Nairobi — Kenyan venture builder Evans Wadongo will address plights of Kenyan migrant workers in the Middle East at this year's global investment forum.
The innovator will be among speakers addressing this year's Future Investment Initiative (FII), a global investment conference taking place from October 25th-27th in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Emigrants to Gulf Countries have for long been subjected to cruelty in the hands of employers with numerous reported cases of deaths and human rights infringements.
"He will also use the opportunity to highlight the need for Africans, including Kenyans to stop going to countries where they are mistreated and tortured to deaths,"
"He will encourage more partnerships in venture capital investments as a tool to create decent jobs within Africa," Wadson Ventures Group, an early stage venture builder said in a statement.
Abuses in the Gulf stem from the kafala (sponsorship) system where employers have the power over a migrant. Under this, employers withhold employee passports thus cannot get another job.
A 2020 report by Human Right Watch (HRW) titled 'How Can We Work Without Wages' blames Qataris independent and labour companies for frequent delays, withholding, or arbitrarily deduction of workers' wages.
To address the problem, Qatar in 2015 installed a Wage Protection System (WPS) to ensure migrant workers are paid in a timely and accurate measure. However, the system is yet to tame wage abuses as well as workers wage violations.
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Due to reprisal fears, many employees fear taking employers and their companies to the Labour Relations department or the Labour Dispute Resolution Committees as it is difficult, costly, time-consuming and ineffective.
Apart from being forced to work long hours by employers, living in cramped quarters, paying off their debts, and being beholden to their sponsors for their jobs, food, housing, residence permits and visas, many of Qatar's migrant workers fight a persistent battle against wage abuse.
The conference, which will take place in November, will also see Odongo discuss challenges and opportunities in raising capital especially in emerging markets
Other notable speakers include Nobel Peace Prize winners Leyma Gbowee and Kailash Satyarthi, Dr. Patrice Motsepe, Executive Chairman, African Rainbow Minerals, among others.
Now in its 6th year, FII aims to transform humanity by turning ideas into real-world solutions.
Wadongo is a Partner at Wadson Ventures, an early-stage venture builder working with promising sustainable African enterprises in sectors such as agritech, healthcare, food, ecommerce, manufacturing, among others.
