad.
The era of treating Kenyans as second-class citizens in their own economy must end.
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