Foreign Affairs and Diaspora Cabinet Secretary (CS) and Prime Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi have revealed that at least 316 out of the 416,000 Kenyans have died in the Gulf States since 2022.

Speaking on Wednesday morning before the Senate plenary, Mudavadi indicated that the government is negotiating with the countries to improve working conditions.

“The records we have show that the total number of Kenyans who have lost their lives in the Gulf region is 316,” he said.

He disclosed that the countries include Saudi Arabia with 166 deaths, Qatar with 58, UAE with 51, Iraq with 25, Bahrain with 10, Kuwait with 6, while Oman and Iran have zero deaths.

Further, he stated that Kenya will establish safe houses in the Gulf to shelter migrant workers in distress before they are repatriated.

Mudavadi disclosed that Kenya is in the process of negotiating 19 memoranda of understanding to end the plight of Kenyan migrant workers in the Middle East, including Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain, and the United Arab Emirates.

Temporary Speaker Veronica Maina directed the Mudavadi to furnish the House with the identities of the Kenyans working in the Gulf and indicate the work they have been employed to do.