Kenyan returnee exposes rogue job agents in human trafficking scandal

Labour CS Alfred Mutua before the Senate's Committee on Labour and Social Welfare chaired by Julius Murgor in regards to various recruitment agencies implicated in the ongoing diaspora jobs program. The session follows statement by Senator Gloria Orwoba seeking answers on the fate of 89 jobs seekers whompaid medical and visa processing fees but remain in limbo months later ,at Mini Chambers, County Hall, Parliament, Nairobi. May 6th,2025. [Elvis Ogina, Standard]

Persons returning to the country have continued to expose rogue agents exploiting job seekers in search of overseas employment, particularly in the Gulf and Asia, lifting the lid on a growing crisis that is leaving young Kenyans vulnerable to modern-day slavery, deception, and abuse.

In a recent case filed before the Employment and Labour Relations Court in Nairobi, the magnitude of the exploitation has been laid bare. 

The petition, filed by Duncan Okindo, a Kenyan returnee trafficked to Myanmar, details a chilling operation run by a local recruitment agent, namely Gratify Solutions International Ltd, who promised lucrative jobs but instead delivered victims into the hands of international trafficking syndicates.

Okindo, represented by Manasseh & Company Advocates, alleges that Gratify Solutions International Ltd and its top officials, Virginia Wacheke Muriithi, Boniface Owino, and Ann Njeri Kihara, trafficked him under pretences and subjected him to forced labour and criminal exploitation.

In his court papers, Okindo says that the agency and its officials orchestrated and facilitated his trafficking to Myanmar against his will.

"The Petitioner is one of a multitude of victims of the Respondents’ illegal activities, having been deceptively recruited, smuggled, and trafficked by the Respondents to Myanmar, where he was subjected to exploitation and inhumane conditions at the hands of transnational criminal syndicates," the court papers read in part.

The lawsuit shows that the trafficked individuals are subjected to forced labour, slavery, mandatory medical tests, and isolation, all while performing criminal acts that could expose them to prosecution in foreign countries.

Okindo states that he was trafficked from Kenya by the agency, with a false promise of working as customer service personnel in Bangkok Thailand, only to be smuggled by boat on the Moei River in Mae Sot, into Myanmar, where he was forced to work in a scam compound to performed complex criminal activities involving cyber fraud.

“I thought I was going to work in a call centre in Bangkok. Instead, I was smuggled into Myanmar by boat and forced to carry out cyber fraud for a criminal gang,” Okindo told the court in his affidavit.

In Thailand, Okindo alleges that those who are trafficked are handed over to criminal syndicates and forcibly exploited in online fraud operations targeting citizens of the United States and other countries.

Okindo says that the agents use tourist visas to deceive immigration systems, ferrying young Kenyans to Thailand under the guise of travel.

“The Respondents are unlawfully recruiting unsuspecting Kenyan youths by deceitfully promising lucrative jobs… then smuggling them across borders for exploitative purposes,” reads the petition.

He, however, urged the court to intervene and halt the agency and its official activities as they are unlawfully recruiting unsuspecting Kenyan youths by deceitfully promising lucrative employment opportunities in Bangkok, smuggling them to Thailand for non-existent jobs by use of tourist VISAs.

On Wednesday, June 4, 2025, Justice Hellen Wasilwa of the Employment Court issued interim conservatory orders restraining the agency and its officials from engaging in any labour export activities pending the hearing and determination of the petition by Okindo, a returnee recently rescued from Myanmar.

“Pending the hearing and determination of the Application and Petition, this Honourable Court issues a conservatory order restraining the Respondents (Gratify Solutions International Ltd, Virginia Wacheke Muriithi, Boniface Owino, and Ann Njeri Kihara) from recruiting, transporting, harbouring, exploiting, facilitating, or engaging in the export or deployment of Kenyan workers to foreign jurisdictions,” ruled Justice Wasilwa.

The court intervention marks a critical moment in the country’s fight against transnational human trafficking, especially at a time when more returnees are stepping forward to reveal the scale of abuse suffered abroad.

Okindo’s petition reveals how he was lured with the promise of a legal, salaried job in Thailand, only to be smuggled by boat into Myanmar and forced to work for cybercrime syndicates in a scam compound. 

His journey started after finalising his diploma in mass communication. 

The Petitioner, a young Kenyan male of 26 years of age, embarked on a search for greener pastures.

Okindo contacted Gratify Solutions International Ltd through Wacheke, who facilitated and processed his foreign job placement along with the Njeri and Owino.  

He says he was compelled to undergo an HIV test at the direction and with the full knowledge and sanction of the Respondents, who claimed it was necessary to determine his readiness for work.

After complying with all the agency's requests, he was, however, told that he would travel abroad.

