Kilifi North MP Owen Baya during a past interview. [Photo/nation.co.ke]
Kilifi North MP Owen Baya has sent a stern warning to local business owners discriminating against residents in their hiring processes.The vocal MP said hotel managers in the area should hire residents without favour.Baya argued that domestic and international tourism is among the major sources of income for residents, adding that he will conduct an audit to determine whether hotels and resorts have been reserving 70 percent of the jobs for residents. He said there is a large number of educated but unemployed residents yet hotel managers in the region were employing ‘foreigners’."We have so many unemployed people here in Kilifi. They are well trained. Let's exhaust the human resource we have here first," said Baya, during an interview with The Star.On his part, Mada Hotels manager Peter Njoroge dismissed the claims terming them as politically motivated.He noted that hotels in the region have been giving priority to local residents, adding that the Baya’s claims are baseless and ill-motivated.Njoroge said the policy in most hotels dictates that locals are given priority in job allocation."Locals make over 70 percent of Kilifi Bay Beach Resort or Baobab Beach Resort workers," he added.His remarks were echoed by Philip Chai, chairman of Kenya Association of Hotel Keepers and Caterers Kilifi County, who said 70 percent of their workers are locals.