Turkana locals take lion’s share of Tullow jobs

Tullow Oil, which has in the past had to contend with local protests over employment, has said that out of 3,619 staff employed in Turkana 2,187 are now from the arid county.
“In short, six out of every 10 employees working for Tullow and its various contractors are from the county. Further, businesses based in Turkana provided goods and services worth more than Sh140 million to Tullow and its contractors in the month of August with women and youth groups forming part of the supply chain,” said Tullow in a statement.

Employment of locals has been a thorny issue for oil, gas and mining companies. To reduce the risk of conflict they have had to invest in training programmes for locals. Tullow temporarily suspended Turkana operations in October last year after locals protested over missing out on jobs and tender opportunity.

Oil and gas firms, however, argue the use of non-resident and expatriates is due to the lack of skilled labour in the areas where they operate and in the country.

Tullow and National Oil have already begun graduate scholarship programmes for locals meant to provide Kenyan staff with the required skills.

READ: Tullow offers Kenyans scholarships in Oil studies

The firm that is expanding activity to neighbouring counties of Elgeyo Marakwet and Baringo where it has concluded talks with residents, said it had set aside Sh400 million to implement community projects across areas where it operates.

“These projects will focus on improving access to quality education, clean water as well as health,” it said.