Prime Cabinet Secretary and CS Foreign and Diaspora Affairs Musalia Mudavadi has said that at least 316 Kenyans have died working in the Gulf States since 2002 to date.
Speaking when he appeared before the Senate plenary on Wednesday, Mudavadi said they are spread across six of the eight states.
“The records we have show that the total number of Kenyans who have lost their lives in the Gulf region is 316,” he said.
The states include Saudi Arabia with 166 deaths, Qatar 58, United Arab Emirates (UAE) 51, Iraq 25, Bahrain 10, Kuwait 6, while Oman and Iran have zero deaths. The Prime CS noted that some 416,548 Kenyans are currently working in these states.
He said out of these, Saudi Arabia has the highest number at 310,266 Kenyans.
Qatar is second with 66,025, and the UAE third with 23,000 Kenyans.Bahrain has 8,000, Oman 5,392, Kuwait 3,515, Iran 200, and Iraq 150.
Mudavadi, however, said that it is difficult to provide the identities of these individuals because some of them do not register with the Kenyan missions.He added that some also move from country to country, which is also difficult to keep track of without registration.
“Kenyan in this territories exhibit high movement between various states. The numbers given therefore constitute periodic statistics derived from our missions in these countries further corroborated through official sources of the host governments.
“It should be noted that not all Kenyans register with our missions abroad despite being sensitised on the importance of such registrations hence sometimes it is difficult to have very precise data,” the Prime CS said.
