The reports were piling in, one worse than the next. Kenyan maids working in Saudi Arabia had their passports confiscated, wages denied and food withheld. Some were beaten by their bosses for offenses as minor as not knowing how to operate a washing machine. Others were killed.
Instead of demanding that the Saudi government protect these women, President William Ruto of Kenya pledged to send even more workers to Saudi Arabia, more quickly and less prepared than before. And he instituted policies that made it more profitable for employment companies to do just that.
Mr. Ruto, a wealthy politician and businessman, has cultivated an international image as a Pan-African leader. At the White House last year, President Joseph R. Biden Jr. hailed his commitment to improving the lives of the poor. Mr. Ruto often invokes his own climb from poverty, vowing to fix an economy that had left so many others behind.
But today in Kenya, a New York Times investigation found, Mr. Ruto’s government functions as an arm of a staffing industry that sends poor workers abroad in droves. Politicians started their own employment companies to capitalize on the boom, and the government rolled back worker protections, maximizing industry profits.
Even Mr. Ruto’s family makes money. His wife and daughter are the largest shareholders of the staffing industry’s major insurance company, records show.
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