Kenya's growing dilemma between job creation and labour export

Whenever President William Ruto meets a delegation of leaders from overseas, one of the key topics of discussion has been how to export labour to their markets.

The head of State has been persistent in including the labour movement in the trade deals he signs with other countries. “We may not have gold, silver and oil, but our greatest asset as a country is our human resource capital,” he will say.

“It is the reason I just came back from Germany. They also see Kenya as a source for qualified talent that can be useful for working in their economy,” he added when he came back from Germany in September 2024.

While these deals are beneficial to the country, especially through remittances, and considering the high unemployment among the youth, this trend presents Kenya’s labour market as an oxymoron.

This is because the argument by employers and experts in the labour sector has been the lack of a skilled workforce. And still is. It begs the question: is the Kenyan labour force skilled enough for the developed market but not for domestic consumption? Where has the country failed job-seeking youth?

“That is a very difficult question,” says Alvin Mukabwa, chief operating officer of Generation Kenya, an organisation that works in the space of reskilling and upskilling the workforce.

Different opportunities

He also agrees that the labour force is the biggest asset the continent has. However, the unemployability of these individuals in the country goes deeper, he says, into the different opportunities that the economy has to offer.

“The number of young people being churned out of the education system is not equal to the number of job opportunities we are providing,” he explains.

As such, the country has to consider labour mobility as an option. “We need them somewhere else,” argues Doris Muigei, chief executive Qazi Works, a recruitment agency.

She says the market can only provide 800,000 jobs against close to two million job seekers annually. “I don’t think it is humanly possible to squeeze two million into this economy,” she notes. For a majority of Kenyans who are jobless or seeking greener pastures, a job abroad equates to better pay. And for the government, a buffed foreign reserve due to remittances. It explains why on June 26, when Labour and Social Protection Cabinet Secretary Dr Alfred Mutua flagged off 50 Kenyans who left the country for job opportunities in Russia, he mentioned how much they would be making a figure that only 1.7 per cent of the workforce make.

“They will be earning a take-home salary of Sh115,000 a month, with free accommodation and food provided,” he said adding that they will be working in a food packing factory.

Empowerment funds

The CS added that for those not able to cater for their flights, Uwezo Fund, one of the several government-led empowerment funds, provided them with money for tickets and service fees.

“Once they start work, they will slowly refund the government loan over a short period so that others can benefit from the funds,” he wrote. These good salaries are expected to boost the country’s remittances as the individuals send money back to their families. The aggressive export of labour to overseas markets may soon be competing with Kenya’s coffee or tea in terms of earnings.

Data from the 2025 Economic Survey by the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics shows that exports earned the country Sh1.1 trillion in 2024 compared to Sh1 trillion in 2023. Remittances stood at Sh674.1 billion in the same period.

“The growth in exports was largely attributed to a 77.3 per cent surge in re-exports, while domestic exports recorded a 2.9 per cent increase,” the report says. During the same period, diaspora remittances grew from Sh591.2 billion in 2023 to Sh674.1 billion in 2024.

Alpesh Vallabhdas Vadher, PKF in Eastern Africa’s chief executive has described the export of labour as a sad situation but inevitable. PKF is a tax and audit firm.

He states that it is not something to be proud of. “Unfortunately, we have not been able to create investments so that we can employ the 800,000 graduates coming out of our universities every year. How are we going to look after those people if we do not bring in the investments?” he poses. He says the export of human capital is bound to continue since the population in markets such as South Korea, France and the United Kingdom is ageing. While he foresees a slowdown in the labour exports, considering the immigration restrictions being implemented in these markets led by the United States, the lack of investments which should create employment will still push job seekers abroad.

“It is very sad that we are losing our talent to the Western world. Education is our second major expenditure. We are educating our people, but they are developing countries of the Western world,” he says.

Employers’ market

Perhaps the challenge with the employability of youth in the country lies in who controls the labour market.

“Kenya is an employers’ market,” says Ms Muigai, Qazi Works chief executive. “It is not like the US, which is an employees’ market.” She says firms in the country may make adjustments on how they hire if they are funded by organisations that are keen on giving opportunities to deserving individuals.

Ms Muigai points out that the country’s education system has also fallen short in preparing graduates for the job market. She says while graduates are equipped with hard skills, the soft skills that are now more valuable in the advent of technology are missing.

She says a lot is happening on the tech front at a faster pace than school curricula can keep up. “Employers have so many job openings and we have as well so many unemployed youths but there is no link. The gaps are consistent and it’s because the pace is so fast,” she said.

Sarah Ndegwa, the acting Managing Director of BrighterMonday Kenya, a job-seeking platform, opines that the biggest challenge in the job market is the stagnant education system. However, the bulging youth population eager to work is a resource in the meantime.

“In Europe, we have a bulging ageing population, while in Africa, we have youth. That means we have an opportunity to capture that space,” she says.

The African Development Bank (AfDB) in its Country Focus Report 2025 for Kenya, released on July 2, 2025, cites human capital as vital for the country’s growth and transformation.

It even cites the free primary and secondary education that made it possible for 600,000 to enrol in universities in 2023. It states that the country’s human capital is ranked third on the continent.

However, barriers such as mismatched skills, with many graduates lacking practical technical skills and digital skills, are some of the barriers to unlocking this potential. The manufacturing and ICT sectors have been cited as those with skills mismatch.

There is also the issue of the brain drain of skilled professionals. “Skilled professionals, including doctors and engineers, increasingly migrate to countries like the UK and US for better opportunities,” the report says.

AfDB states that talent retention is a challenge. “To tackle brain drain, Kenya can boost local job opportunities, invest in research and leverage its skilled diaspora to drive home-grown innovation and entrepreneurship, for long-term skills resilience,” the report adds.

HR Director for Africa at the GardaWorld Security Victor Komu, the world’s privately owned security company, says one of the reasons there is a mismatch in the job market, an issue he has had to deal with, is because people are after certificates to be employable.

“Do we have technicians who are able to install and monitor CCTVs using AI?” he poses. “People are parking passion just to get a degree to increase their employability.”