Like many others, Okindo believed he had secured a legitimate position abroad. The job promised was customer service work in Bangkok.

"On December 15, 2024, the Petitioner(Okindo) arrived at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport from his home in Umoja in time for his scheduled departure at 5:00 pm to Bangkok, Thailand, where he was to work as a customer service personnel, leveraging his educational background in mass communication," reads the court papers.

Upon arrival, his passport was confiscated, and he was driven to the border, ferried across the Moei River at night into Myawaddy, Myanmar, a known hotspot for cybercrime syndicates operating under armed protection.

There, he was imprisoned in a guarded compound, forced to work for hours on end scamming foreign nationals online.

“They told me I couldn’t leave. I had no way out as they had taken my passport. We worked 14 to 16 hours a day, committing fraud. We were beaten if we failed to meet fraud targets. I saw people tortured. I never thought I’d make it back alive,” his affidavit reads.

Okindo adds that he was subjected to severe physical abuse, as well as relentless mental and psychological torment, including intimidation, threats, electric shocks, solitary confinement, starvation, physical beatings, severe punishments, and constant fear for his life.

He was rescued from the scam compounds on April 4, 2025, by the joint efforts of the government of Kenya and the military from Thailand, following which he was repatriated to Kenya.  

The Petitioner now reveals that he did not voluntarily render unrewarded labour; he was tricked into supplying a form of labour fitting the description of human trafficking, compulsory or forced labour in forced criminality.  

"Upon his return to Kenya and after obtaining legal advice from Lillian Nyangasi, Advocate, the Petitioner discovered that the Gratify Solutions International Ltd's employment agency was operating unlawfully," the court papers read.

" The agency is neither registered with the National Employment Authority nor had it obtained the requisite permits to facilitate the exportation of labour."

Okindo says that he was never provided with a written contract of employment before he departed for Bangkok, Thailand.

"The Petitioner is still undergoing counselling to facilitate his full recovery and rehabilitation from the criminal ideas and skills obtained during his enslavement in Myanmar," His Lawyer Nyangasi told the judge. 

The petition states that the agents knowingly trafficked him for criminal exploitation, violating his constitutional rights under Articles 28 (human dignity), 29 (security of the person), and 30 (freedom from servitude).

Through his lawyer Nyangasi, Okindo is now seeking multiple declarations from the court stating that he was subjected to slavery, human trafficking, forced labour, inhumane treatment, and violation of his rights to movement, privacy, and dignity. 

The lawsuit also calls for a permanent injunction barring the agency from engaging in labour recruitment in line with the Counter Trafficking in Persons Act.

Okindo also seeks and demands compensation for rights violations and damages totalling Sh30 million.

According to lawyer Nyangasi, the petition represents the first legal action in Kenya addressing human trafficking for criminal exploitation, a growing but under-prosecuted form of transnational trafficking.

“This is the first petition in Kenya dealing specifically with human trafficking for forced criminality,” said Nyangasi. 

“This is a landmark case. It signals to traffickers and their collaborators that their time is up,” she added.

According to Nyangasi, most previous cases involved labour or domestic servitude, but the criminality dimension, where victims are trafficked to commit crimes under duress, is new and dangerous.

Okindo’s case is far from isolated. On May 25, Rosemary Mwihaki-Mungai, 29, landed at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) after spending eight brutal months in Karbala, Iraq, under conditions she described as "worse than prison."

Her family says she was denied medical care and abused by her agents when they requested help.

“When we told the agent she was sick, he said, ‘She can die.’ Those were his exact words,” said her sister Teresia, who had tried to replace Rosemary in Iraq so she could return home for treatment, a proposal the agents flatly refused.

“When I visited their Nairobi office, they mocked me. They said I had too much money to be asking for help. They saw us as disposable,” she added.

The sisters say the agent, El-alkali, treated the situation with indifference, even after Rosemary collapsed while working in Karbala.

Her case, though not yet in court, mirrors the same patterns of deception and abandonment seen in Southeast Asia.

The petition and accompanying documents expose how these rogue agencies mask trafficking operations under the pretence of employment, often using tourist visas to sneak victims across borders before rerouting them to destinations such as Myanmar or Gulf cities like Karbala, Riyadh, and Abu Dhabi.

“They promise jobs in customer service or hospitality. Once abroad, victims are held in remote compounds, often with their documents seized, and are either forced to work without pay or engaged in cybercrime rings,” Nyangasi explained.

According to the petition, the agent’s actions are not only violations of human rights but also criminal offences under both Kenyan law and international anti-trafficking treaties to which Kenya is a party.

“We were desperate for jobs, but we were sold. We trusted our fellow Kenyans, and they sold us like goods,” Okindo says.

Justice Wasilwa has directed Okindo's case to be heard on June 12, 2025.