Senate to summon Interior and Labour Ministers over First Choice saga!

First Choice Recruitment and Consultancy Agency Director Judy Jepchirchir Thursday, appeared before the Senate Labour and Social Welfare Committee where she was grilled in a session that began at 10:11am and ended at 2:00pm at the Senate Building.

Appearing before The committee chairperson Julius Murgor who is also the West Pokot Senator, Judy defended her company against claims of defrauding job seekers millions of shillings with a promise of securing job opportunities abroad.

Judy who has been on the limelight since last year informed the committee that out of over 800 candidates who were deployed to Qatar for The 2022 Fifa World Cup,close to 700 of them had completed their contract in Qatar and had returned home ,while another 100 were still in the said country under the Two year contract arrangement.

Judy however cited an influx of people to Qatar from different parts of the country occasioned visa processing delays,

victims of the Eldoret-based First Choice Recruitment call for expedited justice

However some of the victims decried harassment and threats to life by the recruitment agency after failed attempts to have their money refunded after the botched plan to have job opportunities abroad.

Elizabeth Ndiema narrated before the Labour and Social Welfare Committee how her family had struggled to raise Ksh750,000 in order to secure a care giver job opportunity in the United Kingdom,

“we sold nearly everything we had at home , so as to raise this huge amounts of money hoping that once I had travelled I would help my family get back on its feet again, however I haven’t travelled since and up to now I still can’t access my money from the agency , I have only received threats” She narrated amid sobs.

Florence Nzuki another victim narrated how he was swindled ksh 437,000 with the promise of heading to Poland, however Nzuki has had his life threatened and has a pending assault case before an Eldoret court against one staff of the agency.

Kimutai Kirui who petitioned the Senate on behalf of the Victim called for the creation of a Regulatory body to oversee the Recruitment agencies that continue to exploit Kenyans through the existing gaps in law.

“The power behind these agencies is beyond common people.We petitioned Uasin Gishu county assembly, recommendations were made and nothing happened, Was it a waste of time? Big money, businessmen and senior state officers are involved. They infiltrate or are part of the system, manipulate and control state systems and institutions, Ministry of Labour or National Employment Authority (NEA) must put in place structures to make agencies transparent, accountable and information easily accessible to the public.”

The Chair of the committee Murgor assured that they would be summoning the Interior and Labour Cabinet Secretary to elaborate what steps the government had taken to address the plight of over 8,000 youth who might have lost billions of shillings in the scam.

Nandi Senator Samson Cherargei said it was unfortunate that innocent youth were being intimidated for fighting for their rights after being conned with promises of lucrative jobs abroad.

“The committee will visit Uasin Gishu County to meet with the victims to understand the magnitude of the problem which has led to most families suffering depression after losing money to the agency” He said.

The committee urged the agency to release forthwith any travel documents of the candidates that it continued holding illegally, the committee directed the refund process be expedited ahead of its visit to Eldoret to meet with the victims.