An Arabian Two-step.

There are many Kenyans who work in the United Arab Emirates, UAE, without incident. They are treated decently by their employers and their rights and dignity are respected. They earn an honest living, and come home successful beyond many others' dreams. These are the Kenyans who spread their wings and give our nation pride of place in diaspora investment overseas. They should be celebrated and encouraged.

There are many more Kenyans whose work in the United Arab Emirates, and the Middle East in general, mirrors the slavery that prevailed in the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries in Arabia. They are not alone. European and United States' human rights activists and organisations have highlighted the plight of labourers in the Middle East at the hands of the Middle East governments, labour recruiters and employers at work sites. Whether these labourers are putting up billion-dollar buildings or stadia, or working as domestic servants or nannies, their fate is frequently the same: low pay, long work hours, virtual imprisonment, sexual and physical abuse and, many tragic times, death.

Now the Government of Kenya and the United Arab Emirates have struck a deal in which more than 100,000 Kenyans will find job opportunities in the UAE. The government's aim of this deal, it seems, is to ensure that the volume of remittances to Kenya from overseas increases. The promises for a more robust regulatory framework for employment agencies is likely to remain a promise for a long time to come if it is true that these agencies are "owned" by well-connected politicians and their front-men.

Kenya is not the only nation contemplating exporting its surplus unemployed and, frequently, unemployable. India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal have shipped off millions of their nationals to the UAE, especially in the burgeoning construction industry. Harrowing tales have been broadcast about the conditions under which these people live and labour in the dessert heat of Arabia. Many Kenyans have been recruited as domestic servants in the Middle East too. Most of the stories of their work has been of abuse and untold cruelty by their employers.

The plans for the export of Kenyans to the UAE to work are not bad - not on paper anyway. But if they are implemented in the manner that all government plans are implemented, 100,000 Kenyans should pause before accepting the entreaties of both their government and that of the UAE. This transition from the Kibaki to the Kenyatta regimes is proceeding in fits and starts, with some sectors showing improvement and others regressing to pre-Kibaki days. We hope that the plan to export Kenyans to the UAE will be in line with the reformed bits of the government.

The manner in which the policy was announced, and the secrecy surrounding the fine print, however, do not inspire confidence that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Trade has any clue about what needs to happen - or how. It was completely in the dark about the seventy-seven mysterious Chinese nationals running a "radio station" in Runda. It doesn't seem to have any say over the threat to Lake Turkana from Ethiopia's two-hundred-and-forty-meter-high Gibe III dam. It has completely failed to pull Uganda from its lunatic edge regarding the Migingo Island imbroglio. And it is being pushed around by Tanzania over the reciprocal relationships of tour operators in Kenya and Tanzania.

I have a feeling if all these things are highlighted for the Cabinet Secretary, her first three minutes in response will be to pass the buck to someone else: Interior and Co-ordination of National Government, East African Affairs, Commerce and Tourism, and Environment, Water and Natural Resources come speedily to mind. But then again, the foreign ministry is not known to be at the forefront of reforms or forward-thinking.

If the Cabinet Secretary is truly the new foreign policy broom she says she is, she will do away with the natural instinct to hide and obfuscate everything and publish the policy, warts and all, for public scrutiny. It is the only way that the silo-mentality of the Ministry will be broken regarding the blind spots of the policy that we are surely to find. Her beloved policy will be enriched if she and her mandarins will accept outside criticism with open minds.