KRA says a Kenyan public job does not charge a recruitment fee

A job offer that asks for money before the interview is already outside the rule.

Kenya's private employment rules put the recruitment fee on the employer. The agency charges its principal, the hiring company, for finding and placing a worker. The job seeker is not the customer.

Who is supposed to pay

The Labour Institutions (General) Regulations say agencies shall charge their principals a service fee for recruitment, documentation and placement. For work abroad, the employer or the agent is responsible for the visa fee and the airfare, unless the contract says otherwise. A surety bond also sits with the agent or employer.

There is a narrow exception. An agent may charge a reasonable administrative cost for a trade test, an occupational test or a medical examination. The National Employment Authority says that fee must be approved by the Director of Employment, and the applicant must get an official receipt.

The regulations cap those administrative fees at one quarter of the job seeker's proposed one month salary. In 2016, Legal Notice No. 110 kept the same principle: the agency fee sits with the employer, not the person being hired.

A demand for a full month of pay, or for the first salary, before a contract exists, is already past that line.

A public job does not charge

Public recruitment is simpler. On 18 September 2026 the Kenya Revenue Authority warned that a letter asking applicants to pay 4,500 shillings on M-Pesa was fake. KRA said it does not charge a fee at any stage of recruitment, including application, shortlisting, interview and the job offer. Vacancies go out on its own website and its own channels.

The 500,000 shilling figure is not your fee

The 500,000 shilling sum that appears in agency adverts is the registration fee for an agency placing workers abroad. Legal Notice No. 110 of 2016 sets that fee on the agency. A local placement agency pays a lower registration fee, 125,000 shillings on the National Employment Authority charter. Neither figure is a charge on the person looking for work.

A training course can still be real. A college, a NITA test or a licence has a counter, a receipt and a date. A stranger who asks for money for a uniform, a form or a shortlist, and then promises an offer, is not that.

Before any money moves, three checks matter. Is the agency on the National Employment Authority list? Is the fee approved, and is it inside a quarter of one month's basic pay? Is the receipt in the agency's name? If the answer is no, the job is not the thing being sold. The same habit applies to other charges that look small until they repeat, which is the point of the Fuliza fee explainer.