The government has identified Nakuru, Mt Elgon, Busia and Turkana as key trafficking hotspots Principal Secretary for Children Welfare Services Caren Ageng'o and National Assistance Trust Fund Director Marygorret Mogaka, when they appeared before the Special Funds Accounts Committee.
/HANDOUT What begins as a desperate search for employment is increasingly ending in exploitation, debt and trauma for hundreds of Kenyans lured by promises of lucrative jobs abroad. As unemployment continues to push young people to seek opportunities overseas, human trafficking is emerging not only as a criminal justice issue but also as a costly labour market failure exposing weaknesses in Kenya's job creation efforts, overseas recruitment systems and migrant worker protections.
The scale of the challenge came into focus during a meeting of the National Assembly's Special Funds Accounts Committee, chaired by vice chairperson Rahim Dawood. Officials from the State Department for Children Welfare Services told lawmakers that more than 170 Kenyans who had been trafficked been repatriated in 2025 alone.
They were largely from Myanmar, where many had been trapped in scam compounds after being lured by fraudulent job offers. The revelations underscore a growing trend in which unemployed youth, eager to escape economic hardship at home, become easy targets for sophisticated trafficking networks masquerading as recruitment agencies.
"Most of the victims are looking for jobs, we realised traffickers often exploit vulnerable job seekers with promises of well-paying positions overseas," National Assistance Trust Fund director Marygorret Mogaka said. According to the Ministry of Social Protection, every victim rescued and repatriated continues to carry a financial cost borne largely by taxpayers through the National Assistance Trust Fund.
Yet the fund itself says it is struggling to keep pace with rising demand. According to officials, the fund has typically received annual allocations of about Sh20 million, although expenditure often exceeds that amount due to growing operational demands and accumulated commitments from previous years.
The fund's managers said the allocation has never been sufficient to address all the needs of trafficking victims, particularly following large-scale rescue operations involving Kenyans stranded abroad.