For a second week running, locals that were hoping to travel to Qatar for World Cup contract jobs have camped at an Eldoret-based consultancy office demanding a refund of their money.
The locals, the majority of who are youths, have been camping at the First Choice Recruitment and Consultancy since last week.
They want a refund of the money they had paid to facilitate their travel to Qatar.
Most of those who are demanding the refund argue that the consultancy based at City Plaza failed to keep their end of the bargain.
“We were to travel between May and July but we are in September and there is no indication that we will travel anytime soon,” said one of those seeking to be refunded his money.
“I paid Ksh40,000 to facilitate my travel and health checks,” he added.
For the last few days, hundreds of locals have been camping at the consultancy offices, demanding that their money is paid back.
Peaceful demonstration
Last week, over a thousand of those that had paid money to the consultancy staged a peaceful demonstration in Eldoret town. They marched to the County Commissioner’s Office asking that action be taken against the director of the First Choice Recruitment and Consultancy Judy Chepchirchir.
Turbo Sub County Commissioner (DCC) Mohammed Mwabudzo advised the victims to record statements with police so that a probe into the agency can formally begin.
Mwabudzo admitted that the operations of the agency were questionable and said the DCI would take up the matter.
Also Read:
But even after some of the victims recorded statements at the police, the consultancy’s director had not been arrested.
On Monday, September 19, 2022, a group of locals that were demanding repayment of their money were teargassed by police officers who arrived at the consultancy’s building to escort the director from her office.
Money back
The police had to use teargas canisters and shoot in the air to disperse the group that had blocked the exit of the building.
Despite the police officers managing to whisk away the First Choice Recruitment and Consultancy director, the locals have insisted they keep camping at the offices until they get their money back.
Demands for a refund came just hours after the director flagged off about 100 locals travelling to Qatar.
In an interview with journalists on Saturday, Chepchirchir insisted that all that had paid and successfully secured jobs in Qatar will travel. She says delays have been occasioned by slow processing of Visa.
Qatar World Cup is expected to be held later in November and December 2022.
