Zila Chao is among scores of women who were recently enlisted by agents to work as domestic workers in Oman. The mother of two left home three months ago after being promised a well-paying job.
However, all is not rosy for Chao in the foreign country. According to her parents and agents, the domestic worker has now been confined in an office in Oman after she allegedly breached her two-year contract. Chao now wants to come back home, but the agents who facilitated her trip to Oman are demanding Sh250,000 so that she can be released.
Her parents said the 38-year old left her home three months ago after being promised a lucrative deal, a deal which did not materialise as she had expected. Chao’s distraught father, Charles Mwavua, said his daughter had been detained in one of her employer’s offices until the prescribed agent fees were paid as per the agreed working deal.
“We have been granted permission by the county government to raise funds from well-wishers to secure her release, including her air ticket back home. The more we delay, the more my daughter continue to suffer,” he said.
“My daughter has been in constant communication with her sister but not any more,” said Mwavua.
Two-year contract
Speaking to The Standard at Governor John Mruttu’s office in Wundanyi town, where he had gone to solicit for funds, the old man said his daughter had signed a two-year working agreement with the agent and employer. “The brokers are also demanding their share,” he claimed.
“We have been talking to her for the last two weeks but her mobile phone went off. Even though the agents have assured us that she is safe, we do not know what is happening,” said Mwavua. In a permit seen by The Standard, Deputy County Commissioner Erastus Mbui has authorised the family to solicit funds from relatives, friends and well-wishers to enable their daughter travel back to Kenya. “The amount required is Sh250,000,” said the commissioner, who signed the permit.
One of the victim’s agents, identified only as Mr Swale, confirmed that they had facilitated her trip to Oman. The agent, however, said the woman did not owe them any money as claimed by her parents. “The women had signed a two-year contract with her employer but she only worked for a few months and left the job. She breached her contractual agreement and her employer wants his money back for the months she had not worked,” said Swale on phone from Nairobi.
“We have been in constant communication with the employer. What he needs is his money and nothing else so as to release her. As for us, the women does not owe us money,” he added.
