• About Us
  • Archives
  • SWG Registration
Samrack Media
Mahiga Homes
  • Home
  • ALL NEWS
  • Diaspora
  • Africa
    • AFRICA
    • KENYA
  • BUSINESS
    • BUSINESS
    • INVESTMENTS
    • REAL ESTATE
    • TECHNOLOGY
  • Politics
  • Health
    • HEALTH
    • EDUCATION
  • Religion
  • People
    • PEOPLE
    • LIFESTYLE
    • RELATIONSHIPS
  • Obituaries
  • Videos
  • Events
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • ALL NEWS
  • Diaspora
  • Africa
    • AFRICA
    • KENYA
  • BUSINESS
    • BUSINESS
    • INVESTMENTS
    • REAL ESTATE
    • TECHNOLOGY
  • Politics
  • Health
    • HEALTH
    • EDUCATION
  • Religion
  • People
    • PEOPLE
    • LIFESTYLE
    • RELATIONSHIPS
  • Obituaries
  • Videos
  • Events
No Result
View All Result
Samrack Media
No Result
View All Result

Modern-day ‘slavery’ in Mideast as Kenyans return in coffins

samrack by samrack
July 24, 2016
in 2016, Africa, Diaspora, Kenya, Kenya Diaspora News, News, People, U.S Diaspora
A A
0
Modern-day ‘slavery’ in Mideast as Kenyans return in coffins
Share this
FacebookTwitterPinterestEmailWhatsAppLinkedIn
Jackline Muthoni during interview on September 16, 2014 at Nation Centre. She was mistreated while working as a domestic worker in Lebanon. At best, the migrant women enjoy good working conditions and kind employers while, at worst, they are treated like slaves and die as a result. PHOTO | JEFF ANGOTE | NATION MEDIA GROUP

Modern-day ‘slavery’ in Mideast as Kenyans return in coffins

In Summary

  • Eight years ago, the New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) voiced its concerns about the labour, immigration and criminal justice systems in Middle East countries.
  • Wanjiku is one of the many victims of Middle East’s Kafala (sponsorship) system, which ties domestic and other migrant workers’ employment visas to their employers; a system that fuels exploitation and abuse.
  • Ms Rose Adhiambo, 24, went to Lebanon in 2009 after a Mombasa-based agent promised her — like they do to everyone — a hefty pay.

Nobody really knows how Eunice Wanjiku, 38, died three years before her body was discovered at a Saudi Arabian mortuary.

Today, what she went through remains buried beneath the blossoming flowers that sprout at her grave.

For more than 1,000 days, morgue authorities tagged Wanjiku’s body as “unidentified”, and it was only after the government threatened to dispose of the cadaver that her Kenyan family got to know about the death of their daughter.

The single mother of one was among the many Kenyans caught up in Middle East’s ‘modern-day slavery’, where domestic workers face serious human rights abuses and death — thanks to the continent’s contract labour policy which puts migrant workers into servitude.

Eight years ago, the New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) voiced its concerns about the labour, immigration and criminal justice systems in Middle East countries, describing the abuse and labour that female domestic workers face as “amount(ing) to slavery”.

Wanjiku is one of the many victims of Middle East’s Kafala (sponsorship) system, which ties domestic and other migrant workers’ employment visas to their employers; a system that fuels exploitation and abuse.

More so, she is a victim of continuing human trafficking that the government has been unable to stem.

Kafala gives the employer immense control over the worker — and most of them lose their rights to leave the house on arrival.

“The stories some of these girls tell me and other women representatives are really sad, and really, something has to be done,” said nominated Senator Emma Mbura, who has been pressuring the government to make arrangements for the women working in the Middle East to be brought back home.

Most parents do not know the whereabouts of their daughters and only await their calls.

COMMITTED SUICIDE

Wanjiku’s parents — Mr Chege Kahiga and Ms Grace Gathoni — had hoped that their daughter would return, even after communication between them and her was abruptly cut.

It was a hope that they kept alive as they continued with their lives at King’eero village, Kabete Sub-County in Kiambu. Then the news came last year — and it was shattering.

