Selestine Kemoli fled to the Kenyan Embassy in Riyadh in 2020, terrified and determined.
Ms. Kemoli had been working in Saudi Arabia as a maid. Like many East Africans in her scenario, she stated, she was being abused. She instructed the embassy’s labor attaché that her boss slashed her breasts with a paring knife, pressured her to drink urine and raped her.
Broke and alone, she wished assist getting house to her two youngsters in Kenya.
“You might be stunning,” the labor attaché, Robinson Juma Twanga, responded, in keeping with Ms. Kemoli.
Mr. Twanga supplied to assist, she stated, however with a catch. “I’ll sleep with you, simply the identical means your boss has slept with you,” she remembers him saying.
A number of ladies, who didn’t know one another and lived in separate counties, instructed The New York Occasions that after they fled abuse in Saudi Arabia, Mr. Twanga demanded intercourse or cash, or pressured them to enter intercourse work to pay for a ticket house.
Legal professionals say they’ve collected comparable accounts from quite a few ladies involving different embassy officers. They stated that Mr. Twanga is however one instance of how these officers exploit ladies at their most weak moments.
A spokesman for William Ruto, Kenya’s president, commenting on behalf of the Overseas Ministry, stated he had no information of such complaints or any mistreatment by embassy officers.
Reached by cellphone and instructed what the ladies had stated about him, Mr. Twanga replied: “I can’t become involved in that form of story.” He stated he’s retired.
The ladies, who had been interviewed throughout Kenya, gave constant accounts. They stated Kenyan officers insulted them and questioned whether or not they wanted assist, even after they arrived on the embassy destitute and with seen indicators of abuse.
Ms. Kemoli, as an example, nonetheless has a scar throughout her chest and arms.
“They didn’t take care of us,” stated Religion Gathuo. She left for Saudi Arabia in 2014 and stated that, when she sought assist after being crushed and raped, one other embassy official demanded cash and anal intercourse.
Tens of 1000’s of Kenyans go every year to Saudi Arabia, the place they will earn greater than of their house nation, which is in a prolonged economic crisis. A whole lot have died. Many extra have endured abuse, gone unpaid or wound up detained in a rustic that lacks efficient authorized safety for East African employees.
A Occasions investigation final month revealed that highly effective East African and Saudi figures make cash off the labor system that sends these employees overseas.
When issues go unsuitable, these newest interviews present, different highly effective officers search to revenue.
A number of ladies recognized Mr. Twanga. Ms. Kemoli stated he requested for intercourse. Two others stated that after they requested for assist, he berated them and instructed them to return to their employers.
A fourth girl, Feith Shimila Murunga, stated that her boss beat her and poured scorching water on her as punishment. When she sought the embassy’s assist, she stated, Mr. Twanga instructed her that if she didn’t need to return to her employer, possibly she might turn out to be a prostitute.
Legal professionals in Nairobi offered the written accounts of six different ladies who stated Mr. Twanga refused to assist or instructed them to enter intercourse work.
“There’s nobody holding them accountable,” stated Bonareri Okeiga, who till not too long ago was a program coordinator at World Justice Group, a authorized support group that has helped ladies doc their experiences in hopes of getting them compensation.
Whereas Mr. Twanga’s title surfaced repeatedly, employees and their households additionally described troublesome experiences with different officers.
The family members of three employees who died in Saudi Arabia stated that officers at Kenya’s Overseas Ministry solicited money to carry the our bodies house. Hussein Mohamed, the president’s spokesman, stated households had been generally requested “to chip in” as a result of the ministry can’t afford to pay for the entire our bodies.
However family members who returned to the ministry with attorneys stated that they had been instructed that they didn’t really have to pay.
Years after getting back from Saudi Arabia, Ms. Gathuo nonetheless has a niche in her smile from when, she stated, her boss smashed her face with a stress cooker. After he raped and impregnated her, she stated, she escaped.
An embassy official supplied to assist, she stated, if she paid him and had anal intercourse with him. She agreed, she stated, and gave him all she had — about $500. However he by no means despatched her house. Finally, Saudi Arabia deported her.
Mr. Mohamed, the presidential spokesman, didn’t reply questions on Ms. Gathuo’s account.
Ms. Kemoli, who stated her employer raped and reduce her, stated she refused Mr. Twanga’s proposition for intercourse. A well-connected relative in Kenya in the end contacted the Worldwide Group for Migration, which purchased her a ticket house in 2021.
Ms. Kemoli stated she has by no means been totally paid for her work in Saudi Arabia. She stated she suffers from insomnia and sometimes breaks down sobbing, seemingly unprompted. She stated she has tried suicide.
Generally, she stated, her youngsters ask about her scars.
“I don’t know what to inform them,” she stated.
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