Recent reports of 274 Kenyan immigrant domestic workers killed in Saudi Arabia over the past five years have been bothering me and worried. The New York Times (NYT) report, titled “Why do maids die in Saudi Arabia,” published on March 16, adds to the anguish affecting families, survivors, and those still seen in the contract. Of the reported deaths, 55 occurred in 2024 alone!
The numbers are by no means insignificant and the situation is confusing. These are the loved ones of their children, husbands, family members, and individuals who have left behind a country full of energy, enthusiasm and vitality in the hopes of a better life.
However, what the situation is even more concerned about is the leaders that are high enough to be done in the East African region, and Saudi Arabia is one of those who are profiting from this favourable but deadly domestic work.
Domestic labor migration from neighbors in Kenya and its East African community to Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries has been increasing in recent years, with Saudi Arabia being one of the main destinations to meet the growing demand for such services.
Those who interact with these immigrants at the starting point talk about undeniably excited and cheerful individuals, grinning from chin to chin in the departure lounge at the area's busiest international airport. Poverty, illness, ignorance.
But the return journey for the lucky people to survive the ordeal is far from the excitement they displayed on departure, with previously chubby cheeks replaced by sunken faces, and tears roll freely on discouraged faces as they recount their experiences.
While Kenya is the main source of domestic labor migrants to GCC countries, the sector remains largely invisible, exposing migrant workers, particularly women, to an astonishingly high level of gender-based violence (GBV).
A study by Oxfam GB in Kenya (2024) found that domestic workers employed locally or abroad often operate in isolated environments with minimal surveillance, engage in informal or casual employment arrangements, and become vulnerable to manipulation and exploitation.
In relation to personal safety, security and labor, many of them are not helping with the issue of insufficient socialization for their rights.
Unlike other countries that have done better jobs to ensure better conditions for citizens seeking domestic work opportunities in the same GCC countries, Kenya has signed bilateral labor immigration contracts with host countries, leaving immigrant domestic workers to the mercy of host families and authorities.
New cases of Kenyans only help to highlight the degree that most of them contradict other countries' laws due to drug trafficking, and that cross-border labor migrant dynamics are not regulated in Kenya.
Kenya does not have diplomatic missions in some of the popular destinations for domestic labor migrants. Even if there is a fully fledgling mission, most of them have no labour equipment that will help ensure favorable conditions for employment due to the increasing number of citizens forced by economic conditions that the government cannot address locally to seek employment opportunities elsewhere.
Like the “geese” laying beautifully sparkling golden eggs in Aesop's f story, Kenyan authorities must take steps similar to those in Sri Lanka to a considerable degree to ensure that the rights of the Philippines, Indonesia and citizens seeking employment are protected and guaranteed.
– The author is executive director of the National Civil Society Centre in Kenya and chair of the Horn of the African Civil Society Forum. (Email protection)
