Two Kenyan women stranded in Saudi Arabia plead for State help

Aisha Baya, 20, and Mariam Said, 30 who are stranded in Saudi Arabia plead for State help. [Robert Menza, Standard]

Two Kenyan women enduring torture and forceful detention by their Saudi agent have appealed to the government to rescue them.

Ms Aisha Baya, 20, and Mariam Said, 30, said they were duped into employment as domestic workers by a Mombasa-based agent last year.

Speaking to The Standard via WhatsApp yesterday, the women from Likoni said they are living in pathetic conditions in the city of Al Kharj, central Saudi Arabia. Al Kharj is located South East of Saudi capital, Riyadh.

‘’We were promised decent employment and working conditions by the agent after completing all processes locally. When we first arrived here, it was only rosy in the first four months before things took a nose dive,’’ said Baya.

She said she has been made to work in several homes against the contract. “I was not employed to work as a door-to-door worker. I have been telling the host agent to allow me to leave, but he has remained adamant,” she said.

She said she had been physically tortured and suffered beatings from the host agent. ‘’We are being starved. We only have one meal a day, yet they expect us to work,’’ Baya said.

Said said things never clicked from the time she landed. “I never thought things would be rough. I was shuttled from house to house and even did home care work, tending to an ageing woman. I am forced to stay awake all night,” she said.

She said she developed back pain due to long working hours. ‘’The man who is holding us is violent and has beaten us repeatedly for no apparent reason,’’ said Said, a mother of two.

She noted that another worker, a Ugandan, was rescued by her government recently after being subjected to slavery. Back home, Mr Kalunji Juma, a Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) national married to Ms Said is cursing himself after he allowed his wife to work in Saudi Arabia.

“My wife and her friend Aisha are undergoing torture physically and mentally. Their immediate hosts lack humanity,” said Juma.

He said when his wife finally left for the Gulf nation, he knew things would be better for the family. ‘’My wife is hardworking and with what she was to make in Saudi Arabia, we were sure of at least a better life here. My humble appeal is for the government to intervene and have her and her friend repatriated back home,’’ Juma said.

A heartbroken Hussein Nzaka, an elder brother to Ms Baya, said the two were recruited by a Mombasa based firm, Global Solidarity, with its contact person listed as a Mr Al Amin.

He said that he has tried to trace the Mombasa agent but to no avail. Efforts by The Standard to reach the local recruiter, whose contacts were shared, proved futile.