The Middle East Slavery: It’s Time to Quit the Urge for Saudi Arabian Jobs!

There is no doubt that the most pressing challenge for young Kenyans today is the lack of decent jobs for the highly, moderately, and lowly educated youths.

According to the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics Economic Survey 2021, total employment outside small-scale agriculture and pastoral activities stood at 17.4 million in 2020, down from the 18.1 million recorded in 2019.

In the same period, the survey found that wage employment in the private sector declined by 10 percent from 2.1 million jobs in 2019 to 1.9 million jobs in 2020, and “informal sector employment is estimated to have contracted to 14.5 million jobs”.

Consequently, hundreds of thousands of these youths, especially girls, have opted to dip their nets in the Middle East countries such as Saudi Arabia,  Dubai, and Qatar, in hope of catching at least a fish to quench their hunger.

Kenyan Women and girls are employed in private households in these regions where they perform basic household chores like cooking, cleaning, caring for children, and other essential tasks.

The irony, however, is the fact that despite their vital role, they are among the most abused and exploited workers. They work long hours for wages far below the minimum rate and some suffer physical and sexual violence. The innocent souls have been for sure made slaves in their line of duty!

A fresh and haunting incident is that of Diana Chepkemoi, a 24-year-old Kenyan student who had gone to Saudi Arabia in search of a better life but ended up getting detained. She revealed intricate details of her troubles in Saudi Arabia during her emotional arrival at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) on Tuesday, September 6, 2022.

“I left Kenya to go to Saudi Arabia with the hopes of getting a better life and to be honest, mine was just the tip of the iceberg, and people are suffering there. My friends are suffering. I plead with the government to rescue our people. They are psychologically and mentally tortured. It’s a shame being told that there is nothing the government can do.”

The ill-treatment and abuse of Kenyan workers in the Gulf are not new. Reports of Kenyan domestic workers in Saudi Arabia suffering physical and sexual abuse or dying under controversial circumstances have continued to appear in the press in recent years.

On social media, we hear stories of how these youngsters’ lives end within a blink of an eye, and sometimes their sensitive body organs are chopped off.

Am sure you have also heard of the many tales of the poor working conditions, which deteriorate their health. Unfortunately, once you are there you are a slave. You can’t go to the hospital. Looks like the employers are happy when you die.  Or maybe there is a gain for your death.

Chepkemoi’s case is just but one of the very many cases of young girls seeking job opportunities in the Middle East but ending up getting tortured or return as corpses. In June 2022, one lady called Beatrice Waruguru’s body arrived at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport from Saudi Arabia, almost a year after she was reported dead.

In 2010, another victim Rose Adhiambo went to Beirut in search of a job at the age of 24, only to return home in a coffin six months later after being subjected to a catalog of abuse by employers.

In yet another case of an unfortunate turn of events, Jane Njeri Kamau, 36, died under similarly harrowing circumstances in November 2014, also in Lebanon, where she had been employed as a house help. Njeri fell ill while in police custody together with her friend, 22-year-old Margaret Nyakeru.

Both had been detained after fleeing from their respective employers because of “ill-treatment”. They had been arrested in May of that year and held for five months. Nyakeru lived to tell the story.

The cases we see are just about a quarter of them all. There are so many stories untold of girls who are stuck in the Middle East. They just sit there waiting for their dawn! All hopes of ever getting home, whether dead or alive all gone.

And even with all these reports and data received, many young girls are still journeying to the Middle East. They say experience is the best teacher but getting to experience life in the Middle East as a domestic worker is the worst you could ever dream of.

In July 2021, Labour Cabinet Secretary Simon Chelugui said that since January 2019, the ministry had facilitated the employment of over 87,784 Kenyans in the Middle East, most of them working in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, UAE, and Bahrain.