Brain drain: Absurdity of state policy to export a million of Kenya’s skilled workers

By Silas Apollo

Early this year, the government announced plans to send at least one million skilled workers to foreign nations, paving the way for the mass exodus of qualified and highly skilled Kenyans from the country.

The announcement, made by President William Ruto and supported by the Ministry of Labour and Social Protection, was premised on what the government said is the need to increase diaspora remittances into the country.

President Ruto also added that his administration was focused on creating employment opportunities for thousands of skilled but unemployed Kenyans through the initiative.

In his address and public statements, the Head of State argued that his administration had already initiated talks with many foreign nations, including Germany, Canada, the United Kingdom, the United States, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, and many others countries to host and employ Kenyan workers.

Part of this deal, the President said, was the urgent need by the Kenya Kwanza administration to increase diaspora remittances from the current Sh400 billion as of 2022 to about Sh1 trillion.

According to the Central Bank of Kenya, remittances from Kenyans living and working abroad have been increasing over the years and currently form a bulk of all foreign currency that the country earns annually.

Diaspora remittances, CBK argues, are currently the second highest earner of foreign funds in the country after exports, which stood at about $5.77 billion in 2022.

“We have opportunities in Canada, the USA, UAE, Saudi Arabia… we will sign ten agreements in the next couple of months so that our youth get these opportunities. We are working to ensure we can export this world-class labour,” Ruto said while announcing in May and again in August this year.

“The yearly money from Kenyans in the diaspora is Sh400 billion. That is even more than what we get from our tea, coffee, or horticulture exports,” he added.

Like many other African nations, Kenya has been sending most of its skilled workforce to foreign nations, with some also opting to move out of the continent to seek better opportunities. 

This exodus of skilled labour and workforce has, in the end, seen an increase in earnings by the various governments, with Kenya posting an increase in foreign remittance inflows in June 2023 to $345.9 million compared to $326.1 million in June 2022, an increase of 6.1%. 

Data from the CBK also show that the cumulative remittance inflows for the past year to June 2023 remained steady at $4,017 million compared to $4,012 million over a similar period in 2022, an increase of 0.1%. 

CBK Diaspora Remittances Surveys further demonstrate that inflows to the country have increased tenfold over the past decade, reaching a record of $4.027 billion (Sh559.57 billion) in 2022.

On this basis, the Kenya Kwanza administration intends to increase the number of workers and skilled labour that the country sends to foreign nations, to increase foreign earnings, which the administration says will help boost the economy. 

But this exodus of skilled workforce has also come with major downsides, like the rising abuse and neglect of Kenyan workers in foreign nations and poor service delivery due to a decline in the country’s workforce.

For instance, various reports published by Parliament, the Ombudsman, and non-governmental organisations show that Kenyan workers subjected to mistreatment and poor working environment have risen in the last couple of years.

This increase, the institutions argue, has resulted from the government’s failure to develop a legal framework to guide and safeguard the welfare of Kenyan workers moving to foreign nations. 

Equally, reports by other agencies and institutions, such as the African Union, have also argued that the continued exodus of skilled labour from nations in Africa has resulted in a brain drain, leaving the continent with few experts to provide services and serve the growing population.

In its Migration Policy Framework for Africa and Plan of Action (2018 – 2027), the AU argues that about 70,000 skilled workers leave the continent each year to look for better opportunities in foreign countries.

This is mainly because despite being one of the world’s youngest continents, with an estimated 10 to 12 million young Africans joining the labour market, Africa can only create about three million jobs annually.

This has witnessed many professions leave for OECD countries, with figures from institutions such as the International Monetary Fund putting the number of professionals and other Africans leaving the continent to about seven million as at 2013 alone. 

Similarly, the number of African migrants in OECD countries is also expected to rise to about 34 million by 2050, with countries such as France, the UK, and the US said to be hosting about 50.0% of the total sub-Saharan African diaspora as of 2013. 

And even as the number of professionals, skilled workers, and even athletes fleeing the continent continues to increase, the impact of the brain drain has been great, particularly on sectors such as healthcare.

The AU, for instance, estimates that countries such as Kenya have lost billions of shillings since 2010 in training doctors who then migrate to foreign nations.

Equally, this migration of doctors, nurses, and other physicians has seen a decline in the ratio of doctors to patients, with the World Health Organisation stating that the doctor-to-patient ratio in about 26 nations in the continent stands at about 0.45 physicians per 1,000 people.

The fact that many destination countries do not pay back for the cost of training African doctors they recruit also means that the continent continues to lose significantly on most of its investments, a figure estimated to be about $4.6 billion in training doctors in the continent.

But even with these challenges, many experts still argue that there is still hope for many countries in the continent, insisting that implementing strategies and developing laws to guide the exodus could help mitigate some of these problems.

The AU, in its report, for instance, calls for the development of programmes such as gender-responsive economic development programmes to provide gainful employment, professional development, and educational opportunities to qualified nationals in their home countries.

“A comprehensive approach to migration management should be adopted. Member States and RECs are urged to implement the various recommendations made in the MPFA per their respective migration realities and development objectives. 

“Moreover, policy coherence between the various issue areas linked to migration is key to effective migration management,” the AU argues.

“Member states are encouraged to enact national/regional laws and formulate policies based on international/continental/regional protocols/ principles for the management of migration and ensure the institutional capacities and coordination mechanisms at national/regional levels for the management of migration,” the report added.