Mutua said the government will assist youth without passports obtain the document so as to travel abroad and earn a living.
“Lack of a passport shouldn’t deter youth from getting livelihoods. That’s President William Ruto’s directive that anybody who gets a job abroad, like these youth, if he doesn’t have a passport, he gets assisted to obtain the document,” Mutua said.
He spoke while launching the National Job Recruitment Programme (phase one) in Machakos County on Wednesday.
Mutua said 3, 000 job seekers from Machakos, Makueni, and Kitui counties will be hired during the programme with 1, 000 being employed in each county. The programme seeks to have 20,000 youth across the country secure jobs abroad.
He told those who secure the job opportunities, but unable to raise enough money to process their travelling to apply for bank loans so that they don’t lose the opportunities.
The CS said those hired will travel in two or three weeks’ time from now, not later than December 25, 2024.
He said over 3, 000 job seekers had queued for the opportunities at Machakos Technical Institute For The Blind, the venue where the exercise took place by 1.00pm Wednesday.
“We have today come to Mahakos to launch this program of traversing each county to give people jobs. We can see more than 3, 000 youth have arrived and queued already and it’s now 1.00pm, they are being assessed for jobs,” Mutua said.
Mutua added, “If you get a job today, you are issued with a document that shows you have gotten a provisional employment and the country you are destined to. Those who have turned up today haven’t come to job seek, but to be interviewed and get jobs. Our arrangement is that if you get the job today, you go upstairs, DCI is there, you do finger prints. It doesn’t matter whether you have a passport or not.
"After you get the job and your finger prints taken, as a government, we will organise on how you will get passports so that you travel abroad.
"If you get this documentation, you will be so busy this week. You will be called to go for medical exams, academic documents attestation, among other issues before you are given a final contract to sign before taking off to the country in which you are going to work.
"There are different companies and jobs. In some companies, job seekers pay for everything 100 percent; some only pay for air tickets,” Mutua said.
The CS said some of the job seekers will do online studies on foreign languages, register, and get examined before getting jobs.
He said job seekers should carry necessary academic documents to help with appropriately placing them in jobs relevant to their academic and professional qualifications as well as skills.
Mutua told those who were unsuccessful not to lose hope since their details were already in the government’s database; they will be considered in the next phase.
“We will still get back, and you will get an opportunity to get employed,” Mutua said.
He told those with skills such as mechanics and plumbing and have no professional certificates since they started as handsmen to get to TVETS for skills’ testing and certification under Prior Learning.
