The body of a Kenyan woman who died within hours of giving birth in Saudi Arabia is still stuck at a morgue a month after her death.
The deceased, Tina Zighe, 24, who served as a househelp hailed from Bura location, Mwatate Constituency in Taita Taveta County. She died at the Al Mubarak Hospital, Warsham, Riyadh in Saudi Arabia after being taken there following after-birth complications.
Her mother, Honorinah Machcho Mwambi is pleading with the government to assist her to bring the body of her daughter back home for burial.
“I am not able to foot the bills incurred and the cost of air freighting the body as I am a single mother and have no meaningful income,” she told The Counties at her rented house in Kongowea estate.
Constant communication
Machcho said Zighe left for Saudi Arabia in 2011 where she was first employed as a househelp.
A job placement contractin our possession showed she was recruited by Al Fatah Global Connections, an overseasrecruitment agencybased in Mombasa.
“We were in constant communication with her during her sojourn in Saudi Arabia. She told me of her Kenyan boyfriend who was responsible for the pregnancy,” Machcho revealed.
She also said Zighe had told her of her new job as a cleaner at a school in Riyadh.
She remembers on the fateful day her daughter died, she was about to retire to bed when she received an international phonecall.
“The caller, who spoke in fluent Kiswahili, told me my daughter had a successful home delivery but was encountering problems she could not attend to,” said Machcho. She says the caller was inquiring what to do in such circumstances.
She says she told the caller to immediately take Zighe to hospital for specialised attention.
I was beginning to get worried and was in constant touch up to the time they informed me that they had reached hospital. But the sad news came in minutes later that she had died,” Honorinah said amid sobs.
She said she later found out that her daughter’s boyfriend whom she identified as Ali Mohamed Abdalah was jobless.
Shipped back
Attempts to get consular assistance from the Kenyan Embassy in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for the single mother have been unsuccessful.
She showed The Counties a copy of a letter stamped by the Kadhi’s court, Mombasa, which she had written to the Kenyan Embassy in Saudi Arabia giving Mohamed the go-ahead to make all arrangements on behalf of the family to have the body shipped back.- The Standard
