Parents of a 28-year-old woman who went with her friends to Saudi Arabia to work want the government to assist them return her to Kenya saying she escaped death narrowly from her employer.
The woman, Faith Njeri, who was in the company of three others, who all come from Ikinu location in Githunguri district, are alleged to have been connected to Saudi Arabia by an agent known as James Mbugua from Nairobi. “She went on August 18 this year. She was in the company of four other girls. They were taken by an agent called James Mbugua who told us that they were safe in his hands. But we are now crying over her life,” said the father, John Muroki.
He said they did not hear from for a month after they left. “For a month, we did not get any communication until November when she called and talked about hardships she was going through,” Muroki said. “She told us that her employer was subjecting her to hard labour and working many hours without food. She has been seeking a way to come back,” he said.
“We approached the broker who promised that he will bring her back within a week but he did not honor.” “We called him but he was not of much help,” said the mother Angela Waithira. She said her daughter escape from her employer and went to the airport where a government police officer took her to the police detention deportation station where she is being held.
Speaking to the Star from the Talhin deportation centre in Saudi Arabia on phone, Njeri said that they are about 30 women who want to return home. She said that although they are getting some food at the centre, they are yearning to get back home as soon as possible. The mother of two said that while working as a house girl, she “met face-to-face with slavery”.
She said that they have been witnessing women being killed and their bodies disposed. She said that with the work atmosphere of mistreatment, they are being killed slowly. “I was neither given food nor allowed to take shower. I was being overloaded with work, I used to sleep on the floor . So I realised that I would be killed after some time and thus I escaped to the airport where I was taken to the deportation centre,” said Njeri.
Human rights activist with Community Bridge Network which has been assisting in deporting the women back to Kenya called upon the government to help the girl and many others who have been locked in Arabia to return. He also pleaded with the government and block the bogus agents’ from trafficking the children. He said, “the Saudi employers pay Kenyan agents not less than Sh300, 000 per child and when you call on the agent to help the child to return, the broker asks for Sh100, 000.
He said that the 12-person-commission which was set aside by the government to investigate the cartel has done nothing up to this far.” Some of Njeri’s colleagues and other women from other countries, according to Kamau, have been killed a month earlier and their bodies disposed in refrigerators. They had been closed in the refrigerators while arrive. Other two who went with her were deported a month ago after they escaped death narrowly.
Kamau said that they were locked up in Talhin and later through the help of a Kenyan official in Kenyan embassy in Saudi Arabia, they were returned home. He said that he has information that another prison called Maktabah which is about 300 kilometers Talhin deportation center has about 151 women who are being locked awaiting deportation back to Kenya. “We have very many Kenyan women who are in the two centers and we are concerned that if urgent is done, they might die out of shock and lack of proper care. We are aware that men who go in Saudi Arabia do not suffer as much as women do. We are warning parents not to allow their children from going into the Arab country,” said Kamau.
Source: NAIROBI STAR
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