“Things were so tough at home. Having dropped out of university due to lack of finances, with a seriously ailing mother, siblings in need of school fees and with no job, I had no option than to travel to Saudi Arabia to work as a domestic laborer. Here, I escaped death in the hands of my barbarous employer by a whisker. It was hell. I thank God that today I am alive and free.”

Diana Chepkemoi

BOMET, Kenya-After my photos looking frail went viral online, I was rescued from a brutal Saudi Arabia employer and brought back home.

The Struggle was Real

I flew out of the country a year ago to seek employment so that I could finalize my education at Meru University. I was pursuing a degree in food science and management before I deferred my studies due to financial constraints.

Having finished only one academic year in the university, all I wanted was to ensure that the journey I had started on matters education, was completed. However, I lacked school fees and the only alternative left was to secure a job and resume my studies.

At the time, the financial situation at home was miserable. My mother was seriously ailing. My siblings were also in need of school fees and basic upkeep. As a first born, I felt innately obligated for their wellbeing.

Each time I accessed my WhatsApp account, I would be demoralized to see how my former classmates in the university were engaged in discussing matters classwork, yet here I was, just at home idling, keeping my ailing mother company. This affected my self-esteem immensely.

Seeking Greener Pastures

Staying out of school for long, failing to secure a job in Kenya, and with fading hopes of doing anything toward funding my mothers hospital bills as well as my pending academic ambitions, I then decided to try my luck at securing a job abroad. This was the beginning of my journey to Saudi Arabia.

Resolved in finding a foreign job, I was linked up with Ms. Susan Makhungu, who through her recruiting agency in Kenya, organized to secure me a job in Saudi Arabia as a domestic worker. By then, I was extremely excited, and looked forward to working for one of the royal families in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

In this optimistic mood, I left Kenya in July 2021. Spirited with bubbling anticipations, a winning outlook and the promise of earning an untaxed salary for a whole two-years contract, I enthusiastically boarded a plane to Saudi Arabia to seek out greener pastures.

I had a clear vision. All I wanted was to finish my undergraduate degree, get a reasonable job and therefore uplift myself and my family.

Working in Saudi Arabia

Few months after beginning work in Saudi Arabia, I realized that things were not a walk in the park as I had anticipated. Whenever I made a simple human mistake, I would be confronted with wrath by my royal employer and his family.

One day I cooked food that they didn’t prefer, instead of warning me, they brutally hurled it over my face. I swallowed the abuse in meek silence.

Thinking that this would end soon, I was all wrong. Few weeks later, it began once again. My employer and his family became extremely harsh. I was only doing my job as expected yet apart from the man, the lady of the home and her children grew more and more resentful toward me, as if I was their enemy. “You are not good enough” they echoed.

Contrary to Expectations

Despite my genuine efforts, they continued questioning all my actions, denying me food and enough time to rest, mocking that no action would be taken against them simply because they are a royal family. “You can not do anything” they kept threatening, “Where will you go now?”

For some months, my employer withheld my wages, rationalizing that I was not good enough to deserve payment, or that I would be paid in due course. This broke my heart even more. How can I forget the psychological trauma I went through in Saudi Arabia?

They told me that I had no choice but to do whatever they wished, claiming that they had bought me until my contract expired. They stressed that if I tried anything suspicious, they would go forth in making sure that I was locked up. This was a stark contrast to my prior expectations of landing a job and earning good pay in the safe environment I had been guaranteed.

Confinement

Even worse, the ‘kafala system’ in Saudi Arabia required housemaids like myself to obtain permission from their respective employers in case they wanted to change jobs or leave the country. This meant that I had little, if any, chances of getting out of this confining modern-day slavery. Here, I was enveloped in a caging melancholic haze.

After undergoing so much anguish, I couldn’t take it anymore. Without hesitation, I reported to my agent but instead of assisting me, she acted reluctant. “My hands are tied, you are working for a royal family” Ms. Makhungu had responded coyly.

This was so disappointing and depressing. She was the only person I expected help from. Meanwhile, my health was quickly deteriorating. I lost so much weight in few days. In deep sorrow, I took photos of myself and shared them on social media. Little did I know that this simple act would trigger action.

When I finally got a chance to walk out of my employer’s homestead and was taken to the hospital to undergo medical checkup, I was somewhat hopeful, yet still pessimistic.

The Twitter Campaign

While in the hospital, I borrowed a smartphone and signed online. I was relieved to learn that people who cared, especially my relatives back in Kenya, were conducting an online campaign on Twitter termed ‘#LetsBringDianaHome,’ for my return.

It had started with one Kenyan Twitter user, @MeBeTed, who had taken to the social networking platform to post my photos looking weary and sickly. To me, this was nothing other than a miracle.

