A Mombasa family has appealed for help to bring back their daughter from Saudi Arabia where she has allegedly been subjected to slavery.
Mwanaiki Said, a 34-year-old mother of three according to her Kenyan family has been reduced to a household slave in Medina where she works.
She has allegedly been subjected to beatings, hunger, no pay and lack of sleep as her bed is often drenched in water.
Additionally, cites the Star, her smartphone was confiscated, smashed and was given a low-end phone to use.
At one time, she was struck in the head with a rod for making a cup of tea. All this come barely a year since she left Kenya for greener pastures.
For the first two months, she sent home Ksh25,000 from her Ksh30,000 salary but never sent a dime thereafter.
Reports indicate that her mistress withheld her salary after the third month and mistreatment began.
“When she called, complained she is forced to do dishes or laundry twice. Her employer said laundry or dishes were not clean enough ” Saumu Omar, Mwanaiki’s mother, told the Star.
When she spoke to Haki Africa, she Mwanaiki’s mother said that her daughter has become hopeless.
“I cannot stand her suffering anymore. She is beaten daily and has become hopeless. She asks me to care for her three children, as she cannot see herself coming home alive,” Omar said.
Sadly, her agent cannot be reached because he never picks calls from the family.
“He does not pick calls or respond to messages,” Haki Africa rapid response officer Mathias Shipeta.
Harriet Muganda, who also works for Haki Africa blamed the Kenyan government for losing focus on agents sending workers to Saudi Arabia.
Shipeta added that most domestic workers who are sent to the Gulf and Middle East sign contracts without understanding them because they are written in Arabic yet they don’t understand it.