Going to Saudi for jobs matter of life and death, says woman

A 27-year-old woman from Matithi village in Kiharu constituency, Murang’a county, who fell ill while in Saudi Arabia has finally arrived home.

Lucy Wambui was received by her family last week after months of suffering in the Gulf country.

Slumped in a chair as she could not sit up straight, Wambui narrated in a faint and shaky voice that she travelled to Saudi Arabia mid last year and was employed as a house help for five months.

She said she could not find a job locally and thought it was an opportunity to turn the wheels of fortune for her poor family.

Her troubles however started when she fell ill and was admitted in a hospital for two months with stomach complications that left her in a coma for more than two weeks.

Doctors said her intestines had constricted which caused her immense pain and had to have a surgery. After some time, she was to undergo a second operation to complete her healing process.

It is while at the hospital that Wambui reached out to her family and informed them of her predicament.

Her cousin was able to reach out to the employer who demanded Sh450,000 as compensation for the money that had been paid for her before letting her go.

The family reached out to the media and the issue was highlighted, attracting the attention of the Kenyan embassy in the country.

“They reached out to me to find out how I was doing while I was at the hospital and I told them that I would wait for the second operation before going home,” she said.

But once discharged, her employer said they would not take care of her and gave her a separate room to live by herself.

Weak and under medication, Wambui had to fend for herself without any support and eventually started starving.

It was after realising that she would die if she stayed in the country longer that she contacted the embassy again for help and the embassy asked her employer to let her go.

Wambui now uses a catheter as her intestines were left exposed and needs an operation to have them covered.

She sent a strong caution to jobless women to resist the temptation to travel to Saudi Arabia to look for jobs, saying it is a life and death gamble.

“I would not advise anybody to go to that country. Once you fall sick, you will definitely die unless you are able to reach government officials. This is why many women come back in coffins. I am only alive because of the media,” she said. 

“Look for means of earning a living here because things can go very wrong for you there. Listen to me please. I have been there and I have the experience.”

She said once things start going south, agents neglect them, leaving them yet they have no other contacts there.

“I called my agent and they would not pick my calls. Luckily, I was allowed to keep my phone at first and had access to wifi,” Wambui said. 

She said other challenges experienced there are drastic changes in diet as Saudi Arabians consume very spicy food that can affect one’s health.

“Women out there are facing serious life threatening challenges. You’d rather stay here even when you don’t have money if only to be near your family,” Wambui said. 

Some, she said, have their mobile phones confiscated by their employers leaving them at their mercy.

She however lauded the Kenyan embassy in Saudi Arabia for bringing her back home and family and friends for publicising her situation.

Her mother, Margaret Njoki, could not hold back tears as she narrated how desperate she got when her daughter fell ill.

She said every time she talked to her daughter on the phone and listened to her waning voice, she could not even eat.

“I am happy she is back home and alive but she needs an operation and I have no money to fund it. Her stomach is exposed and needs be covered,” Njoki, a casual worker and single mother, said, even as she appealed to well-wishers to support her.

Village elder, Stephen Kimani, appealed to Governor Irungu Kang’ata to support the family and help Wambui regain her full health.

Kimani said the family has no property that it can use to seek funds yet Muthoni needs urgent medical attention.

“She only went there to try and uplift her family from the poor state she grew up in,” the village elder said. 

The elder reiterated calls for women to stop travelling to far flung countries to seek jobs, saying cultures vary and they may not know what lies ahead of them.

“Most have come back dead and those who come back alive give stories of being enslaved and starved” he said.