Coming Back Home

On Sep. 6, 2022, I was unexpectedly picked from the hospital. With regained hope, I flew back to Kenya. I was excited to be finally home, free and alive.

My journey back to Kenya was facilitated by the collective efforts of Kenya’s Labor Cabinet Sec. Simon Chelugui and Health Principal Sec. Peter Tum among others.

My case was somewhat better because I managed to raise alarm earlier. When I think about the kind of mistreatment being orchestrated on them, I shiver in fear. It is very serious, other female domestic workers are still trapped and miserable in Saudi Arabia.

Were it not for interventions from relatives, friends, the Kenyan embassy officials and leaders in Kenya, I would have returned home lifeless. I am really happy.

Back to School

Few days after my return to Kenya, Meru University of Science and Technology offered me a job and a full scholarship to allow me to complete my studies as well as earn some income. By the grace of God, I now have the opportunity to pursue my career and live up to my full potential.

I am grateful to Meru University family for accepting me back. The University has so far placed me under the student work-study program; a platform designed to empower financially needy students. Moreover, I cannot believe that today I command a huge following on TikTok.

Coming back to Kenya, I left other hundreds of Kenyans in a desolate state in the Gulf country. I feel sorry for those who are still in the dark-those vulnerable female domestic workers from Kenya who are suffering in silence, with no one coming to their rescue.

I plead with the government to do something about this because a lot of vulnerable women working in the Gulf are undergoing unfathomable physical and mental torture. My friends are dying out there in a foreign land.

For other Kenyans planning to travel to Saudi Arabia for work, think twice before proceeding with your plans.

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Background Information

Saudi Arabia is well known for its negative labor and human rights record, and is widely deemed as one of the most risky areas to work in the world.

Unlike in the west, where migration target highly educated employees, the Gulf countries target migrants from vulnerable families, especially unskilled African women, to work as domestic workers.

Here, workers are compelled to sign contract documents written in Arabic. After this binding exercise, attempt to escape could only end up in a detention camp.

According to latest statistics from Central Bank of Kenya, Saudi Arabia is the third largest source of Kenya’s remittances after the US and UK. For the first eight months of last year (2022), Kenya fetched $187 million from Kenyans in Saudi Arabia.

Despite such economic gains, employers in the Gulf nations have repeatedly been accused of physically, psychologically and sexually ill treating their
migrant housemaids for years; assertions which persist to date.

In Kenya, reports of severe abuse elicited fresh outrage earlier in September last year (2022), when shocking photos of 24-years-old, Saudi-based Kenyan worker Diana Chepkemoi looking sick went viral online-along with claims that she was facing serious torture and confinement.

Under escalating pressure from the public, Saudi Arabia’s government released her and few other domestic employees encountering identical predicament in the Gulf nation.

In the case of Chepkemoi, it was only after an online Twitter campaign termed ‘#LetsBringDianaHome, ’that she was rescued and eventual brought back home.

Soon after returning to Kenya, Chepkemoi narrated the nightmarish physical and mental torture that other Kenyan women working in the Gulf country are going through, and urged the government to intervene.

Cases of Exploitation

In a report by Kenya’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs presented to the National Assembly, at least 89 Kenyans, most of whom were female domestic workers, died in Saudi Arabia between 2020 and 2021.

According to a Mombasa-based human rights organization Haki Africa, which champions for the rights of workers across the globe, until just a few years ago, Saudi Arabia’s ‘Kafala system’ expected housemaids to obtain consent from their respective employer if they needed to change jobs or leave the country. Such conditions made them vulnerable to oppression.

Haki Africa also revealed more than 51 complains of severe abuse from Kenyan domestic laborers based in Saudi Arabia in the year 2022.

Government Action

Cornered by these disturbing statistics, Kenya’s Foreign Affairs Ministry went forth to propose a prohibition on the deployment of Kenyan domestic laborers to Saudi Arabia until safety regulations were put in place.

Among the proposed measures include vetting of recruitment agencies, documenting the accredited ones, and obliging them to pay a safety agreement fee that can be used to repatriate domestic laborers facing torture in the Gulf.

Recently, the government has also signed bilateral labor agreements with Saudi Arabia, and set up a distress reporting portal.

In allegiance, Saudi Arabia has pledged to institutionalize these regulations in order to safeguard migrant, female domestic workers; chief among them including reforms to the controversial Kafala System, as well as the introduction of a compensation insurance program. Whether the agreement between these two countries will work or not, is only subject to time.

Tags:

#DIANA CHEPKEMOI #KENYA #SAUDI ARABIA#RIYADH#SLAVERY #KAFALA SYSTEM #TORTURE