Audio: Kenyan woman detained in Saudi Arabia pleads for help
A Kenyan woman detained in Saudi Arabia is desperately calling out for help to return home.Ms Elizabeth Sineno, who is currently detained at the labour offices Jouf Sakaka in Saudi Arabia, has sent audio recordings appealing for assistance.
In one of the recordings sent to the Nation, Ms Sineno is heard narrating how her dreams of improving her life were shuttered.
She says things changed from bad to worse after her former boss, for whom she had worked for three years, sold her off to an unidentified woman.
Ms Sineno claims to have left Watamu, Mombasa County, in 2014 for Saudi Arabia, anticipating to get a job that would free her from the jaws of abject poverty.
According to Ms Sineno, the said woman hired her services for four years, though on and off.
She however recounts of a fateful day on June 16, 2018 when the said woman together with her son drove her off to a city called Tabuk in the northwest and abandoned her there.
According to Ms Sineno, the son was driving the car and after several kilometres away, she was asked to alight after the woman claimed there was a puncture.
“The son who was on the wheel faked a puncture and asked everyone to disembark the vehicle. He then threw my bags outside before he and his mother drove away leaving me behind,” says Ms Sineno.
She was later saved by police officers who took her to a police station at Aljouf Sakaka, a city farther northwest.
She was then taken to the labour offices where she met other women who had been detained there.
“Since then we have been held hostage at the labour offices for the last one year without proper accommodation nor medication,” the distraught woman says.
“We have been trying to reach the Kenyan embassy for assistance to no avail and we request Kenyans of good will to help us get back home.”
APPEAL
According to the recording, the women are now fearing for their children whom they claim depend on them and are now struggling back at home.
Mr Noni Mbuggus, an old school media coordinator and a community worker in Watamu, told the Nation that Ms Sineno’s parents and her friends cannot afford to bring her back to Kenya.
“I know Ms Sineno’s parents cannot raise money for her air ticket back to Kenya and that’s why she has resorted to making appeal to well-wishers,” said Mr Mbuggus.
Mr Mbarrak Randu, who is from Kilifi County but resides in Jeddah, said he was contacted by one of Ms Sineno’s relatives who requested him to check on them.
Speaking to Nation on phone, Mr Randu said he contacted a man called Abu Yusuf who works at the labour offices and later booked a two-hour flight from Jeddah to Sakaka in Jouf County, Saudi Arabia to visit the women.
“I went to check on the women yesterday and confirmed that they are in good health. What they only want is to get back home,” said Mr Randu.
He also confirmed that they have been there for the last one year.
By KATE WANDERI
-nation.co.ke
