Kenyan

Kenyans are one of Qatar's fastest-growing communities: about 2,500 worked there around 2009, and more than 75,000 by early 2025, with the two governments aiming for 200,000. They came through a 2012 labour agreement, first as hotel staff, security guards and domestic workers, and increasingly as police recruits, nurses, teachers and technicians. Drawn from all of Kenya's peoples, they speak Swahili and English among themselves and organise as Kenyans rather than by tribe, through savings cooperatives, the embassy and FC Kenya, a football club founded in 2012. Most are Christians who worship on Fridays at the churches of Doha's religious complex and in African-led evangelical congregations, while a Muslim minority comes mainly from the coast and the north-east.

Saudi Arabia is the main destination for Kenyan workers abroad, and about 200,000 Kenyans now live there, most of them young women working as live-in maids, nannies and cleaners in Saudi homes, with men as drivers, security guards and cleaners. Their numbers have more than doubled since 2022, as Kenya's government made labour migration to the Gulf a national policy and Saudi Arabia took most of the workers it placed. They come from all of Kenya's peoples and speak Swahili and English among themselves. Most are Christians who cannot worship openly in the kingdom, and many endure 16-hour days, confiscated passports and isolation inside the homes they serve.

Some 30,000 to 50,000 Kenyans live in the Emirates, most of them in Dubai, a community that has grown since a 2018 labour agreement opened recruitment for domestic and service work. They work as hotel and restaurant staff, security guards, drivers and delivery riders, airport and aviation staff, IT workers and housemaids, and nearly 600 Kenyan firms trade from Dubai. Drawn from all of Kenya's peoples, they speak Swahili and English among themselves and gather as Kenyans rather than by tribe. Most are Christians, and on Sundays many fill African-led churches such as one meeting in an events hall in Deira, where Kenyans are the majority and worship songs are sung in several African languages.