Kenya Kwanza MPs on Monday told President William Ruto that they are not informed of job opportunities negotiated by the government abroad.
In what shocked the president, the lawmakers who are attending a retreat with the executive in Naivasha, said nobody has told them about open job opportunities overseas.
Ruto wondered if the MPs were serious about securing employment opportunities for their constituents if they were not informed of the deals the government was signing on labour export.
Explaining that the government had for instance advertised for 2,500 nursing jobs, MPs shouted back telling the president that they were not aware.
“Nobody has told us,” one of the MPs answered back as a surprised Ruto gazed at him.
The President reminded them that the jobs were advertised in newspapers and that he had also been talking about it during his meetings.
“I have heard some of you say you are not aware! Where do you want me to stand to tell you, which volume do you want so that you can hear?” Ruto said.
“They were advertised in the press, I have talked about this thing in every meeting. When you are seated those meetings, after that aren’t you supposed to find out where these vacancies are?”
The President faulted the MPs for continuously bothering him about job opportunities for their friends who lost in the last elections, yet they have forgotten the youth.
“I thought there were so many people looking for jobs in our offices and all over the place! We need to connect them to the right places. Any serious leader will listen to what I am saying and do something about it,’’ Ruto said.
“When I visit your counties you tell me about people who lost elections and who need jobs, you do not talk about the rest yet there are opportunities. We must work together to change Kenya.”
The leaders were particularly shocked that the government has only received applications from just 500 nurses against the targeted 2,500 yet they are not aware.
The President asked them to be proactive with information so that they could help the millions of young people without jobs.
“As we are here, we still need 2000 nurses to bring the names, an intelligent person will hear this and do what they must do,” he said.
“Your constituents will take a lot of offence when they realise that there are opportunities yet nobody has come to them. Someone has to do some homework.”
Ruto promised MPs that he would soon finalise setting up an information centre with the National Employment Authority to liaise with MPs.
“I am trying to set up the bureaucracy at NITA to support you in making sure you have as much information as possible,” he said.
Ruto said the government of Germany needs 250,000 workers from Kenya with negotiations at an advanced stage ahead of signing the deal in June.