TWO Kiambu county politicians have warned Kenyan parents against sending their children to work in Saudi Arabia.
Kiambu county women rep Annah Nyokabi and Kabete MP George Muchai said many Kenyan jobseekers who go there are either mistreated or even killed by their employers.
The two spoke yesterday in Kabete during a requiem mass for Eunice Wanjiku, 38, who mysteriously died in the hands of her employer, believed to be an army officer, in Saudi Arabia.
Her body remained in the country for nearly three years and was marked as that of an unidentified person.
Nyokabi said that there should be a legislation for employment agencies to be registered with the Foreign Affairs ministry so as to account for the whereabouts of all those people going to work abroad.
“We need a legislation that all people going to work abroad and also employment agencies to be registered by foreign affairs so that every Kenyan can be accounted for as we have never ending story of mistreatment and deaths which are unexplained,”said Nyokabi.
Nyokabi said that the Saudi Arabian government should pay for the lives of Kenyans whom have died there and the Kenyan ambassador there should be recalled so that they can explain the circumstances which Kenyans are being mistreated and nothing is being done.
“We will not allow all these deaths of Kenyans in Saudi Arabia to go unanswered nor compensated and the Kenyan ambassador there should be recalled as many deaths have occurred in that country and nothing has been done,”said Nyokabi.
Nyokabi said that she will take it up to parliament and demand to know how many Kenyans are working, arrested and mistreated in Saudi Arabia and also demand to visit on a fact finding mission to verify if there are jobs benefiting Kenyans.
“I want visas issued at the moment to Kenyans to go work abroad be closed and i will demand parliament to let the committee which i represent of foreign affairs to be sent to Saudi Arabia to see whether there are real jobs in Saudi Arabia as facts are Kenyans are treated as sex slaves and mistreated and never eat decent meals,”said Nyokabi.
Muchai on his part said that in parliament in labour committee he represents said that they have put clauses in foreign contracts which will ensure those applying work abroad be known the nature of work being offered, insurance and all necessary details including salary be know whether it will be beneficial to Kenyans.
“Employments agents are human trafficking for slavery in Arab countries because why take someones passport so that they can not have freedom to decide if the job they went for is good for them or not? we are making laws in my labour committee on foreign contracts which will safeguard Kenyans working abroad,”said Muchai.
According to information given after investigations by embassies with the intervention of the Kiambu women representative Annah Nyokabi and Foreign Affairs Cabinet Secretary Amina Mohamed, Ms Wanjiku’s body had been lying in a Saudi Arabian mortuary since 2012.
-The Star