“We received a call from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Nairobi who broke the news to us after asking us whether we knew her,” said Mr Kahiga.

The information was that Wanjiku had committed suicide after running away from an unspecified employer — a narrative that appears in most of the bizarre murder cases.

It is only after a postmortem examination was carried out on her body that they got the truth: Ms Wanjiku died of strangulation.

While this raised a lot of questions on the cause of her death, and why her employer and agent and Saudi Arabian government had not contacted them when their daughter died, no answers were forthcoming.

Her father said Wanjiku had moved to Saudi Arabia in 2011.

“For the first one year she kept calling and we would speak on phone for quite a long period of time. Then we suddenly could no longer reach her.”

That was in March 2012. Like many parents whose children are in the Middle East, Mr Kahiga neither had the contact of the local agent nor the employer.

All this time, the body of his daughter lay in a freezer with an ‘unidentified person’ tag somewhere in a country the family had only heard of.

The family was not compensated, and the grave is the only remaining memory of their daughter’s sojourn to Middle East.

The number of Kenyans who have died through the Kafala system is not known — yet recruiting agents continue to send naïve and unsuspecting teenagers to the Middle East with the promise of better life and pay.

At best, the migrant women enjoy good working conditions and kind employers while, at worst, they are treated like slaves and die as a result.

FAILED ATTEMPT

Ms Rose Adhiambo, 24, went to Lebanon in 2009 after a Mombasa-based agent promised her — like they do to everyone — a hefty pay.

At first, she was hesitant about her decision after learning that several Kenyans had lost their lives there.

But caught between incessant poverty at home and the promise of a good life abroad, she left for Lebanon.

For six months, Ms Adhiambo was paid on time and communicated with her family. It was only after she sought permission to visit Kenya that her employer said she had “bought” her.

In the recruitment process, employers are supposed to pay air tickets and visa fees while recruiters charge exorbitant fees that are supposed to be recovered after a person is placed within a home.

The workers are denied any travel and their passports confiscated. Like in the case of Wanjiku, nobody knows what happened to Ms Adhiambo.

But days later, she made news all over Beirut after her employer claimed that she had jumped from the sixth floor of the apartment where they lived in the Lebanese capital.

Beiruti newspaper Al Ahbar claimed she had tied polythene bags together to form a rope while her employer was away, and that she fell to her death as she tried to escape, probably using the rope.

Her parents later received her body, wrapped in gauze and put in a metallic casket.

Beside the body was her passport, which had initially been confiscated from her, and a letter that stated that she had died while trying to escape from her employer’s home.

Five years down the line, her parents Maurice and Jael Otete are yet to receive any tangible information from the Lebanese Government or Kenya’s embassy in Beirut.

By STELLA CHERONO

Source:http://www.nation.co.ke

 

Previous Post

Lessons from Kenya tech leap – Eyes on ideas that can be replicated in India

Next Post

Man slithers, hisses like a snake after killing cobra in Murang’a

Related Posts

Kenya Airways Subsidiary Fahari Aviation To Receive Embraer Eve eVTOL Aircraft From 2026
Business

Kenya Airways Subsidiary Fahari Aviation To Receive Embraer Eve eVTOL Aircraft From 2026

June 22, 2022
Kenyan Nurse Given a Three-story Home in Lebanon, Pennsylvania After Volunteer Work
Diaspora

Kenyan Nurse Given a Three-story Home in Lebanon, Pennsylvania After Volunteer Work

June 22, 2022
Uhuru’s Daughter Ngina Kenyatta Ties the Knot in a Traditional Wedding Ceremony
Diaspora

Uhuru’s Daughter Ngina Kenyatta Ties the Knot in a Traditional Wedding Ceremony

June 22, 2022
Untold Stories of How Thika Road Estates Got Their Names
Business

Untold Stories of How Thika Road Estates Got Their Names

June 22, 2022
President Uhuru Rejects To Assent Into Law ICT Bill, Opting To Send It Back To Parliament For Review
Kenya

President Uhuru Rejects To Assent Into Law ICT Bill, Opting To Send It Back To Parliament For Review

June 22, 2022
Police in Nairobi recovered 22 firearms and 565 rounds of ammunition during an auction mission on Tuesday in Kilimani suburbs, Nairobi county.
Business

Police in Nairobi recovered 22 firearms and 565 rounds of ammunition during an auction mission on Tuesday in Kilimani suburbs, Nairobi county.

June 22, 2022
Next Post
Man slithers, hisses like a snake after killing cobra in Murang’a

Man slithers, hisses like a snake after killing cobra in Murang’a

Please login to join discussion
Job Openings Below is a list of current job openings at Northeast Clinical Services, Inc.. Please click on an opening in the list to view details and apply. Job Openings Below is a list of current job openings at Northeast Clinical Services, Inc.. Please click on an opening in the list to view details and apply. Job Openings Below is a list of current job openings at Northeast Clinical Services, Inc.. Please click on an opening in the list to view details and apply.
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT

Latest News

Kenya Airways Subsidiary Fahari Aviation To Receive Embraer Eve eVTOL Aircraft From 2026

Kenyan Nurse Given a Three-story Home in Lebanon, Pennsylvania After Volunteer Work

Uhuru’s Daughter Ngina Kenyatta Ties the Knot in a Traditional Wedding Ceremony

Untold Stories of How Thika Road Estates Got Their Names

President Uhuru Rejects To Assent Into Law ICT Bill, Opting To Send It Back To Parliament For Review

Police in Nairobi recovered 22 firearms and 565 rounds of ammunition during an auction mission on Tuesday in Kilimani suburbs, Nairobi county.

George Wajakoya’s Running mate: Who is Justina Wangui Wamae

IEBC set to make corrections to voters’ register

Kenya cannot ban Mitumba without upsetting the US,Just ask Rwanda

Transition/Death Announcement of Francis Kagumba Mwenenia (Father to Pastor Naomi Kagumba (Lowell,MA ) of St Stephen’s Church Dracut,MA

We are grateful for your monthly or one-off donations To Samrack Media: Cash App No: 781-888-8770 $SAMRACK001

Money

New Digital Skills Helps Unemployed Kenyan Youth Earn In Cryptocurrency

New Digital Skills Helps Unemployed Kenyan Youth Earn In Cryptocurrency

by samrack
November 19, 2021
0

New Digital Skills Helps Unemployed Kenyan Youth Earn In Cryptocurrency This week sees the launch of a new initiative to equip...

A simple guide to Government Bonds investing in Kenya

A simple guide to Government Bonds investing in Kenya

by samrack
September 17, 2021
0

A simple guide to Government Bonds investing in Kenya A treasury bond (T-bond) is a medium term to long term...

Politics

Police in Nairobi recovered 22 firearms and 565 rounds of ammunition during an auction mission on Tuesday in Kilimani suburbs, Nairobi county.

Police in Nairobi recovered 22 firearms and 565 rounds of ammunition during an auction mission on Tuesday in Kilimani suburbs, Nairobi county.

by samrack
June 22, 2022
0

Police in Nairobi recovered 22 firearms and 565 rounds of ammunition during an auction mission on Tuesday in Kilimani suburbs,...

George Wajakoya’s Running mate: Who is Justina Wangui Wamae

George Wajakoya’s Running mate: Who is Justina Wangui Wamae

by samrack
June 9, 2022
0

She has risen to prominence, following her selection as a running mate for one of the only four presidential candidates...

  • About Us
  • Archives
  • SWG Registration

© 2021 SAMRACK - Diaspora News & Updates; design by: Samrack.

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • ALL NEWS
  • Diaspora
  • Africa
    • AFRICA
    • KENYA
  • BUSINESS
    • BUSINESS
    • INVESTMENTS
    • REAL ESTATE
    • TECHNOLOGY
  • Politics
  • Health
    • HEALTH
    • EDUCATION
  • Religion
  • People
    • PEOPLE
    • LIFESTYLE
    • RELATIONSHIPS
  • Obituaries
  • Videos
  • Events

© 2021 SAMRACK - Diaspora News & Updates; design by: Samrack.

Page generated in 1.157 seconds. Stats plugin by www.blog.ca